The Grey NATO - Ep 54 - New Watch Season

Published on Tue, 06 Mar 2018 09:44:45 -0500

Synopsis

The hosts Jason and James discuss new watches they've acquired or are interested in, including the Garmin Descent Mark I dive computer and the new Hamilton Khaki Field Mechanical 38mm watch. They also recap Jason's recent trip to New York City for the launch of the new Breitling Navitimer 8 collection and provide their thoughts on the new watches from Breitling. The discussion covers the brand's new direction under CEO Georges Kern and their inspiration from vintage Breitling designs. Finally, the hosts share some podcast, book, and video recommendations related to space exploration and watchmaking. For their podcast recommendations, Jason suggests the audiobook version of The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe narrated by Dennis Quaid, and James recommends the Watch and Listen video podcast by Matt Farah and Cameron Weiss. Jason also recommends the book Endurance by Scott Kelly about his experience as an astronaut spending a year on the International Space Station.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey We're back from New York City and full of coffee. Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 54, and we thank you for listening. Jason, how's it going, man? Good, good.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it was good to see you last week. It was a fun whirlwind, you know, 24 hour trip, but yeah, it was good to connect. Fun times.
James Stacey Yeah, it's a real treat when you get to see you and Ed and David from a blog to watch and Barbara. And really, we saw just about everyone, a bunch of the Hodinkee crew was there for the Breitling thing. And I just it's so strange to go to a city like New York for like, yeah, like 20 hours. Yeah. Yeah. We saw the inside of a hotel. I saw the inside of a car to and from the hotel. And, and the watches are great and all of that's great. It's just very strange to go to a city where you could literally do anything. Yeah. And have such a great time. Like I've had great times in New York before, and I've never gone for so little time that I don't actually go outside.
Jason Heaton Yeah. We might as well have been flying to the middle of the desert or something.
James Stacey Yeah, it could have, yeah, exactly. It could have been a convention center, literally anywhere. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I did manage to sneak up to the Hodinkee office for just about an hour, but yeah, other than that, it was hotel, car. you know, party, hotel, airport. Yeah, but anyway, it was fun.
James Stacey Yeah, we saw a lot of people. Yeah, for sure. No, it was a really good crew and Breitling put on a big event. This is clearly a pretty big deal to them and we're going to get into the watches in short order, but we have some other kind of general what's newness to cover. So what's new in your neck of the woods? How's winter treating you in the cold?
Jason Heaton Pretty well done with it. I mean, I'm ready to be Ready to move on. I, I, I'm a winter lover and it's been a great winter for, for cross country skiing here. And I've been doing a lot of that, but, uh, it's, uh, it, the, the meltdown has begun. I'm sure we'll get some more snow at some point, but, uh, it's just, I don't know. I usually in February we sneak away for a dive trip or something. And this year, uh, we stayed put and it's, uh, I can feel it. I can just kind of feel the, the spring fever creeping in, but, uh, I, I found ways to pass the time. I was, uh, Uh, I was going to mention, you know, maybe people have been watching my Instagram feed of notice that I, uh, I finally pulled the trigger and bought the, uh, the Lego Saturn five rocket model and, and spent about a week, you know, over several days just sort of, uh, building that, which was a lot of fun. And yeah, it looks great. Yeah. I highly recommend it. You know, it's, it's one of those, those things that if you're a space geek or a Lego geek or just like models, um, it's a lot of fun, but it's a commitment. It's a commitment of, of a fair amount of time and, uh, and space. I mean, this thing's gigantic. I've got it on my side sort of cupboard here in my office and it's, uh, it's, it's a good three feet long. I mean, this thing's, and you have to kind of lay it down cause if you stand it up, I would imagine if a heavy truck goes by or something, it'll tip over and then you're, you're pretty well doomed, you know, because there's, there's just no way you could rebuild it once it's, uh, once it would get shattered. But, uh, yeah, super fun. Um, very lifelike, very, You know, just perfect for, as I mentioned in one of my posts, it's the ultimate kind of Speedmaster prop, you know? Oh, yeah. But yeah, so that helped pass a week of winter. What about you?
James Stacey You came home to some snow too, right? I did. Yeah. So I did. I was in people, you know, people who listened to the last show or followed on Instagram. I was in L.A. for a week for a trip with my family and did a little bit of car work and went to the Peterson and all that kind of thing. and came home and then it was, you know, 10 hours later or something, I was back at the airport to go to New York city. And then I returned home from New York city very late, early morning, technically. And it was like a ton of snow, like for Vancouver, it was something like six or seven inches in very short order, which is bonkers. It took three days. Like now we're talking, uh, few days later, that's how long it took to melt out. And it's been, you know, it was like 10 degrees Celsius yesterday. So it was plenty of snow and there's still some in the more shadowed areas. And I had a great time in LA, even though it was a very cold season in LA, you know, it wasn't actually that much warmer than Vancouver, but it was sunny and blue skied and had a really good time just kind of booting around town. I took delivery of my new Doxa sub 300 50th anniversary SeaRambler and That's essentially all I've worn since then. I'm absolutely in love with the watch. It's a real thing. It's my first Doxa and they're a brand I've loved for a long time but never really saw the one that I really wanted and then I got an opportunity through a pal for this one and it was just impossible to say no. So I've been wearing it Yeah, pretty much solid. You know, I've been home for the better part of a week and just this morning I started to kind of unpack the watches, the other watches and put them back. You know, when I go on trips, the watches get stored away in a safer location so they get brought back out when I come home and I'm going to be home for a bit. So yeah, the SeaRambler is great and currently I'm wearing it on the Rubbernado, the Watch Gecko, the Zulu Diver 328. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Good choice. And then just, yeah, yeah. And just yesterday, you know, friend of the show and all around good internet guy, Farlius, sent me a note that he had modified his Zulu Diver for his Pelagos, which of course is a fairly thick watch. And what he's done is because all of the hardware is pin set. Oh, yeah. So you can pop it off really easily. Right. He removed the underkeeper. And then in his case, his strap was long enough to do a fold over.
Unknown Huh.
James Stacey So for those of you who have this strap, you'll understand what I mean. And if you don't, I'm sorry, I'll try and make the explanation. It's very visual, but I'll try and make the explanation as quick as possible. But essentially you can, um, you can, there's a special piece of hardware. That's a shouldered hardware. It makes like an elbow. Oh, right. Yeah. And if you actually just take the keeper off of that and then move the keeper, the under strap position to the holding position for that, you get like a big space, which actually gives you enough room to do a fold over at the top to wear it like a normal NATO. Yeah. In my case, I've already trimmed the strap to fit my wrist. So I just removed that elbow entirely and take the normal keeper off the end of the under strap.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey to just... So now I have two matching keepers. Yeah. And it's amazing. The Doxa sits a good millimetre, maybe two millimetres closer to my wrist. It's super comfortable. And because the rubber is quite tacky, the concept of the understrap isn't really required. Right, right. Like I don't have any watches, even something with very pronounced lugs like my Skin Diver, it's not going to slide off of it like it might with a Perlon. Oh yeah, right. So that's, I mean, mostly the value of that under strap is you take the watch off and you're holding the strap and the strap just comes out of the lugs and the watch falls. Yeah. Yeah. Um, not required when your strap is kind of a tacky rubber and, uh, and this is a great mod. So a hat tip to Farlius for that really, uh, good suggestion. And one of those great, great sort of DMS that I love to, uh, to receive.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's a great idea.
James Stacey Cool. And then other than that, I think the only other thing I had spoken about on the last episode that, you know, for an update is I had that Cadillac CT6 for a week in LA.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And I mean, the thing took two kids, child seats, all the luggage. It did pretty well. And then, I mean, the most notable thing about the car is it has the Super Cruise autonomous driving. Oh, fun. It's GPS based, so it knows when you're on essentially divided roadway, like a highway. But it had really good coverage throughout LA. I was bouncing between Santa Monica, and then I went up to La Canada to drive Pacific, or Angeles Forest Highway, and Angeles Crest with the car early morning, get some photos, that sort of thing. And then, you know, I was between Long Beach and Anaheim, so a fair amount of highway driving, and the car just drives itself.
Jason Heaton Is that the first time you've experienced autonomous driving?
James Stacey From the driver's seat, yeah. Wow. Like it's the technology is very cool and I really enjoyed using it maybe from a novelty standpoint. And I could see in stop and go traffic where you could really relax the cognitive part of your brain that's devoted to crawling a few feet, stopping, crawling a few feet, stopping, and that general 10% stress that just exists in traffic. I could see it mitigating most of that, but it's not like you're going to get in and start sending emails. Yeah, right. Like the car, the car that all these systems still want you to be watching the road. Yeah. Yeah. And if you get it angry enough, which I did at one point, it just locks you out. Huh. So you actually, I think you have to bring the car to a full stop, shut it off, turn it on, and then you can use super cruise again. But I, you know, I would just hit the button and it would be like, yeah, it's disabled. So I had fun with that. Uh, I don't, see my I don't see that being something I would buy because I don't commute. Yeah. And at this point in my life where to buy a car, I would be buying the opposite of a vehicle with an autonomous platform. I'd be buying the most analog thing I could afford or deal with on a day to day basis. Yeah. But to sample it for a week, especially in a scenario where the traffic is unbelievable. Really cool. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Really fun. Is this going to be the subject of a write up for
James Stacey Uh, yeah. So, um, uh, I got some really great photos up on Angela's forest. And, uh, so it'll be either between maybe the summer print issue or, uh, if it just ends up being, uh, one of my Friday columns for the site, then I'll throw a link in show notes and it'll be on my Instagram too. I mean, I put up some photos already, but whenever the story goes live, I'll make sure I share it on Instagram.
Unknown Huh? Nice.
Jason Heaton I, uh, I had a brief experience with, um, uh, autonomous driving. A friend of mine has a Tesla. um whatever the big one is and um he he let me drive it for a brief spin around on the highway here and and it was freaky i mean i was kind of creeped out and it was it was dark out so it was night and it was like um i don't know it was it was really strange but then my the only other experience i've had with a car that sort of keeps an eye on you is the uh a couple summers ago we took that the new xc90 volvo up around lake superior and and that doesn't have the autonomous driving or the one we had didn't um but it had You know, the lane departure warnings, the blind spot checks, and the, what is it called? The adaptive cruise control. Yeah. Which I enjoyed that. That was really cool. But it was funny. It seemed very Swedish that if you departed the lane a certain number of times too often, you know, the steering wheel would vibrate and that sort of thing. Yeah. It would pop up a little coffee cup warning light on the instrument panel, you know, as if like, look, you're tired, stop at a cafe and get yourself a coffee. I thought that was really, really kind of a clever way to alert you to that.
James Stacey Yeah, I've seen that in the Mercedes as well, because in the S-Class, they have a system that monitors driver awareness. This is before much more than radar cruise control existed. This has been in the S-Class for a while.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey If the system decides that you're not alert enough, yeah, you get a little coffee cup logo, maybe stop for a cup of coffee. I love it. You know, before we move on, and we certainly can, because you've got a kind of high tech watch we can transition into, but those some of those systems I really hate. Oh, yeah. I love radar cruise control. Because then you're literally just using the steering wheel. Yeah. And the ones that can do crawling. Yeah, I love it. That is amazing functionality for anyone who uses their car for anything short of just fun runs. Oh, yeah. It's great. And that should be like, I know it's already, I'm sure radar cruise control is, I've seen it on vehicles as you know, in the $30,000 range. So it's something that will be, you know, theoretically ubiquitous. Yeah. But I had, and I don't want to pick on the BMW X3. This is just what I had most recently. And it had so many driver aids. Yeah. Now this, this was a hugely optioned X3 and a very nice car to drive. I really enjoyed, I had it for a day, but If you weren't really center in the lane, and I'm not talking about actually putting a wheel on either line. Yeah. But if you were close to it, like in the 10% on either side of the lane, that side of the steering wheel vibrated. Oh, sure. And it did it like almost constantly, like you're, I'm driving a very twisty mountain road. And if this thing decided I wasn't exactly where I should be in the lane, it was just vibrating. And the other, and I'm sure I'm, I guarantee if I went into their, uh, iDrive system, I could have found a way to disable it.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And that's fine. And if it was your car, you would learn how to do that system in short order. And then the other thing this car had was, and this is very common to BMWs and lots of cars these days, but it has a high speed warning. So there's a threshold at which it will start to ping you if you're over a certain speed limit. Allegedly, I would never drive over a certain speed limit. Yeah. Yeah. The posted speed limit, but let's say theoretically in a test environment on a closed track, et cetera, every time that you were 30 kilometers over the limit, it would loudly beep at you. Yeah. And I guarantee that's a, you could disable it or change the number to be higher. It's probably good, especially in BC to know if you're 30 over, cause that's the point where they could take your car. Yeah. But very annoying. Cause it's just in a, I mean, that just beeps all the time. Wow. In a test environment, of course. Wow. Yeah. But yeah, I really like some of these systems.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey I don't, but I don't, you know, the stuff that tells you if you're going to cross traffic into somebody, I don't need that. I don't need the lights on the mirrors that tell you that somebody's there. Like a mirror is essentially a light that tells you somebody's there. Yeah. Right. That's what a mirror is. Yeah. Just swing the mirror out wider and you can see right next to your car. That's what they're designed for.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Uh, so I don't need that, but things like, uh, you know, especially with the sight lines in cars now, like the, the proliferation of backup cameras and 360 cameras and, uh, and then, uh, you know, the radar cruise control, I'm all for that. I think that's good tech.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. Other than that, it's just heated seats.
Unknown I like heated seats.
James Stacey Right.
Jason Heaton Oh, for sure.
James Stacey Yeah. Uh, so let's, let's move into chatting maybe about watches. How about you? Cause you've got, we got a handful in.
Jason Heaton Yeah, well actually before we move on to a very different sort of dive watch that I recently got, I wanted to mention with regard to your Doxa, which is just super awesome that you got that watch. And it's very fitting that you picked it up in Los Angeles, which was the historical home of U.S. Divers Corporation, which was Cousteau's company back in the day. For sure. I learned from our friend Blake Buetner, and some of you may know Blake from his days when he used to write about watches for Hodinkee. Blake is based now up in Detroit, and he's the head of watches for StockX and StockX is I don't know exactly how to describe the company, but they kind of started out Kind of came out of the sneakerhead culture. You know the guys that collect Sneakers and yeah for sure it's become sort of a stock market of things. I think is how they they talk about themselves and they have a watch division and Blake is heading that up these days and He let me know recently that There apparently are five of the Doxa Sub 300 so-called Black Lung watches with the Aqua Lung U.S. Divers logo on the dial that were not included in the 300 editions that were released or sold publicly that are now going to be coming up for sale on StockX starting on March 9th. So if you missed out and you maybe don't want to go the pre-owned route but you want to get yourself a brand new Doxa, Doxa has actually partnered with StockX on this offering and And there's going to be five of those watches, uh, available on StockX starting on March 9th. I think the sale runs for, uh, I think it's the 9th through the 12th. So, um, it should be just a few days after this show airs. So you'll have time to kind of, uh, raid your bank account and get ready and to take a shot at those. So yeah, really cool. Great opportunity. You know, we both, uh, we both have these, uh, sub 300 watches and recommend them highly. So, uh, hat tip to Blake.
James Stacey Um, Yeah, big fan of Blake. Blake's a great guy and whatever he's working on, more than happy to support. So that's cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And yeah, onto this dive watch that I got. It's neat. It's neat. So Garmin, you know, I think we've talked about Garmin probably a very long time ago. You had a Phoenix and I had a Phoenix for a while. A couple, yeah. So, you know, Garmin, well known for their GPS devices, their sort of sports watches, smart watches. Recently, just a few months ago, they launched their very first entry in the dive computer space, and the watch is called the Descent Mark I. And they sent me one to review, so I have it. I got it a few weeks ago, and it's really cool. I can't wait to take it diving. I've had it, you know, for a short time now, and mainly I've used it cross-country skiing, which may seem strange for a dive computer, but it's also what I find really truly awesome about this watch. And that is that, you know, to date, I think, you know, James, you have more experience with kind of the fitness and smart watches. But for me to kind of have a dive computer that transitions to more of a everyday use sort of fitness side of things is really brilliant. I think it's amazing. Yeah. You know, we both have had Suunto dive computers. I've got the D9 and an old Gecko. Yeah. You know, the Suunto dive computer, the D9 that I have, it's nice looking and you could wear it as a watch because it tells time and second time zone. And there's, I think, a chronograph. But what this Garmin does is I think it just kind of raises the game because it's a full, fully functional dive computer that, you know, isn't just kind of a simple sort of entry-level dive computer. They jumped in the deep end with this one. It's got apnea mode. There's an apnea hunt mode, which I haven't quite explored, but I assume it's for Um, free diving, you know, spearfishing, and maybe it silences the alarm so you don't scare your prey. There's a gauge mode. So it tracks your, your time and depth without calculating, uh, no deco limits and that sort of thing. Uh, and then it has a, um, a multi gas tech diving function, which allows you to actually plan dives with up to, I think, four or five gas switches. So if you're, if you're doing some deco diving and you're going, you know, try mix and decompressing with, you know, different, uh, different levels of nitrox. You can plan all of that and the computer will tell you when to switch gases and calculate all of your decompression times. So it has all of this incredible dive functionality. And then they've kind of bolted that onto the existing sort of Phoenix platform with, you know, smartphone notifications, email, text messages. I think, you know, I noticed a Slack notification pop up the other day. And then of course, it's got all the, you know, the fitness tracking functions. So there's a cross country ski mode that I've been using this winter. Um, of course, running lap, swimming, all of that sort of thing. And then, um, you know, uh, heart rate without a strap. So it reads it from your wrist, um, which also works underwater if you're not wearing it over a wetsuit sleeve. Um, it has a, uh, you know, GPS navigation function. So if you're running or hiking, you can view a map on your, on your wrist, but also, that GPS function, when you're, when you put it in dive mode and you're about to start your dive, it will actually detect your, um, entry point of your dive. And then when you're done with the dive, it prompts you to kind of hold your wrist up or, or press a button or something when you're finished with your dive and it'll record where you came out from your dive. So I was thinking that wasn't maybe as interesting a function, but I could see if you're like, let's say last summer when I dove the Hermes in Sri Lanka and let's say that the position of the dive isn't Um, maybe the dive site is a lesser known one or one that doesn't mark with a buoy. Um, it could be useful for, for, for putting the GPS coordinates in so that you could find that dive site again in the future. Yep. Yeah, for sure. As well as for logging, which, uh, it'll pull through to your phone, to, to the app. So, um, and it's a nice design. It's, it's kind of the, the Phoenix style. Oversized, uh, black watch basically, but it came with, um, it came with, uh, I guess, well, two and a half straps really came with the really nice supple long rubber strap that then the I guess the six o'clock side or depending on which way you wear your watch the side without the buckle you can just swap out its quick release with a really long segment that you could wear over a dry suit and it's it's super long so you could do that on the fly and then it came with with kind of a cool metal bracelet as well so it's it's a It's just an incredibly promising watch. I guess I'm not going to, you know, deliver a verdict until I've taken a diving, but, you know, it's, I think Suunto needs to watch out, you know, if this, if this truly catches on, so. And what's the price point? Yeah. So price point is about a thousand bucks. Actually exactly a thousand bucks. If you go to like Diver's Direct or I think he actually even, I just noticed B&H Photo even sells it. Yeah. So it's, it's pretty cool. And the first guy to get it, um, maybe unsurprisingly was, was that guy DC rainmaker who does a lot of fitness watch reviews. And, um, there was actually an interesting article in outside magazine recently about him and about, um, his way of reviewing and kind of his, his livelihood. So, uh, maybe we'll throw that up in the show notes too, because it was actually a really, really fascinating article about the guy who, uh, behind the, that blog, but, uh, he was the first to review this and he took it in that deep, uh, indoor, diving pool that's in Belgium.
Unknown Oh, cool.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So we'll link to maybe his review and maybe the article about DC Rainmaker and yeah, further impressions to come after I've taken a diving.
James Stacey Yeah. I've been a fan of the Phoenix for a long time. At this point, I have two of them here. I have the standard Phoenix 3 and then they sent a Kronos a while back, which is the kind of fancier, less sporty sort of iteration with the bracelet and all that kind of thing. I would say buy the, whatever the most inexpensive sport ready version is, is my opinion. Um, because they all look like a huge smartwatch. Like it's not like one is more elegant than the other. It's just, one's kind of heavier and the, uh, the Kronos cost more money. So I would say your standard Phoenix three HR, or I think if you're going to spend more money by this descent, if you're a diver, um, but you know, the, I, I've extensively used the running, features along with these, uh, the system that, that, um, the chest strap system, which gives you your best, um, measurement of cadence and things like that. So they can actually improve your running, uh, over time and all of it gets logged to a website if you want to, and then you can make that public or not. But then the same thing goes for like big hikes. I have all of those logged to a website so I can go back and see if I got lost or what my rates were and speed and all that kind of thing. And then, uh, many times on, uh, on trails, I've used the, uh, GPS functionality, which, you know, when you're going into the trail, like let's say you're hiking on a loop, going, going to a lookout and then coming back, when you get to the lookout, you put the watch in track back mode. Yeah. And then it gives you a little indicator and, and, and, and it even measures like much like with the GPS in your car, how long until you get back to your start point.
Unknown Oh, yeah. Right.
James Stacey So if you start moving faster, you can say like, well, I know I have an hour left at this current speed. It's a, it's really clever. And if you're really deep into any of the sports that it covers or you're more likely for the Phoenix or the descent or whatever, you're into a handful of sports to some level. Yeah. And you want the metrics. It's great. I mean, it's Achilles heel is that you have to charge it. It's like a cell phone.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, it's funny you should mention that because I, I got it a few weeks back. I've used it sparingly, mainly for skiing, but I just turned it on just before the show today, and it said critically low powering down.
James Stacey So I haven't actually charged it yet, but it's... I have a little charging station because you've got phone, camera batteries, Bluetooth headset, and you just add in another item. Yeah. It's funny because I use the Phoenix in the exact same way that I use a dive watch. Yeah. So you would essentially be combining two items, which makes perfect sense to me. Yeah. Especially given that a decent dive watch is 300 bucks, 300, 400 bucks. Yeah. That's Canadian. I think you can probably get a Zoop for two and a half US. Yeah. Yeah. Something like that. And then if you want to go any level up, you want a backlight, you want a compass, you want anything like that, you're very quickly pushing into the 500 plus range. Right. So if you already wanted to have Even if you don't want the smartwatch features and like step counting, I'm not sure that that's valuable. It certainly isn't to me. Yeah. But I think that there's a usage case where you can see the value goes way up when they're blending in an item that generally costs several hundred dollars.
Jason Heaton Well, I think it shows a real confidence on Garmin's part to put such a full featured sort of everything watch and combine it with a dive computer because, you know, just sort of my armchair analysis of what Suunto has done is they've often sort of siloed their categories of watches. And it's frustrating because it almost feels like you're being not conned, but you're being, you know, basically corralled into, if you like the brand and you like their products, you have to buy multiple pieces. And it feels like a strategy, a marketing strategy or a sales strategy more than, than anything. And I think for Garmin to put everything at one shows a certain confidence on the brand that, you know,
James Stacey Yeah, and a maturity to their software. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, all that sort of thing. So good on them. I'm interested to see what you think after diving with it.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And if it performs anything like the experience I had with the Phoenix, I think it'll be a really great product and a product that they will continually be able to update. Yeah. With little stress, you know, there's constantly updates for the Phoenix as they were sorting out minor bugs and things like that, but I found that aside from, you know, some of the notification stuff was still very new when I got the original Phoenix three, but all of the sport tracking functionality was bulletproof. Oh, sure. It was, it was all dialed in. I never had any problem like tracking, uh, uh, a run or a hike or a swim or anything. I tried a handful of that sort of stuff and there's tons of accessories and I mean, the funny thing is, you know, it stuck in my mind in L.A. is I saw a ton of people wearing them. Oh, yeah. The Phoenix. Yeah, sure. You know, I saw, I don't know, maybe it's a California thing. I don't know. But I saw a ton of people wearing the Phoenix and I saw a ton of people wearing Apple watches. Oh, yeah. On my trip to California. And it could just be that it was warmer weather. So I'm seeing more wrists than I do in Vancouver where the watches are tucked under Rain jackets. Jackets and things like that. But it's interesting to see that people are attaching themselves to that high, high level of functionality, especially in cities and locales that are known for their kind of outdoor activities.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey So really cool that way. Nice. Cool. And yeah, I don't know. I mean, we can, do you want to dig into the main topic? We're just kind of chatting about new watches, because there's a handful of, you know, this is new watch season, basically. Yeah, yeah. So we can, we can dig in. The main thing to talk about, of course, is the Breitling Navitimer 8 line, which we got hands on in New York City last week. And, but there's a handful of other stuff happening too. So do you feel like breaking into that or do you have some more new business?
Jason Heaton No, I think we could jump into Breitling. Yeah, but you know, it's definitely fresh in the mind and it's by now it's, It's not news to anybody that's kind of plugged into the watch scene. I mean, they've really been splashing this all over social media and doing kind of an international roadshow to launch these new watches. And I think it was, it's very interesting because Breitling's entering this new era with a new CEO. You know, George Kern came over from IWC. He's now the majority shareholder in Breitling as well as its CEO. And we sat in on a press conference last week on Friday morning. as part of the New York leg of the roadshow that we attended. And, you know, Kern, you know, he's a polarizing figure. He's, you know, some people like him, some people don't. Some people agree with what he did at IWC and others don't. But I felt like his, what he laid out for Breitling was very, very interesting. I think he'll actually be good for the brand. You know, he was talking about his impressions of of Breitling's past and kind of their watches being too big and too shiny and some being tacky and their kind of outdated sexist advertising model and he's planning on kind of scrapping a lot of that and going back to more of their archives and they brought in Fred Mandelbaum, the guy who goes by WatchFred on Instagram with his vintage collection for kind of inspiration on design and it's exciting times. You know, what did you think of the watches themselves? It was a kind of a safe first effort out for them, wasn't it?
James Stacey Yeah, I would say like, you know, we were chatting about this and I brought it up with their designer. I would say that it seems very almost boring. Yeah. But I don't necessarily mean that as a dig because I think that returning Breitling to a more reserved platform for this first step
Unknown Mm-hmm.
James Stacey Probably makes a lot of sense. And then from a strategy level product, you know, the Naviate product is the first step in a very large strategy that Kern, you know, has developed. Yeah. Because they're now going to transition the entire Breitling lineup into essentially four quadrants.
Unknown Mm-hmm.
James Stacey So air, sea, land, and then the Chronomat essentially.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Obviously Navitimer, any of their pilot, any of their airline will fall under the Navitimer. Any of their sea will be Superocean. And then this land concept will be a sort of reinstatement of the Premier line over time. And then they'll have the Chronomat, which will be more of their general purpose watch that maybe has a lot of water resistance, but also has some pilot-y features. I mean, the Chronomat's a fairly solidified line as it is.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey but to see them very specifically lay out how models will have to conform to this format or they will be discontinued. Yeah. I think we'll see over time, a lot of things very quietly disappear from the lineup. And, um, and then they're also entirely or not entirely. They're also refocusing on a specific price point, which is three and a half thousand to about 9,000 us dollars. Definitely nothing below that. So the basic quartz stuff, all gone. I mean, they're still going to make things like, we confirmed that they're still going to make things like the aerospace and the emergency, but the, I assume things like the quartz colt, that stuff's over. And they're also going to try and focus exclusively around the range of something like 40 to 46 millimetres. Yeah. and with a large bulk at 42 to 44.
Jason Heaton I think that sort of boring or safe impression, however you want to look at it, for the Navitimer 8, you almost get that impression because it's such a jarring departure from anything else that Breitling has done lately other than maybe the some kind of cool, uh, retro sort of trans oceans that they've had in the past five years. And I think, you know, when you line this up and you say, Oh, Navitimer is in the name, you know, you're comparing it to their slide rule Navitimer, the cosmonaut, you know, these really iconic designs, these busy watches, big watches, um, you know, it's just so different. I mean, they've gotten rid of the winged B logo, which they plan to not use the, the, it's just a brightening name and a B very little text on the dial. It just feels, it feels naked, you know, it feels like what's happened. And I think, you know, whereas maybe if, uh, you know, like you look at something like the Longines, the big eye avigation piece that you reviewed a while back, uh, you know, that watch, it has a little more dynamism to the design, but you know, largely another sort of simple aviation inspired chronograph. I think if like a brand like Longines or Hamilton or something produced something that looked like the Navitimer 8 chronograph, um, people would applaud it. They'd say, oh, that's just a beautiful, clean watch. But when Breitling does it, you're comparing it to what you know about Breitling, and it suddenly appears really stark, I guess.
James Stacey Yeah. And I mean, it is a departure. And I also think they didn't communicate that well that the Navi 8 is not replacing the Navi 1.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. So the Navi 1 is not going anywhere. They're going to expand the lineup. All of the Navitimer watches will have various versions with both the BO1 in-house movement. Yeah. And likely an ETA or Valjoux sourced non-in-house movement. And the cool thing is, is they have some plans on how they're going to differentiate those. So like, you'll always be able to know a BO1 movement because the dial and sub-dials will be in contrasting colors. Yeah. Whereas the automatic versions, so the versions with say a 7750 or similar will have matching sub-dials. Yeah. So that's something, you know, that they specifically outlined to make the lineup easier, especially for their salespeople to understand. While that may not lead to less overall versions, it does lead to a clarity that I appreciate as in a certain level of efficiency.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And then regardless of whether or not you like a Navi 01 or you look at the Navitimer 8 and you don't really understand it, in person, they're really nice.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey The 40, they wear very similar in size to a Bremont. So if you're wondering what the size and the weight of the 43 millimeter chronograph is, it wears very similarly to that. You're looking at a slightly more premium price point, so around 7,600 bucks. Yeah. And then the automatic, I didn't write the price down, but it's gonna be less. I have prices TBA, so maybe they changed it.
Jason Heaton Yeah, we actually didn't get much pricing information. They were kind of talking more in Swiss francs.
James Stacey Yeah, so the price point for the non-in-house Kronos is going to be around 5,100 Swiss francs, which is going to be pretty close to that, or probably 5,500 US. Yeah. Something like that. So, I mean, that's pushing into, again, the same price point as Bremont, who also uses the 7,750 movements. Yeah. So that's very understandable in terms of value statement in the market. That's their competition is going to be that. point, you know, somewhere below an Omega or an IWC in-house, um, but above examples like the, uh, the Longines.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. Uh, so that, that's where they're going to sit. And then I actually, strangely enough, uh, uh, my main, you know, I, I like the new bezels that doesn't bother me at all. I'm, let's be honest. I'm not a Breitling purist by any level. I mean, my favorite watch by them is they're arguably one of their strangest, most nerdy little uh, you know, quartz powered analog digital pieces, but the, uh, I, you know, I'm not a huge fan of the date display on the B01 movements. You know, it's at 430, which is a sticking point for me. It's going to be something that you either care about or you don't. It's not really to my liking. They've done it as well as you're going to do it. I mean, it's not a huge aperture. It's still very readable. There's not a huge amount of depth between the dial and the date display. So all that is fine. It's very functional.
Unknown Mm.
James Stacey Uh, there's not a, it's not like the numbers, you know, embedded in a shadow. I just don't like the date at 430. Yeah. I don't either. And I would have preferred it at six or at 12. I mean, like they could have done essentially whatever they wanted and it seems like 430 is just the default. So yeah, not my favorite there, but I did like that. If you look at the, uh, Navi eight automatic, which is 41 millimeters and uses the Tudor three hand movement. And you're looking at about 3,600 bucks on a strap for that or 3,600 Swiss francs on a strap for that. Yeah.
Jason Heaton 38.50 is the dollar price on that one.
James Stacey Oh, okay. There you go. 38.50 USD and then around five grand for the black steel version, which I really rather liked.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey That's 41 millimeters date at six. Yeah. I like those. They're cool. They have a kind of a blend of something like elements of the Colt. Yeah. especially in the numerals and then more of a field watch, a military look. They're not very thick, which is really nice. And I think those will be super wearable. And the other thing you see with those, which I brought up in my chat with their designer, is you can see the footings of a dive watch. Right. Like, I mean, you essentially just change the bezel and you have a really good looking dive watch. Yeah, yeah. And so I think that's, I'm hoping that's where they take this aesthetic is they just start to bend it towards other applications, which they intimated in their chat. And then they also... I think the other thing we can expect from them in the future is some vintage reissue pieces that will specifically target the sweet spots between... They're specifically talking late 30s and into the 70s, appears to be the window that they're
Jason Heaton most keen on but like you mentioned they did a whole workshop with uh at watchfred where there wasn't a new watch in the room they were just looking at old Breitlings yeah i gotta hand it to them for for doing that because yeah for sure i mean what other brand okay omega arguably you know is also extremely dialed into their vintage you know their history their archives and and are happy to to pull that out with Petros their museum curator But I can't think of another brand that actually has brought a big collector on a roadshow and actually consulted with him. I tip my hat to them for doing that. That's really cool. Yeah.
James Stacey I've never, I haven't seen it done. And the level of access was incredible. Yeah. They had a table of watches. Yeah. Some of which were like one of three or one of five. My friend, Greg at Watch Patina was invited out. He's a Vancouver. local guy, a Breitling collector, and he was invited out and he would occasionally walk past me and say like, oh, that's one of however many or best for this year. Yeah. And some of it was hyper rare. You could pick up anything you want. You and I both have a bunch of photos on our Instagram. So if you missed any of these, I do definitely commend them for doing it, but it's also, I have trouble thinking of other brands, sport watch brands that have as rich a history of design as Breitling.
Unknown Oh.
James Stacey And we've said it before, and you and I are not the first ones to say this, they have some of the most interesting, colorful, cool, old sport watches, like a back catalog of sport watches of any brand in the world.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's incredible. If George Kern sticks to his word and truly starts to dip into this stuff for inspiration, we're going to be in for a nice next few years of Breitlings because the stuff that Fred brought and, you know, stuff obviously most of us have seen before, some of the old you know, trans oceans from the 70s and the chronomats and things.
James Stacey It's the chronomatics for me, the use of orange.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. No brand used orange better.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey I mean, and I loved OXO, but I just think, yeah, I think Vryling did it better in many ways.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacey It's always really bold, but somehow still elegant. Uh, they've just got some really, really cool designs. You know, I, uh, back, you know, when I was on that trip to Nice for Maserati, I stopped in Frankfurt, I had a big layover in Frankfurt, like eight hours. And Mike Stockton, at Mike in Frankfurt on Instagram, was kind enough to... We were actually at the airport at the same time, and he took me back to his place. And of course, he has an immense collection of watches, of which I don't need to detail here. But Mike, thank you very much for, you know, sharing your home and connecting me with some fun. But one of the things that he pulled out were these old Breitling catalogs. Oh, yeah. Like vintage catalogs. And you look at these things and there's not a loser in the entire lineup in some of these early 70s, late 60s sort of things. And yeah, I think if they can establish a model, a modern model range that is a collection of simple to understand, not too flashy, not too big, and with various price points, and then just occasionally drop bombs of you know, watches that would compete with the new Octavias, things like that. Yeah. You know, try and sink them in $5,000 to $6,000, $7,000. I think that's probably where they would land with a lot of these. And I think that it could be a real turnaround point for a brand that has been a little bit hard to understand for the last few years.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I think the Navitimer 8 too, you know, I'm not sure that photos maybe, you know, do it as much justice as seeing them in person. Agreed. Certainly, as they start to trickle into retailers, if you're at all interested in Breitling or maybe what they're doing, you owe it to yourself to actually go and fondle some of these watches and take a look at them. But, you know, the design sort of explanation and seeing some of these old watches and catalog images and things, the Navitimer 8 is not, even though it seems like a very stark departure for Breitling, it actually takes a lot of cues from those board instruments Clocks that they made back in the 30s and they pointed that out and and certainly, you know If you have to explain something too much, maybe you've kind of missed the mark But if you do compare, you know, even some of the bezel detailing the the minute track and the small rules the font it is quite close to those especially the ironically, you know, the chronograph kind of got a lot of the the press and the photos but the automatic that you mentioned actually was probably the closest to one of those board instrument clocks and it It really has the cleanest look to it. So that would have been my favorite.
James Stacey We also didn't get a chance to see the Unitime, which would be my favorite. It's a world timer. Yeah. And its price point is like around eight grand. Yeah. So obviously, you know, I really liked the Jard-Perregaux world timer, which is nearly double the price. It's a $14,000 watch. Yeah. So world time is an expensive concept typically throughout, especially when you're talking about an in-house. Yeah. But if they can make one at 43 millimeters, that's a true world time. that's that's going to be an interesting and fun watch. And I thought the aesthetic looked really good. Yeah, I think it's a I think it's kind of an interesting time. And admittedly, these watches are more expensive than what we typically chat about on TGN. But I do think there's something specifically TGN about Breitling.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey There's a nice overlap there. And and maybe when these things start to hit the secondary market, they'll float more down into, you know, they'll exist more in a price point that that befits our usual kind of chatter, but I, you know, it was fun to see and admittedly, I'm not embarrassed, but I'm like, I'm fine to admit that I went into this kind of pessimistically. I didn't think the watches looked that great in the photos. They looked fine, but they looked like fairly safe chronographs. Yeah. And in person, the finishing, especially the finishing and the detailing on the bezel and the blue dials are way different in person than they are in the images. Yeah. I tried to capture that in some of the photos that I posted on my Instagram, but the brushing is really nice and it captures the light really well. They feel really good on wrist and they still kind of feel like Breitling. So I think that they've done a nice job with it. It'll be, I think I'm more interested in where they're going. Like this is step one. Yeah. And I think everybody wants to see step seven, eight, nine, 10, that sort of thing. So it'll be interesting to see where they're headed. And you think about a brand that made a turn like Tudor, by introducing lines that had some backwards facing aesthetics, but in many ways were modern iterations. I think that what they've done with the Navi 8 is attempted to make their spin on something like a Black Bay. Yeah, true. I think that they're trying to do the same thing within Breitling that Tudor did with the Black Bay within Tudor.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And I think that worked for them. And it'll be, you know, only time will tell how it works out for Breitling, but the watches are cool. And I especially think if you get a chance to see them in person, you get a much better idea of what they're on about with the details and the way that they actually kind of catch the light and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Next week, actually, just a few days after this episode goes live.
James Stacey Just after this goes up, we'll be back in New York.
Jason Heaton We'll be back in New York looking at another you know, sort of TGN brand, uh, one of our favorites, sports watch maker, uh, Braymont. Um, and, and just today they've, uh, in the past couple of days, actually, they've started sort of trickling out the, the press releases and the images. Um, they're doing their townhouse event in London right now this week. Um, and some of the new watches look really great. I, you know, we'll, we'll certainly cover this in more detail. after we've had a chance to handle them, but early indications are they've got some winners in that new lineup.
James Stacey Yeah, if we have the opportunity to see something hands-on in just a few days, we probably won't go too deep on, but I'll put a link to whatever's new that's on the website in the show notes, so if you want a debrief on, because it's several watches, and I haven't really seen any one site that has kind of done a roundup. So if I can find one, granted these came out yesterday, so one could be published now, but if I can find one, I'll put it in the show notes. You know, there's some changes to hands, there's some new colors, there's, you know, some interesting sports pieces, limited edition, that sort of thing. So, you know, it's Bremont, we're big fans of the brand, but it is something where we'll probably do a TGN from the show and after having seen all the watches. And so just stay tuned on Instagram if you're listening to this on Tuesday or Wednesday. you'll start to see stuff from Jason I tomorrow.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. So that, that I think covers the two B brands. Um, but there are a couple others that I wanted to dig into specifically a very TGN watch that I'm excited to see in person. If I get even a free little bit of time in New York is this new Hamilton khaki field mechanical 38.
Jason Heaton Yes, definitely. That's, that's, that's going to be a really cool watch. Uh, even if, uh, Even if I have to wait till Basel to see it, that I'm excited about as well.
James Stacey Yeah. So, uh, for those of you, I'm, I'm assuming a lot of you have already kind of seen what this is about, but it's a 38 millimeter super kind of basic back to roots, uh, Hamilton khaki. And it's, uh, 475 bucks. It's got drilled lugs. It's got kind of a faux tanned loom that for some reason, despite my general displeasure with That aesthetic, it works really well. Like credit where credit's due. It doesn't bother me. I don't know if it's because the color is closer to green than it is brown in the photos.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Or if it's because it just works so well on that khaki field look. For whatever reason, 38 millimeter brushed stainless steel case, hand wound Swiss made movement, drilled lugs, super clean dial. And it comes on like a green textile NATO sort of strap. I like it's being sold through Hamilton's e shop, or through hodinke. So full disclosure, Jason and I write for hodinke. So in some metric, we are paid by money they make from the shop. So there's my disclosure statement. I do not get any money if you buy a Hamilton or anything else from the shop, neither just Jason. But it is of course, worth mentioning that relationship at 475 bucks, you can buy it directly from from Hodinkee or Hamilton, do as you please. If I get a moment while I'm in town for Braymont, I'm going to try and get to the Hodinkee office just to see this. And then depending on what the wallet scenario is or how much I feel like I need to bring one home, man, I would really like one of these. I think they're really swinging for the fences at 500 bucks.
Jason Heaton Yeah. You know, I've long kind of wanted one of the old ones. My friend that I talked about a few times, Myron Erickson, has a collection of 17 of the The old ones and he brought them to town a few weeks back, but they're fairly unwearable. They're like 33 to 34 millimeters and certainly they're quaint and of their time, but I've always hesitated to get one just because I probably wouldn't wear it at that size. But 38 without, you know, kind of a dive bezel or whatever. It's a lot of dial and I think it would wear super well. They sized the crown really well. It's a nice big grippy crown it looks like. And the lugs look pretty long, too. So I think it would wear almost ideally on, you know, wrists like ours. And, yeah, I don't know, you know, what is it about hand-wound watches? I mean, we just, to see a new watch come out that is a hand-wound Swiss watch is just, it's just instantly attractive, or more attractive than if this had an automatic in it, I think we probably wouldn't be nearly as excited.
James Stacey Yeah, for me, it's the price point. Yeah, yeah. Because there's so little Swiss made that you can get excited about at 500 bucks.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong. There are Kickstarter brands and micro brands that are offering ETA movements at 500 bucks. Yeah. But they're not coming from a brand that has the QC of Hamilton. Yeah. And this is the sort of watch where like now suddenly there's a whole new player in the market when a friend of mine comes to me and they want a watch.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And like, I get lots of people who come to me and they say, oh, I want to buy my boyfriend a watch or I want to buy a watch or whatever. And you say like, sure, 007, here it is. And they go like, I don't really like, it looks too kind of chunky. Yeah. It looks like too much watch for someone who's going from no watch. Yeah. Well, 38 millimeters brushed and ready for a leather strap or a NATO or whatever.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey It's perfect.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey I mean, I'm just kind of thrilled that Hamilton did this. Uh, because they've, you know, they've had watches and they have other khakis in this price point, but not with the sort of charm that this has. I think that this establishes, you know, we've, we've talked at length in the past of, you know, being able to capture some of that vintage charm, but in a new watch is a really good entry point for people to get used to the vintage sort of lifestyle.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And then some people flat out don't want a vintage watch. They want a new watch to just kind of feels like an old watch.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And, you know, I'm wearing a sub 300, that's essentially a carbon copy as close to as they wanted to from a watch from 1967 and absolutely loving it. Like, I just think that given that progress doesn't mean you get a better watch because the, I mean, we don't need the watch. So it's not like, it's not like a new, like some sort of high end process actually changes a watch's ability to say, tell you the time. Right. Sure. It adds in features like with your you know, the Descent or the Phoenix or whichever. But this is still one solid unit of watch that captures like a lot of charm that isn't generally available at this price point.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's so true. I remember when I was first getting into mechanical watches again, you know, mid 2000s there. One of the watches that I always had my eye on, and this kind of reminds me of it, and I just remembered it as we were talking. Do you know this brand O&W or Olek and Weiss? Olek and Weiss. Oh yeah, of course. They made a 2801 driven hand wound sort of little field watch that was about the same size. And I think they've kind of disappeared from the scene, maybe gone bust or whatever, but they're kind of an old brand that was making a watch like that. And I always wanted one of those. And I think, you know, they were three, 400 bucks, but, uh, I think field watches I've had, you know, kind of a general blase attitude towards, you know, we see like the Tudor Ranger and even, even the Rolex Explorer isn't my, my favorite aesthetic. I've always found them. kind of interesting at first and then maybe slightly boring after a very short time. But something about this Hamilton, there's just enough visual interest to it that I think it would hold my fancy for a long time, especially at that price. I mean, even if it's a watch you don't wear often, there's no date, you pick it up, you wind it, off you go.
James Stacey Yeah, I just think it's the sort of watch that we have many times said that we wanted to exist.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And so when I saw it, I thought, well, we can't just, I can't just let this go. Yeah. Yeah. I have to say something. Yeah. Uh, so obviously if I see one in person or I, I'd end up buying one, we'll talk more about the actual experience. I'd love to know what the loom is like. Um, I'd like to know, you know, just kind of what the, the way that like how much AR is on the crystal, is it like a really good daily or does it kind of feel like they cut some corners to get to 500 bucks? Yeah. I don't know. Hamilton has tons of ability to make a good watch at $500. I mean, the, the other khaki fields you find for way less than that. Yeah. Not, not directly through Hamilton, but through gray market or Amazon or those sorts of things. I mean, you can find great khakis for less than that. And, uh, and I've, I've certainly had a handful of, uh, uh, khaki automatics that I liked a lot, including the 42 millimeter in the black case, which I had for a while, which was great watch. Uh, so if they've, if they've managed to keep the quality in line, then I think this is going to be an absolute buy, especially at a price point. That's not a lot more than the list price of, uh, of a Seiko diver, which we've, you know, waxed. I mean, if you're, if you're, this is roughly in the same price point as what you see for something like the Patty special editions. Yeah. Um, and an entirely different aesthetic. It's that classic aesthetic. It's going to work well with a lot of different, uh, kind of modes of dress. It's not too big. It's going to be thin. It's cool. Yeah.
Jason Heaton It's finally, there's finally, um, and if they keep this in their, in their lineup for a while, there there's, it's a future, well, it's a past classic, but it's a future contender, uh, to the SKX Seikos and the, and the, and the Turtle Seikos. And, you know, whenever anybody says, like you mentioned, you know, I want to get my first watch, my first mechanical watch. I want something rugged, something mechanical. It was always Seiko Diver, and there was nothing else. And you're right, if no one liked that aesthetic. Or Seiko 5. Yeah, right. Yeah, sure. Yeah, this just feels fresh and cool. But this is Swiss.
James Stacey Yeah. And so you're getting a great movement. You're getting a recognizable brand name on the dial. Yeah. You know, I have people who don't know anything about watches, and you recommend a Seiko, and they're like, I had a Seiko when I was 12. Yeah, yeah, right. Like, I've, you know, if you don't know, you don't know, right? Yeah, yeah. So everybody has their own perspective on things like branding and such. Hamilton may be a little bit more, um, up market for someone who's getting into, uh, getting into their first watch. So I think there's a lot of appeal here. Uh, Hamilton has an amazing history as a brand in making watches like this. So I like to see that it continue. And obviously they've always had really good khaki field stuff. So, uh, this is just another expansion upon that. Yeah. So yeah, it looks like a real winner and we'll throw it all in the show notes if you have anything there. And should you pick one up? Feel free to send me your impressions. Jason, I'm happy to hear some feedback. And that'll be obviously TheGrenado at gmail.com. Jason, you feeling some final notes?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. I'll jump in. I've got, you know, I talked about my Saturn V Lego model earlier. I'm kind of a bit of a space kick. When we were at the Breitling event, I strolled up to Scott Kelly, the astronaut who's a well-known Breitling wearer and spent a year in space on the International Space Station. Um, just last week I finished his book, uh, called endurance, which I'm heartily recommending to, to listeners that are kind of, of, of the same ilk and interested in all things, uh, space. Um, Kelly's an interesting guy, you know, he, uh, um, he wasn't a great student. He was, um, kind of adrift during his teen years and didn't know what he wanted to do. And he, um, just, uh, fortuitously picked up a copy of the right stuff, which of of course, is a book and a movie that is a favorite of mine. It's arguably my favorite book and he read The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe and loved it and immediately wanted to become a test pilot and an astronaut. And lo and behold, he did. And his book Endurance is really good. You know, a lot of these sort of memoirs can be a little formulaic and not great, frankly. But I really enjoyed the book. It was really captivating. You know, he co-authored it with somebody. But it feels authentic. It feels, you know, there's some good humor. There's some great stories. And, you know, his kind of experiences flying F-14s and doing carrier landings, and then some of the kind of day-to-day problems that they faced on the space station, as well as what it takes to get ready for and perform a spacewalk, were really interesting to read about. So I would I would certainly recommend picking up that book and giving it a go or check it out on audiobook or wherever you like to consume your reading material. And then I'll just jump into my second one because it's so related. Talking about the right stuff, for many years I don't think that the rights for an audiobook version were available and so there never really was a proper kind of audiobook version of the right stuff. I don't do a lot of audiobook listening, mainly I've gotten a few of the James Bond novels narrated by famous kind of British figures like Bill Nye to listen to on airplanes, but this is one I'm definitely going to pick up. The Right Stuff is now in audiobook form and you can get it on Audible or on Apple's iTunes or iBooks. What's really cool about this version is it's narrated by Dennis Quaid, who of course played Gordo Cooper in the right stuff in the movie. And I think his voice will lend itself really well to, to, to reading this book. So, um, it's, it's a 15 hour, uh, time commitment. And I think the audio book is actually a $34, uh, price commitment. So it's, uh, you gotta be kind of a real either space geek or Tom Wolfe fan to, to pony up for that. But, uh, I'm definitely going to get that and maybe, maybe listen to it on the, on the flights to and from Basel. So, yeah.
Unknown Nice.
James Stacey Yeah. How about you? Yeah, my first one is a short film. It's a five minute video on YouTube called The Man at the End of the World. It's made by a company called GLP Films. And it's basically about a man and his wife that live in Tierra del Fuego in Chile. And his name is Don Germain and or Germain. And he lives in a place called Lago Fagnano. And it's about his time at the end of the world and his relationship with tourism. And, uh, it, you know, they've won some awards for, uh, for the film and, and I really loved it. You know, he's got kind of a cabin down there and he's doing some farming and that sort of thing. And I just love these stories of that level of remoteness. Yeah. Yeah. Especially when, you know, I'm bouncing around on planes, I'm tied to my phone, I'm living in my laptop and all these sorts of things. I never get outside these days. I'm just so busy since they went kind of full-time freelance. And I get this little bit of relief watching these videos, whether it's, you know, being on a flight and again, watching some of the Dick Parenke films or doing something more like this, where you're seeing the way that, that somebody is living in a modern context, but just so disconnected from everything else. You know, when he moved to this area, there was no road. And now, like he says in the film, people are trying to come and buy land from him. It's just a different scene. And I really like this video, so it'll be in the show notes and it's definitely worth checking out. And it's five minutes, so it's a coffee break. Oh, nice. And then finally, to put a button on the show, it's a new podcast from Matt Farah, who have spoken a bunch about on the show in the past. He's done a car podcast and YouTube channel called The Smoking Tire for many years, and he's now branching into watches. And he's doing a video. I mean, you can download the audio, but I think the video is important. So we'll call it a video podcast on YouTube. called Watch and Listen, and he does it with Cameron Weiss of Weiss Watches, which is really rad. Nice. And the two of them sit at a table, and they break down... I think they're five or six episodes in at this point, and they all have a topic, but they have a special high magnification camera. So Matt, who's just kind of... He's definitely a fan of watches and a watch nerd, but he's getting into the deeper details of the space. Yeah. And then, of course, Cameron, a watchmaker, has launched a very successful brand, a great watch designer. I think the Weiss stuff looks amazing and has been quite successful. And so the two of them kind of bounce back and forth on a topic and they take, you know, very close-up looks at various complications and designs and watches. And you could tell with the first couple, they were kind of figuring out where they're going, but I actually have watched through the lot of them. And I think that they're really starting to find a pace, which is commendable in just a few episodes. So if you're looking to add kind of a new podcast, but not only a new watch podcast, but kind of a new format, because I think the video is really the way to go, then check out the Watch and Listen podcast from Matt Farah and Cameron Weiss. And kudos to them for jumping into the space and making something new and kind of innovative. And I've been enjoying a lot of it. They have a kind of a backing from Crown and Caliber, so they're getting all sorts of interesting watches to talk about. So I think that's a kind of a cool partnership where they're able to bring in some really baller watches. Uh, and Cameron can explain some of the more advanced features and functionality, uh, you know, uh, given his history with Vacheron Constantin and then, and that sort of thing. So really, uh, really good stuff and definitely worth your time for a subscription on YouTube. So that's the watch and listen podcast.
Jason Heaton Nice. Yeah. More power to them. That's good. That's great. I've met Cameron when he was in town here and, uh, Nice guy. And it's really, it's an interesting mix of personalities and, uh, on that show. And, and it's kind of neat that, uh, even though, you know, Cameron has his own watch company, he's kind of devoting this to, to looking at all sorts of watches across the board.
James Stacey So yeah. Yeah. And they're taking on a real educational start, which I, which I totally respect. It's a, it's, I think it's a good thing and good on him for making it. Cause it can't be cheap in terms of time and effort and all that sort of stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, as always, thank you so much for listening. Be sure to hit the show notes for more details about everything we talked about. 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 aren't already. 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 the podcast is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
James Stacey And we leave you with this quote from the great Seneca who said, begin at once to live and count each separate day as a separate life.