The Grey NATO - Ep 56 - Basel And Back Again
Published on Tue, 03 Apr 2018 09:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
The hosts Jason and Blake discuss their experience at the 2018 Baselworld watch fair. They provide in-depth commentary on the new watch releases from brands like Tudor, Rolex, Seiko, Oris, Breitling, Nomos, and others. They share their opinions on the designs, pricing, wearability, and general impressions of the notable new timepieces unveiled at the show. They also touch on the logistical challenges of attending Baselworld, such as meeting schedules, dealing with review embargoes, and packing/travel tips.
Links
Transcript
| Speaker | |
|---|---|
| Blake 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 56 and we thank you for listening. Boy, that's just about as much as I can muster in that peppy tone. Take a sip of coffee. Yeah, I've, no, I've, I've, oh man, I'm several espressos deep this morning. So it's, uh, For everyone listening, it's a couple days after Jason and I have returned back from Basel, and I'm fried. Jason, it sounds like you're catching up. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, well, you've got a couple hours further west than me, and your flight's longer, and you stayed in Basel a day longer, so I'm sure you'll be right in a day or two. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, so I apologize if I seem, let's be generous and say fuzzy. throughout this episode, but we're excited to be doing this episode. This is one of my favorite episodes of the year, and it's certainly one of the biggest ones for the show. So this is our Basel megasode. We're not going to do a lot of like what's new. The truth is what's new is hustling for Basel and now it's over and just kind of recovering. And, uh, I do, I do want to say before we jump into watches, a quick kind of public apology to the litany of people that asked if we could hang out. Uh, Jason, I'm speaking in some, in some manner for you as well, but this is certainly for me. You get to the show and people see you there and they start to DM you on Instagram and you literally can't get to all of them, even, even to the extent of. Of just turning down the invites, which is kind of a bummer. I would have liked to have met with all of you and had a chance to hang out. You know, I was there with holding key this year and I was part of their schedule. So it wasn't a scenario where I necessarily had limitless flexibility to, uh, to zip around. I had, uh, you know, had. a list of meetings every day to make and then all sorts of work to go in between and around those. So if you didn't hear back from me or if it was a flat out no, please, please don't take it personally. It's just, uh, it's the busiest week of the year and, uh, and not always the best time to, uh, to find extra time to hang out. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I know both of us, we just, we just ran out of time, just plain and simple. Uh, on the other hand, I did, I did enjoy, um, I did get a chance to catch up with a couple of folks, um, sort of outside the show. Etienne from Baltic and Giovanni from Unimatic. We did manage to meet up briefly, kind of on the fly, as well as Fabian Cousteau, who I met for coffee one morning. So that was fun. But yeah, all apologies to the many people that wanted to meet up, not only for coffee before or drink or something, but even during the show, I was getting DMs and I'm sure you were too, like, hey, I'm here. Let's try to meet Erica from Erica's Originals, the strap maker extraordinaire from over in Europe. She wanted to meet up and we just couldn't find the time. So, you know, one of these years we'll have to do like a separate day where we just meet up and maybe do a group thing. Maybe that's the way to do it. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I think we definitely have to find a better solution because it sucks to say no. It sucks to like come back and see that you missed 10 DMs from people who you've never talked to before, so they don't show up in your normal listing. Yeah. And you're like, well, uh, this is all over and it looks like I just blew them off. And you know, it's, it's just a bit of a bummer. It's a, it's a casualty to the way that you certainly the way that we cover the show. Um, because you book these appointments a long time before you get there. Uh, very few are kind of last minute sort of things. And in my case, I didn't book any of my own appointments and, uh, and just trying to balance that, uh, might just require, yeah, a day or two extra at the show. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, cool. Um, I think we should just jump right in. We both were there four or five days and there's a lot of watches to talk about. So what do you say? |
| Blake Stacey | How do you want to go through this? Yeah, so I think probably the natural place to start for TGN is probably Tudor. Kind of the upper range of the types of watches in terms of price that we typically talk about, but also they did really well. They blew it right out of the park. one of the shining examples of the show. Everybody's covered it. What did you think of, you know, the GMT, the 58? |
| Jason Heaton | The GMT caught everybody by surprise. Strangely enough, you know, it was the same year that that Rolex released its GMT-Master II, which there were some rumblings about. There were some, strangely enough, some rumors that were almost accurate regarding what Rolex was coming out with this year. But Tudor caught everybody by surprise. And as they have for the past few years, you know, they do tend to be one of the brands that people end up talking about after the show. And the two, of course, that caught my eye and most people's eyes were the Pepsi GMT, which is an entirely new watch for them. And then that Black Bay 1958, which is the kind of scaled down, more vintage sized Black Bay. You know, I guess I'm going to, you know, the GMT, I'm sure we can talk about, quite a bit here but but just in terms of the Black Bay 58 my impression was great size great watch but I couldn't help but think to myself that basically Tudor released a watch that they and Rolex stopped making like 10 or 15 years ago so it just felt like it felt like you're basically bringing back everybody's kind of crowing about a watch that they already had and sort of stopped making and and now it's back and and that's great because I think it's a great size and you know I have a an old, uh, you know, uh, Z series Submariner from Rolex that, that feels pretty much the same in terms of size. And so, yeah, great, great move for them. But, but on the other hand, I just kind of had to chuckle that it's sort of, um, uh, you know, meet the new boss, same as the old boss sort of thing. Uh, um, but the GMT was, was the clear winner. I think everybody loved it. Uh, I guess I'm curious, you know, we can, we can kind of talk about this in between our discussion of both of these brands, Tudor and Rolex. But I'm curious to hear what you thought of one versus the other and if there's one that you prefer. |
| Blake Stacey | So yeah, for the Black Bay GMT, I thought it was really surprising that that's the format. Because the format, the execution in terms of just general aesthetic is very close to the GMT Master. Yeah, I actually wrote, you know, I wrote a piece as part of a roundup with Hodinkee for surprises of the show. And that was my pick, was just that Rolex is generally so protective of their aesthetic. And I think that the whole reason the Black Bay looks the way it does is that they needed to develop something that had a Tudor flavor that was distinctive from Rolex's flavor. And with the BBGMT, it really seems like a lot of Rolex got into that design. I mean, the Pepsi bezel, that's a calling card of the GMT-Master. And obviously it's in a much more desaturated sort of effect on the Black Bay, but it's still there. And then I was also surprised that it matches the same functionality as a GMT Master. The bezel rotates, so you have a third time zone, and it's a local jumping movement. All great things, things I love. It's a great example of a GMT, but it really is Tudor coming into a position as the kind of baby Rolex, or the little brother Rolex, or what, I don't mean any of that pejoratively. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | I think this could be very good for Tudor on whole, but it, I was just surprised to see that not only in the same year that Rolex put out a new, new version of the GMT-Master II, they also did the BBGMT with a similar color bezel, the same functionality. It's within a millimeter in size. It's just a very close watch. The pricing I think is going to be very successful. I actually think this will be a really hard watch to find. Yeah. For a while, as with the 58, I think the 58 is going to be crazy popular. And you know, the 58, we also now have a new movement, which is a smaller movement. I think we're now going to see a relative expansion of 39, roughly 39 millimeter watches come out of Tudor now that if they've invested in making a movement to that size. Right. For me, the 58, and I'm bouncing around here a little bit, but for me, the 58 is unbelievable on wrist. It just feels great. But to your point, it feels just as great as other small case Rolexes. Yeah. I, you know, I'm really not crazy about gilt coloring. Oh, sure. But this original launch version that ties back to the model from 58, which had a gilt, you know, had a gold tone to the dial is not so much my aesthetic for my wrist, but the sizing is perfect. I love that it's just under 12 millimeters. It like, it just, it wears beautifully. And that small difference, well, I mean, it's not that small, but that difference in thickness really makes the Black Bay feel different on wrist. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, that was the, that was my one big gripe about the, the regular Black Bay. I never minded the 41 millimeter size, but the, the slab side just, it was so stark. It was so tall. I 100% agree. Yeah. Yeah. You know, I think, I think one of the, the coolest things about the Black Bay GMT, which I love, but I, um, you know, I see your points about it as well. And I, I'm just, uh, I think kind of the best thing about that might be the fact that they come up with this movement and hopefully we might see the watch that I think you and I both have been hoping for, for a couple of years. And that would be a Pelagos GMT, um, not to, not to already sort of foreshadow next, uh, next Basel. And we have no idea what they're going to come out with, but, uh, Boy, I can see the writing on the wall. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I mean, it would make sense unless they're not planning on expanding the Pelagos at all. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | Like if the Pelagos isn't selling enough or whatever, and it's going to be phased out, who knows? That's something we'll learn from retailers if they're not able to order them anymore. Yeah. But I definitely agree that where what I find most interesting about the GMT is the fact that they now have an appropriately functional GMT movement for a really good GMT version of the Pelagos, theoretically, that module or whatever they've designed to integrate into their base movement could also be integrated into the 39 millimeter movement. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | My assumption is that the base structure of the 39 millimeter movement is similar to the base structure of the movement used in the 41 millimeter watches. Yeah. Why would you go wild and change it in a great number of ways? Yeah. So theoretically, the same structures would apply to things like additional functions. Yeah. And, uh, and I think, yeah, I think a Pelagos GMT could still be on the wind and, and imagine if that came out also a couple of millimeters thinner or because the BB GMT is slightly thinner than normal Black Bay, like by a quarter of a millimeter or maybe a little bit more than that. Yeah. It's not a huge thing, but it is, you know, thin is thin. Yeah. And, uh, and it, and I mean the difference between a normal 41 millimeter Black Bay and that 58 is huge. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, wears entirely differently, especially on a, on a smaller wrist. I mean, that's going to open up that watch to a lot, a lot more. Yeah. So I think those are both really, really fantastic options. A good, I would say literally good luck finding either. If you have a really good relationship with your AD, I'm sure that it's, it's going to be possible, but I would expect this not unlike the GMT Master II in steel with the Jubilee, the new, the new big one from Rolex. I would expect these to be exceedingly hard to find. I mean, I've heard from people around Vancouver that the normal Batman GMT is hard to find. Yeah. And that watch has been out for years. Yeah. So, and the other one from Tudor that stands out, it's just a dial color, so we don't have to go into it at length, but you can see what I feel is a fairly accurate and good photo of it on my Instagram is that BB36 with the blue dial. I would 100% wear that and own it. I think that is awesome. I tried it on the bracelet and I really just don't like bracelets that much. It's a perfectly nice bracelet, it must be said, but that watch on a leather strap I think could be an amazing everyday watch that if you needed something that was kind of subtle but still had a little bit of a sporty feel and a great price point and a perfect blue, like a really good blue. Yeah, that was good. We want to move over to the other big dog, Rolex. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I was really smitten by the GMT-Master II. I had my Tudor appointment before the Rolex appointment, and I thought the Tudor GMT was the clear winner, having just seen the Rolex through the glass. But when I had my Rolex appointment and snapped on that Pepsi GMT, the bracelet happened to be sized for my wrist even. And it was like I could have just gotten up and walked out and gone straight to the airport. I mean, it was great. I didn't think I would like it that much, but it's just classic Rolex. They just do everything so well and it just looked right. Was that kind of the winner between the two for you? |
| Blake Stacey | I mean... The one that I tried on at the meeting that I went to, which was a few days later, did not have a bracelet that was sized really at all. It was huge. Yeah. And I think, especially with a Jubilee bracelet, you need to have it sized. Yeah. To really experience the kind of like way that it sits because they sit different than a three link. Yeah, I like the GMT a lot. I still the colors are still a little bit off for me. Because it's not really quite red blue. Yeah, very much kind of a maroon and a bluish purple, which I understand is probably due to the fact that it's very difficult to do colors within the ceramic. Sure. And you know, that big case on all the Rolex is now it's not any bigger in dimensions. So 40 millimeter case, but it has the kind of chunky lugs. Yeah, I don't know what the, you know, nickname is for that case style, the Maxi case or whatever people are calling it. I just find that it does not wear on my wrist anywhere near as well as the previous case style, like what I have for my Explorer II. Yeah, yeah. For me, I think that this GMT-Master II with the Jubilee in steel is an absolutely amazing watch for Rolex to be making, and it's going to be impossible to buy, and it has a great new movement. and the, I mean the bezel's incredible, the functionality is obviously now legendary, and I really like the bracelet. So all of it is a positive. If we're willing to go hyper-personal with the opinion, I would still rather wear my EXP-2. Oh, no doubt. I mean, I have yet to come across any Rolex, and I like quite a bit of them, but I have yet to come across any of them that would challenge that for my actual risk, for my actual money, I have the one that I really like. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I think the temptation is, uh, and I'm as guilty of it as anybody is to, to go through these, these sort of watch descriptions of all these brands and do this either or, or which is better or which one would you take home? And, and you know, all of these are fine watches, but yeah, in the end I'm just as happy with the watches I own over pretty much any of the modern Rolexes. It's interesting to say that, but, um, I think it's true. |
| Blake Stacey | The other thing that comes to mind is they've changed the case and the bracelet just for this one version of the GMT-Master II, so you can't actually swap the Jubilee bracelet onto a Batman, and you can't swap the Oyster from something like a Batman or a black-green one to the steel Pepsi, which is strange, but I also wonder, and this is, again, very personal, if I got that watch, if I were to have that watch, as much as I think the bracelet is fine, I'm going to wear it on a NATO. I don't think it would look very good on a NATO. I don't think it would look quite right on a NATO and I don't know how wide the lugs are. Yeah. But I don't know how well it would work in that case. I don't think it would necessarily work as well as say a 16710, the previous generation Pepsi in steel. And so that was the other thing that came to mind. It's just interesting that they're so particular about things like the straps. They don't want, you know, it was like when they made the Everflex, their rubber strap, the ends were custom designed. So you couldn't take the strap off of a Yachtmaster and put it on to a Submariner. Oh, sure. Yeah. Despite the fact that the cases to a layman would look identical. Yeah. There's going to be some small fine tuning in each case. And that's when you're making everything. Yeah. You can do that. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | Right. And the pricing of that was just a hair under $10,000. Yeah. Which feels so close in price to a Submariner. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's like $92.50. And then I always fail to remember the exact price point of a Sub date. But I want to say it's like 8,500. And if it's not 8,500, it's within $500 of that. And I think that that pricing along with how good the watch looks, the kind of distinctiveness of the bracelet, all of these things are going to make it a very, very hot ticket for quite a while. So again, I hope you have a really good relationship with your AD. and that your AD has a really good relationship with Rolex, because that's how you're going to find these things. And it's definitely going to be the sort of thing where people are going to be buying them for the 10 grand-ish, and then attempting to sell them for way more, like with the Daytona. |
| Jason Heaton | I guess the only other Rolex that is maybe sort of TGN-worthy, and even so, it's easily the highest-priced watch that we would talk about today, and that's the Deepsea Sea-Dweller, which they moderately tweaked. I tried it on in the meeting. What they've basically done is given it a wider bracelet and then put the new movement in it. So, you know, definitely improvements. Still a giant bulky watch that I personally wouldn't own, although I respect kind of the engineering behind that watch. And, you know, admittedly, it's kind of just a big, cool, you know, kind of crazy watch. |
| Blake Stacey | It's the G-Wagon of watches. Yeah. I mean, it's hugely over-engineered. Most people who buy it are never going to ever come anywhere near its limitations. And it's, it's, it's a statement on anyone, literally anyone's wrist, a deep sea is a statement. Yeah. And, uh, I like that Rolex still makes it. I wouldn't wear one. They're too big. I have a buddy in town in Vancouver that has one and they're just, it's a huge watch. Yeah. Uh, very thick. Um, but if you're on board, like if you don't mind the size, it's a really cool thing for sure. And with the new movement, that's now the same movement that they put in the 43 millimeter, uh, sea dweller last year. So now, that's their kind of high-end tool movement, which, uh, you know, I assume we'll see in the standard Submariner shortly. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, cause it's now filtering through Datejust and other stuff like that. So all really good with that one. And they preserve the gradient dial, which I think is a cool looking dial. I do too. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, should we jump to something completely different? Maybe, uh, maybe go to something kind of on the affordable end and still very TGN. Um, talking about SIN, which is an appointment you and I took together. which is always fun. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. Always nice to see Tim who runs the brand and makes these meetings. He's such a sweetheart. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | And they had some really great watches this year. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And the one that you photographed and that I wrote up for Hodinkee is the 103. It's the one with the blue dial. It's a limited edition of 500 pieces. You know, nothing terribly groundbreaking about this. It's a watch that they've made for many years. But I think the big distinction and the one that caught both of our eyes was the blue. It's just, it works really well. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. So it's the 103STSABE limited edition. And they're offering it on a strap through Watch Buys for $27.60 or on a bracelet for $29.50. And it's a, I mean, if you've had a chance to mess around with a 103, they've literally just changed the dial and bezel color and the crystal. It has a different crystal and updated crystal design. I mean, no reflection on the crystal. They did a beautiful job with that, but it's a 41 millimeter watch. It's 16 millimeters thick. You know, that's what you get with a 7750 and a 20 millimeter lugs. I think it's absolutely gorgeous. It's a great example of an exception to my Fotina loom rule. I think that works so well with the blue dial that it doesn't bother me. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | And the color's not quite brown. It's more of a, you called it an ivory. Yeah. It's good. I like it a lot. I mean, it's a gorgeous watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it worked really well on the strap. I mean, they offer it on the H-link bracelet, but on the strap, it was just, it had such warmth to it. And with that blue, it was, it was a real stunner and price is good too. So. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. Price is solid. You know, it's right in there with, with a lot of their chronographs. It's not crazy. You know, there's going to be 500 of them. So if you want the idea, if you like the idea of kind of a limited Zen, I think that's a good option. Yeah. And then they also had the new 910 column wheel flyback chronograph. So this is a follow-up to the 910 Anniversary, which was their split-second chronograph, a limited edition of 300 units that they did. And so this is called the 910 SRS, and it's a flyback equipped chronograph with kind of an off-white dial and red accents. And it's real pretty. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I love that dial color. I loved the The Schlepziger, the double chrono that they did, what was it, two years ago. Yeah. And I love a flyback. I think flybacks are really useful. You know, if you're going to go chronograph, it's a nice complication. Having said that, the anniversary piece was the one for me. I like that Bicompax layout better than the one on this one. I agree. And they offered this one on a bracelet, which wasn't to my taste. But with that dial color and kind of the tweaks that they made to it, I thought it was a winner, you know. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I think it looks great. Again, it's 41.5 millimeters. It's right in their sweet spot as far as styling. 15.5 millimeters thick. I would say it wore thinner than that, but I think it would work really well on a strap versus the kind of heavy steel bracelet that they have on it. And just overall, a really, really nice piece. And being one of their more flagship-y sort of watches, the price point's a little higher. Obviously, you have a column wheel flyback, which I believe is a Zinn developed module on top of the 7750. And so the price of that's a little higher than the 103 looking at $4260. And I do think that's less so than the 910 Anniversary, which is of course limited. So yeah, there's always that. Those are both really cool pieces. And then they also had kind of a new expression of like a larger spin on their time, their kind of more basic tool watch. It was called the 836. And so this one has a kind of a black and red coloring, which is handsome. For me, they're 43 millimeters and have no bezel. So they're, they feel very big. |
| Jason Heaton | It felt a little too big to my, to my eye. Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | A little oversized is the word I would use kind of like a little bit out of proportion. And then they also had the 936 bi-compact chronograph, which makes better use of that space, the size. Yeah. But you're now again at 43 millimeters, 15 millimeters thick, but it is a gorgeous watch. Yeah. The chronograph. I think the chronograph, you know, it's that two register layout date at six. And then that really, really clean Zinn styling of like a modern expression of a Flieger. Yeah. Really clean. Yeah. I think they did a really nice job with that. And if you like something more in the 43 millimeters versus something a little bit less, I think this is a really cool piece and that's selling for like 3,200 bucks. Yeah. on a bracelet, and that's tegamented too, so you get the hardened steel. So pretty solid value with something like that. And they make the three-hander with the date, the 836 is also tegamented on a bracelet for just a hair over two grand. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, good stuff. Good, compact sort of offering from SIN. Always fun to visit, and it's just that they don't lay out a hundred watches in front of you. It's easy to kind of digest what they're offering, and reasonably priced, good quality. Yeah, good stuff. |
| Blake Stacey | Always a treat with Zinn. And we can move on to somebody that's arguably one of their competitors, but had an absolutely outstanding lineup this year, I think. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | And I thought you and I, we're talking about Oris, and I thought you and I saw the bulk of it in December when we were up in Colorado for the press preview, the Baselworld press preview. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | And they still had some tricks up their sleeve. Yeah. I mean, a lot of new watches and a lot of them are really good. |
| Jason Heaton | I would say I think I mentioned this on Instagram from Basel. It's like, top to bottom, I think Oris has the strongest lineup. I mean, you go, every watch they showed was, okay, I might not buy that one or like that one on my wrist, but they're all good. I mean, there wasn't a bad watch that they showed me. It was incredible. |
| Blake Stacey | So the standout for me, so that we don't run the show into the three or four hour range, the standout for me is the Pointer Date 40 millimeter in blue. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I put it in my favorite everyday watch for the Hodinkee Roundup. I think it's an absolutely incredible watch that if I had seen only in the photograph or in the press release, I would have glossed over it and moved on to something like the amazing Titanium Aquus or the Source of Life or the 36mm 65 Diver. There's a lot of really good stuff, but that Pointer Date in Blue They have it on a environmentally friendly tanned leather strap, so there's no metals used in the tanning process, no toxic metals. And the effect of that blue with kind of a medium tan suede sort of strap, all day long, that's a perfect watch. Yeah. I mean, the pointer date is just enough of a functionality to add a little bit of a classic charm. But the case shape, aside from maybe the crystal, the case shape's very modern Aorus. uh... it's a very simple shape and then they have this beautifully domed crystal that matches perfectly the shape of the it doesn't rise there's no edge rise, it's not boxed, it's bubbled yeah, and then the coin edge bezel just sets off it looks uh... it just it looks uh... very vintage-y but then that dial color kind of keeps it sort of fresh and kind of wakes you up yeah i i i agree and uh... the price point for these is fantastic i mean you're looking at uh... 1800 bucks on a bracelet or 1600 US dollars on a leather strap for either the 36 millimeter versions, which come in either a brownish black dial or a greenish dial. Yeah. Or the brown black dial at 40 millimeters or the blue dial at 40 millimeters. And at 1600 bucks, I would just buy it on a strap. I mean, the bracelet's perfectly fine, but it looks to me like the kind of watch that goes on a strap. Yeah. You have luminous treatment to the minute track the hands and the numeral. So there's plenty of loom on there. It can still be like a sporty sort of wear it all the time. And then that pointer date function is kind of cool. And the watch is, it's, I mean, it's just fantastic. I would genuinely consider, I definitely want to get one in for review and that may easily lead to a buy. It was one of the watches that I never really forgot about after I left the AORUS meeting, it stuck with me. And I think it's one of the better values and more interesting watches of the show. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that's interesting you'd say that that's actually a watch you'd want to own because it doesn't fit your kind of usual... Not so much, no. ...vibe. But I agree, it was great. I particularly liked seeing, you know, I think one of their families of watches that kind of gets overlooked a lot is the ProDiver line because the Diver 65 is so popular and then the Aquus is just a ubiquitous kind of watch. I mean, everybody knows that's kind of the baseline Aorus diver. They did bring back an Aquus chronograph, which had been gone for a few years. And I liked the GMT ProDiver. It's a huge watch. I mean, they're big and they've got a lot of... There's sort of a trick with the bezel, you know, there's this sort of locking bezel. But, you know, I think Aorus kind of keeps that in their lineup as sort of their professional level diver watch. You know, to me, to see that Source of Life Special Edition in person was... was really cool. I had written about that based on kind of press photos and a press release about a month ago. And I'm not usually kind of hooked on limited editions and Oris does their share of them with these dive watches. But I don't know that one with the kind of that gray matte bezel. I think it's tungsten and the gray strap and that kind of that gradient blue dial. It was good. It was really, really good. Really solid. And then that bronze and steel Diver 65 is going to be a real hit, I think. |
| Blake Stacey | For sure. Yeah. And the new sizing is awesome. Yeah. Yeah. And what'd you think of the titanium Aquus? Great. |
| Jason Heaton | The Aquus isn't my favorite kind of case style for them, I guess. Yeah. But, you know, Aorus has done titanium for years. I think they're kind of overlooked in that regard. I think, you know, I can remember, you know, years ago they had, was it their TT1 family? Didn't they make a titanium version then? |
| Blake Stacey | Right, yeah, I had a 300 meter Titan. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, Titan. Back in the day. And, you know, it was a great watch. It's, it kind of brings that back. It's sort of, it takes that sort of bulky diver, you know, sort of aesthetic and kind of keeps it really light on the wrist. |
| Blake Stacey | So, yeah, good stuff. Definitely makes it easier to wear. And I think that it takes a little bit of the charm of the Dermeister Talker. Yeah. which, you know, is the titanium and then offering the titanium in the full bracelet, I think is going to be great for a lot of people. And then presumably because that Aquus case shape is, you know, comes in the two sizes, there should be a bevy of rubber straps available. Yeah. Yeah. Um, multiple colors, that sort of thing. And I think that if, again, if, if you like the sizing, that case wears it's 43 and a half millimeter really well. Yeah. on a smaller wrist. You know, I had the Dermeister talker on for a lot of Clipperton and had no trouble with it. And, uh, and I think that's a really compelling product. The price point's really good. And, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's kind of hard to encapsulate everything that Oris put out. I would recommend going to the website and taking a look, cause there's a ton of new stuff and it'll take time to kind of sift through and really understand all of it. I think looking at things like that Pointer Date 40mm and the Titanium Aquas, the new 65 diver in the new sizing, I mean we've talked about the Source of Life before, very cool and obviously just a lot to like. I think they did a really good job and I think they're at a sweet spot for the sorts of watches that the TGN audience would probably be kind of keyed in on. |
| Jason Heaton | Should we jump to Seiko maybe? I think that's kind of a good logical, kind of continuing in this vein of There's a lot of watches at Seiko. A lot of watches, you know, in our world, a lot of really relevant watches. I think, you know, they've been so strong with dive watches the past few years, which they always have been, I guess. But I get the feeling, and maybe you do too, in the past, I don't know, three, four years, they've finally sort of embraced what everybody has known about Seiko, and that is their dive watches are just so incredibly popular. They've really embraced kind of their history of it and brought back all of these kind of re-editions and this year was no exception. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I think it's interesting because obviously a lot of brands are doing the re-edition. But, and this could be obviously Seiko's Japanese roots, their philosophy, but their re-editions are like one to one. typically. Yeah. They're incredibly faithful. Yeah. It's like, you know, you get tons of stuff. I mean, arguably most of Tudor's sport watch lineup is referential to past. Right. Whereas Seiko has a bajillion models. Yeah. And they'll do some that are referential, you know, like the SPBs that they did last year that were, you know, the cheap version of a 62 mass, which is kind of, they were kind of partly modern, but had, elements of the original watch, that sort of thing. And then now when they do something like the SLA 025, which is the 1968 reissue of their high beat kind of pre Marine Master, it's essentially one-to-one, like they didn't mess with much of it there. And it's quite a thing. I mean, it's really thick and really heavy. It's a monoblock steel case, but it's also really cool. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I agree. Now, personally, it's funny because I love the faithful re-editions, but when they do kind of the modern interpretation of the vintage watch, I'm always a little bit lost on those. For instance, this SPB 77, that was kind of the 1968 modern interpretation. I think it's that hand set that never quite agrees with me. I'm just not a huge fan of that with that big kind of arrow-shaped hour hand that they put on that. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I'm still, that's like with the SPBs that had the similar handset last year. Yeah. And there's an 051, an 053, a black and a blue, and then there's a couple other versions. And then this is a subtle kind of variation of those. Yeah. They're really good on wrist, despite their size. You know, the bracelet that Seiko always has at these press things is huge. It's got like 20 extra links. Oh, yeah. Yeah. But they always have a rubber version. And so you get a chance to try and saw it and they fit really well. I agree that the handset The handset leaves something to be desired versus something like an SRP 777 or an SKX or a Marine Master. And there's certainly a lot of guys online that are swapping out Marine Master style baton hands into that watch. And people seem to like those on WatchRecon. They seem to sell. All of that, I think, makes sense. I think that it's one of those ones where I definitely would like to get one of these in for review. Seiko really does not seem all that well set up for providing samples so I'll probably just end up buying one. But you know I waited too long on the ones from last year and now there's this SPB 077 and so maybe that's the direction to go. What did you think of the green remaster? |
| Jason Heaton | I thought it was cool. I'm normally not a huge fan of green watches. You know Rolex had done a couple of green Submariners that I just that kind of brighter tone of green isn't great, but the way that Seiko did with this one, I've always loved that Marine Master, you know, I had a Marine Master 300 for a little while and just, I adore that case shape and this green works. I guess it really works and it's such a great watch. I love that watch. I loved it in its kind of original guise, the black dial one, but in green it was super, super cool. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I thought it was really, really cool. And that's another watch where providing the size is okay on your wrist, your preference. It's a little bit big for me. I find it to be a very chunky watch that wears kind of tall. It's very tall. Yeah. But if that kind of suits your tastes, it's hard to really think of a better diver out there right now than the Marine Master. Yeah. I mean, like they're just incredibly well made. The movement is fantastic. Yeah. And they come in a handful of different versions. And now you've got this, the green one. Sorry, I did not write down the reference. So it's a green Marine Master. Google it. I'll get the stuff all in the show notes if anybody's listening and really wants to find this. But I thought it looked really good. And green is definitely a color this year for watches. You know, we saw green from a handful of different brands, Oris and even Frederic Constant. Seiko, and it's interesting to see how different brands kind of treat that color, because it's a really, I think, a really challenging color to use in a watch. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you want it to be shiny. Yeah. You know, if you go more matte or more desaturated, darker tones, that's a little bit easier to go the brighter route. Like you said, with Rolex is, I think, a much more divisive outcome in terms of how people will attach to it. Right. Punchy color for sure. Yeah. Yeah. And did you check out the slim presage? with the kind of like ice dial. It's the SJE 073. |
| Jason Heaton | I did. You know, I have to admit my appointment was I got there a little late and I had to leave right on time. And so given that my sort of focus was largely on the dive watches, I pretty much skimmed over that one. What did you think? You liked it? |
| Blake Stacey | I thought not. It's not the kind of Seiko that I would buy. Yeah. But that said, it's an amazing watch. Yeah. It's beautifully made. That dial is incredible and it is just a little bit thinner than you kind of expect it to be when you pick it up. And I highly recommend that if that's if you're if you like the sort of everyday dress watch vibe that Seiko does so well, especially into the Grand Seiko line, that Prisaj has a ton of Grand Seiko appeal to it. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, Prisaj is sort of their it's like the Grand Seiko for people that either don't want to spend on Grand Seiko or maybe aren't familiar with Grand Seiko. And it's really the best sort of trickle-down you can get from Seiko. I noticed the, you know, the hands on those Prisaj watches have that kind of almost Zaratsu kind of blade polish technique that they use on Grand Seiko as well. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, and so this one you're looking at, it's a 6L35 movement, so it's a 4 Hertz movement. It's 1.3 millimeters thinner than the previous Prisaj Automatic, and it's $2,200, and it's limited to $1,881. So those are your stats. I think it's an absolutely gorgeous watch. Like, I think it's a perfect sort of watch for a guy that loves sports watches, but needs something a bit dressier for the office. Yeah. Your nine to five, Monday to Friday would, this is a perfect watch for that. And then you come home and throw on an SRP or, or, you know, a deep sea or whatever you've got. Yeah. Um, I think the pricing is remarkable. I mean, like, don't get me wrong. It's, it's aesthetically, a very bland or safe sort of watch, especially if you can't see that effect of the dial. The dial's incredible. Yeah. But it's a nice, safe, conservative sort of design like you would expect from Presage, but a great movement. It feels, the proportions are excellent with the slightly thinner body. And then I think it would work really well on, you know, like a nice brown leather strap. Yeah. Yeah. The bracelet, bracelets on kind of dressy watches I don't, I don't really get. I don't really get bracelets at all, but I definitely think that it's a compelling piece. And especially if you're used to, you know, the Seiko cocktail time or some of their more five or $600 examples of the same aesthetic, this is really taking it up to a different level in terms of dial finishing, case finishing and movement. Yeah. Yeah. So nice on them for, uh, for making that. And I like that there is, uh, some focus on making watches a bit thinner, uh, from, from a few different brands, which is, uh, something that I appreciate certainly. |
| Jason Heaton | Should we, should we kind of quickly, um, Maybe talk about Bulova since I think arguably they have probably one watch that you and I are interested in. Yeah, for sure. It's funny with Bulova, you know, I go to that appointment and I like the people there, but I like so few of their watches, but every year they always have like one or two that are just really, really good. And then the rest I'm like, all right, we can, we can kind of skip over that. But this year it was the, the, the devil diver reissue, which wasn't a huge surprise. Analog shift had sold out of a, kind of an early version that was custom for them. Basically, this is the kind of homage or reissue of their late 60s, early 70s diver that had the 666 depth rating. Yeah, the oceanographer. The devil diver, they called it the snorkeler, or what was the snorkel or the oceanographer, yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | Did you get a chance to handle it? I did, yeah. The large one, The 44 millimeter version, which I think is not like a limited edition has a like a black red coloring. Yeah, it's gorgeous, but it's big. Yeah. I mean, it literally looks like it was put on they they took the the smaller orange one and put it on a like a photocopier at a larger size. Now the small one. I like everything about it except the price. What was the price? Is 1495? Yeah. Now it's limited to 666 units, so the price largely won't matter. And I think, from what I understand, the 30 or so that Analog Shift had, which have a different case back, they're slightly different, they sold in minutes. They sold very quickly. So I'm complaining about something that's probably not a problem. But you look at something like this, and given the size, the kind of bright coloring, I start to compare it to watches that are more like $1,000. Yeah. And I think it's a really, really cool watch. It seems well made. You know, the bracelet's nice and light, which I like. It has kind of a vintage feel with the bracelet. And the dial's really fun. I just think that, one, I think it's one that they could have made not limited. Yeah. Like they could have just offered it, maybe a couple different dial colors, make it a normal thing. And two, maybe some of the fact that it's limited to 666 pieces is where you get a bump in the price. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think 14, whatever, $1,400 isn't Outrageous. Definitely not outrageous. This is the one that uses the Swiss movement. The non-limited uses a Miyota movement. I think the detailing on the dial with those kind of funky three-dimensional markers, the accurate recreation. I mean, Boliva has, I mean, it's part of the Citizen group, so they've got some serious muscle behind them. So yeah, they could probably do this watch for cheaper. But when you compare it to, I don't know, I'm not sure I would compare it next to a Doxa in terms of build quality, but it felt solid, felt good. But yeah, I mean, comparison's tough, I guess. You know, you look at an SRP Seiko for 500 or 400 bucks next to this, and it's tricky. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, it is definitely hard to compare. I guess the only reason I'm bringing it up is because when they put it on the table, all the information was in front of us except the price. Yeah. And so I asked, like, what's the price? And they're like, it's $14.95. And in my mind, I guess I had already been prepared for them to say, like, it's $10.50. Oh, sure. Yeah. um so that could just be and not just that's just my bias yeah on on general pricing um but i think that uh i think that it's a really good watch and if you like that certainly if you're down for an orange dial uh see if you can snap up one of the 666 yeah cool cool piece and it wears really well it's a nice size well since i brought up dachshund maybe we should jump to to that one we actually did that appointment together and had a great chat with rick and um he he |
| Jason Heaton | He showed us some stuff that we maybe can't talk about yet, but he did show us, he brought out a box of stuff that either is discontinued or, you know, there's the Poseidon that you hadn't seen. Yeah, I hadn't. But yeah, fun appointment. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, the Poseidon is very yellow. Yeah. It's a very cool yellow color. And I mean that in terms of like cool in temperature. Yeah. It looks cool, like no doubt cool. It's much less of a warm yellow than you look at something like the 750 GMT that I posted, which has more of a sun orange, yellow, orange expression of the color. The Poseidon is a much more stark, tulish sort of yellow. And I think it's really, really cool. It wears nicely. It feels a bit bigger than the 50th anniversary pieces. um but definitely really cool and you know i'm kind of on the fence as to the like the yellow on the bezel yeah and then i saw it in person and i actually kind of dug it it looks kind of cool especially i think it'll look especially cool when the bezel is all scratched up yeah and you still have some of that color in there i'm looking at your instagram post um you put up the the picture of that 750 gmt doxa um because i hadn't made the connection between the two yellows and |
| Jason Heaton | I'm not sure I can discern it, but I think just looking at that watch, that's another one that Rick pulled out that Doxa doesn't sell anymore. And we both love that watch, right? I mean, that GMT is, it's such a cool watch. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. And you had the yellow one for your big swim. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Don't remind me. That was, I love that watch. Yeah. I'd love to see them bring that back. Arguably, that could be a one watch watch for me. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. I think it's pretty good. I would, for me, I would go Caribbean, blue, orange. really speaks to me. But the yellow is awesome. I actually think that they could do really well. There's probably some trouble sourcing that movement, but probably not as much as there was, say, four or five years ago. Which movement is it? It would be a 2893. It's an independent 24-hour hand adjustment GMT. Oh, right. So it's a collar GMT, as I like to call it. And I know that there was some time where that movement was kind of difficult to find, but it seems like people are using it again. on you could take it, you could take a diving, you could take it, you could do anything you want with it and be super fun to travel with it. Oh, yeah. And, you know, again, it is a larger case size than the 50th anniversary. That's true. Yeah. And it's funny now that my frame of reference for personal, like, hands on long time wearing a Doxa is the 50th anniversary case. Yeah. Everything else feels big. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. So it's definitely a bigger, chunkier sort of case, but it's all the same charm. And that dial design and that GMT hand It's awesome. I just love it. And, uh, you know, fingers crossed that they decide that they could, uh, you know, source enough cases or, or whatever the challenge would be, and maybe putting another, another run together. Cause I think it's, it's a really cool piece. Yeah. And, uh, but yeah, the interesting brand and a great aesthetic and, and it, you know, it's, it's a treat because it's not something you can see in retail really. Right. So to be able to see Rick with his big box of watches. Yeah. and grab a GMT and grab a this or that and see all the 50th's next to each other is great. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, speaking of kind of interesting GMTs and divers, we both had a chance separately to visit with Manta upstairs in Hall 1 there. They've kind of tweaked the Ocean King. They've made a few adjustments to that. And most notably, I think, was the addition of crown guards and then the loomed bezel. Um, which wasn't on kind of the gen one version. And then I, you know, the divers kind of always left me a little bit sort of a little blase about it, but the SkyQuest, the GMT one, I thought it was a really excellent watch. I thought that was a really nice, nice effort. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. On both watches, they've refined the overall look. Now the SkyQuest, you know, wasn't for sale. It is now for pre-order so that they've refined based on a concept. And then with the Ocean King, which I'll agree is like a very conservative It's one unit of steel diver. Yeah. But they've locked in a price point that worked for them. The, the original price point was high and, uh, and they got feedback and they took that feedback and cut the price down. And the other big thing is, uh, so with this second gen, it's, uh, 40.7 millimeters is the case. It, it wears, I would say, arguably smaller than that. You do get crown guards. Now the bezel action feels the same, but the bezel is now fully loomed, which you mentioned. And then it's a brand new case, it's nearly 2mm thinner, which really changes how it feels on wrist, you know, shaving 2mm off of a watch that wasn't especially thick to begin with, but the Gen 2 is 11.9mm, so you're now pushing right into the almost identical proportions to the Omega 2254. Right, or the Black Bay 58. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, it's a little wider and roughly the same thickness as something like a Black Bay 58. I threw it on the NATO while I was at the meeting. It's a really remarkable watch, and you're still getting 300 meters water resistance, and they're running it as a pre-order, so the pricing will change after the pre-order. Just go to their website to figure out the pricing, but it basically starts at about 1500 bucks. Yeah. And I think at that money, it's just a really nicely made watch. It's not... like an avant-garde design. It's not an especially bold thing, but if you want an everyday dive watch and you don't have Submariner money or whatever, I think that this is a really nice design. It's well-considered and they took all the feedback from that first generation and have applied it into kind of a remarkable new piece. I was really impressed by it and I think the SkyQuest is a really nice change that has some more detailing Versus just adding say a 24-hour hand. Yeah. Yeah, so good on good on both counts for Manta and I hope that their you know pre-orders go well, they managed to sell out of the original Ocean King and Certainly, we've we've I've received many emails into TGN from people who bought the triumph their field watch Which is at an even lower price point and and people just seem to love it. So yeah, yeah, that's a good one want to head over to Germany |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, definitely. What did you think? So the big story was the Autobahn from Nomos, kind of an all new design for them. They worked with a third party, kind of well-known product designer. And this watch was, I don't want to say divisive, that's a little strong, but some people liked it, some people didn't like it. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I liked it better in person. I don't, I'm not wild about it in in terms of the, like if you compare it to the range of their products. Yeah. It's very big and it kind of actually wears big even for a Nomos. They're 41 millimeters. And the overall styling doesn't feel like Nomos to me. Yeah, me neither. I don't think it's a badly styled watch. I think that it's a good example of just how hard it is to do automotive themed while maintaining a locked-in aesthetic. Yeah, you know like Autodromo does automotive themed very well, but every watch looks different Yeah, right like no to like a group B is massively different from that new GT Mm-hmm. So if you're making it iterative, that's fine But with something like this you have kind of of such a locked in aesthetic with Nomos Yeah, and I just don't think I think that It's even further away from that core aesthetic than something like the original Metro Which was a very wild design |
| Jason Heaton | It felt like too much design flourish for what NOMOS is this very form follows function really clean design and this one had a little too much flourish that that band of loom was a little nonsensical to me and the that stick for the um sort of a needle shaped minute hand was confusing um and the whole kind of way of reading the time you know using the loomed bar to read the hands it was it just felt disjointed. It didn't feel like the Nomos that we know and love, I guess. |
| Blake Stacey | I agree. I agree entirely. And I do think, you know, we met with the designers and they had kind of an open discussion about the design. And I think that a lot of what you and I might be missing is the German context to the Autobahn. So from what I heard from Nomos is the feedback from German press has been hugely positive. And people are really liking it. So I think there might be like a cultural disconnection. Obviously, I love the Autobahn because I've driven unbelievably fast there and didn't get in any trouble. But it's not a cultural touchpoint for me as a citizen of Germany. Right. The other thing I would add is I'm surprised that they would go automotive themed and not do chronograph. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. You know, that's the next big thing for them, right? They need a chronograph. |
| Blake Stacey | You know, it's hard. It's hard to speak for them. Maybe they don't want to go that into that level of complication. Yeah. But I feel like a car, a car themed watch, especially a watch based on a ultra high speed highway that is essentially in some manner has been the lifeblood of the German automotive community for, you know, for the span of its existence, you would think chronograph. Yeah. That said, the other model that uses this, the other new model that uses the same movement is the Tangente Update. I thought that was great. I thought it was really cool. So imagine a normal tangente, it's just bigger. 41, it definitely didn't feel like it was 41. You know, you can definitely tell that it's bigger than a 35. It's much bigger than a 35 tangente. But 41 millimeters is fine. And we're smaller than that. And they maintain it was cool. They showed us a video where they it actually maintains the exact dial proportion of a normal tangente. They just add the date to the outside of it. So the markers and all that are at the same distance and size. Yeah. And then it stretches a bit and you have this radial date display, um, which at first glance is very confusing because it uses an aperture for each date, but there's two apertures for each number. Yeah. So instead of having two rings where you would have a ring of apertures and a ring of numbers, which would add another, say, three quarters of a millimeter, maybe a millimeter to the dial size, or having the aperture light up on one side of the number and not the other, they've opted to have the apertures on either side of each number go red. Oh, sure. So when you first read it, you're like, well, that's confusing. Why is there, why is it two dates? Why is two dates active? And then you realize, no, they're actually kind of bracketing each number, which makes it a little bit faster to read because you have a larger kind of distinction on the dial. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | It's clever. It wears really well. The movement can be set in both directions. And I think that one is a good example of a slightly left of center Nomos that still preserves the entire design language. Yeah. Yeah. That was a winner. I liked that. Yeah. Agreed. Very cool. And it's cool to see them continue to build and design more advanced movements. and work on complications and things like that. So I think it's fun to see them grow because they're still a very young brand. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So I had a chance to stop in at Longines. I don't think you had an appointment there, right? |
| Blake Stacey | I did not get an appointment with Longines. It was a big hole in the viewing for me because they have some killer stuff this year. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And for me, again, it was another kind of quick appointment and the stuff that I was keen on was the I guess the one they were really pushing this year was this all-black Legend Diver, which I wasn't terribly keen on. I mean, it kind of works, an all-black Legend Diver, but that watch has been around since, what, 2007 or something, and it just works so well in the all-steel kind of regular steel finish. In black, it was cool. I think more significantly, they came out with a 36mm version, which with those long lugs that the Legend Diver has, will wear really well on a variety of wrists. And the fact that it's an internal bezel with kind of a big crystal, um, the watch looks bigger as it, uh, anyway. Um, I'm not sure necessarily that, that, you know, other than for women or those with smaller wrists that I would opt for anything other than the 42. Um, but, but it was cool to see the one that was really interesting was the one that they barely even pulled out and showed me. And I think it's because, you know, I was talking to their PR person and she's Responsible to kind of show what they're trying to promote at the time But later this year they're coming out with this heritage skin diver which is Another throwback piece from Longy and they do them so well, and it was a 42 millimeter watch just like the the legend diver But it has an external bezel, but it still has that kind of shovel shaped our hand and and it might have got a little heavy-handed on the on the fotina on that one, but But that was a cool watch. And when I posted a picture of it, I literally had no information about it. And people, I got so many comments and direct messages about that. People are like, when is this coming? How much is it? Et cetera, et cetera. And, uh, uh, just, it looked really cool. I got to strap it on really quick and, and, uh, I'm sure we'll get more information about it, uh, as the year goes on. |
| Blake Stacey | Well, yeah. And I think it's a similar scenario for the military piece that they didn't show, but did show. Oh yeah. Yeah. So that's, I don't, I wasn't at the meeting, so I missed all of this, but there is a piece coming later this year, and it's on Instagram. You can see it on Hodinkee's Instagram. You can see it around. But it's this kind of classic, like, very classic military design that actually has, like, a hand-painted dial fotina. Yeah. So, like, there's actually spots, burn spots on the dial that are added, and the watch just looks like a very good old watch. Yeah. I think that's probably going to be crazy popular for them. Oh, sure. But it was very unclear from them whether or not that was something they wanted shown or not shown. I'm not sure. It's out there, so you can find it. And I'll put it in the show notes. I'll try and dig up some sort of specs for it. But the overall on that one is that that's a very promising looking design, too. I mean, they're just doing... I think they're starting to really understand a market outside of Asia. You know, they are one of the absolute hottest brands in Asia. Yeah. But it's the much more classic longines look. Yeah. Whereas with, I think where they're finding their strength elsewhere is in these vintage pieces because they have this solid back catalog. They have the backing of swatch and the power of all that. And I think we're just starting to see them really, uh, pick up pace on that. I mean, the, the big guy was amazing. They've done some really great stuff in the last nearly 10 years. Yeah. Um, but I think they're definitely starting to see kind of where tastes lie with that sort of thing. So a couple of really good looking pieces and all stuff that I really hope to see, especially that Skin Diver and the 36 millimeter Legend Diver. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You know, we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about Omega, the other kind of elephant in the room. Another one I didn't see. Yeah. So, you know, they show a lot of watches every year. I'll just kind of touch on the three kind of high points that everybody was sort of buzzing about. First of all, you know, every year they tend to pull out a kind of a limited edition tribute Speedmaster and this year it was the the Dark Side of the Moon Apollo 8 tribute which was an all-black ceramic case. It was the the hand-wound 1861 or I guess 861 derived movement that's been in the Speedmaster since you know 1969 and you know at first when I saw photos of this watch and a lot of people had the same feeling I think the The reaction was, yeah, it's cool, but it's not really my thing. But up close, it was a really neat watch. And I think what made it neat is the fact that the dial was partially skeletonized and then the movement, the bridges of the movement and kind of part of the dial were actually textured to look just like the surface of the moon, which sounds a little gimmicky, but it was really, really neat to kind of look at under a loop, the level of detail. And then they set it off with these |
| Blake Stacey | um these yellow hands which uh which worked really well so neat watch not one i would get i'm not generally an all black watch fan but uh but that was cool yeah i wrote up the uh i wrote up that piece for like an introducing post yeah and i was bummed i tried uh i wasn't in on the first meeting for the hodoki staff with uh with omega and then i thought i'd get in on a second one and that ended up being a shared meeting so there was only room for a couple people And I bowed out and went to a different meeting. So I didn't get to see it in person. I will later this year when it makes it to Vancouver. But, you know, these, I thought in the photos, it looked incredible. I mean, they're always a very big watch, the dark side of the moon. Yeah. But I think it looks really cool. The black and yellow, that semi-skeletonized dial with the moon imprint in it. I thought all of it was, was kind of remarkable. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You know, real quick too, kind of glossing over another big release, which was the Seamaster 1948. Um, wasn't to my taste. I'm generally not kind of, uh, drawn to that aesthetic, but, uh, it was, it was a big one for them. Um, it's, uh, um, you know, kind of a throwback to, to arguably where the Seamaster got its start in 1948. You know, we usually think of the Seamaster as kind of a dive watch for Omega, but they use that name, you know, a good 10 years before their first dive watch. And, uh, and so they brought out, um, you know, kind of two steel tribute pieces, one with a small seconds and one with a center seconds and yeah those were cool I think there were I want to say 38 millimeter cases with 19 millimeter lugs so you know nicely sized for for kind of a vintage throwback piece the kind of cool old scripted text and an old logo on the dial so that was cool the big story I think with Omega this year was the the the kind of reboot of the the Seamaster Pro which is a watch that you and I have talked about, we've both kind of owned this, at least a version of, of the Seamaster Pro. And we're not talking about, you know, the, the top shelf kind of Planet Ocean stuff or Ploprov Seamasters. We're talking about the, the one that they came out with in the nineties when Pierce Brosnan was James Bond. Right. And, um, this year they, they, they definitely upped the game with that watch by adding the, um, the master coaxial movement that makes it entirely, or virtually entirely, anti-magnetic, as well as the bezel is ceramic, as well as the dial is ceramic, which is pretty interesting. It still has the wave pattern that has become kind of a familiar trademark of the Bond, quote-unquote, Bond Seamasters. It comes on that kind of What I term sort of a garish metal bracelet or it has a brand new rubber strap that that was really quite nice But you know if I'm if I'm kind of rendering my own opinion the watch just doesn't it doesn't float my boat so to speak it's just the aesthetic of that sort of Bond Seamaster with the skeletonized hand and the And the wave pattern on the dial just it's never quite appealed to me and this one was the same. I just I I was left feeling a little wanting with that one. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. For me, when I heard that they were going to be doing a new Seamaster, that wasn't going to be a PO, I thought, Oh, this is it. They're bringing back the sword hands. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | It'll be a new 2254 or, you know, there's the blue, the electric blue version of that. I'm not recalling the reference model, but the, to see these, I thought that they were, I thought they, I mean, they look very high end. Yeah. Yeah. Especially if you have any experience with watches like a 2538, a 2254, you know, these older, the mid 2000s and earlier Seamasters. These look like a whole step up. They're much shinier, the detailing is much more crisp. Yeah. The finishing is much higher and the movement is fantastic, obviously. Yeah. But I definitely still prefer the sword hands to the skeleton. I always will. the the much more kind of shininess to them doesn't really speak to me as uh you know a devotee and a previous owner of uh of the older versions yeah and uh there is a lot of different versions something like 14 uh different models in that line so there's a lot to see there and i think that uh definitely on a rubber strap that's a pretty solid very modern dive watch. And then offhand, do you remember the price point if we're talking steel, black dial? Yeah, right. It's like right around $4,400. |
| Jason Heaton | So, you know, we're talking like half Submariner price for a watch that... That's a lot of watch for the money. ...has a lot of technology in it. And I think, you know, to be fair, you know, I don't want to just fully, you know, criticize this watch because as a proper sort of high-end dress diver, it's hard to beat this watch. And I think a lot of people do want a dress diver. You don't always want to wear the Big Planet Ocean or, you know, a Longines or a Seiko or something. I mean, this is a proper dress diver watch. And as those go, it's pretty hard to beat this watch. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. And while you and I may prefer something like the sword hands, this is a very, very popular aesthetic for Omega. Yeah, for sure. And probably the sword hands weren't. I mean, they're in the business of making watches that sold. Yeah. So this could just be somewhat the opinion of two nutters that are rambling into some microphones when it comes to which one of these watches is the better one. They're definitely going to be really well made. And I really am starting to appreciate the fact that Omega is establishing the master chronometer movements at like right around four grand. Yeah. Yeah. I think that that's going to be like an interesting sweet spot for them. That's a really high end movement. And then obviously now they're going with a bunch of other materials that aren't going to age or fade. You've got a lot of ceramic. It's like a white gold in the inlays on the bezel, and it depends on the model, it changes, and then a nice date at six. Right. So I think those are going to be very popular. I would love to see them take literally the same thing and just put sword hands on it. Yeah, maybe they will. Who knows? Give them enough time, I suppose, right? Everybody seems to be making everything again. Yeah, yeah. What else we got next? |
| Jason Heaton | I can quickly cover Blancpain. Did you have an appointment with them? |
| Blake Stacey | I didn't see Blancpain, so if you want to. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so, you know, Blancpain, One of my top three divers of the show actually was this bathyscaphe Day-Date 1970 that they showed us, and kind of the only watch from that meeting that I really want to talk about. What was cool about it is, I've never really cared for the bathyscaphe, the markers I always found a little bit too small, the hands were a little polarizing for me, but this one just nailed it. Matte case, it's still big, it's 43mm, but the dial has this sort of Fume bronzey brown sort of tropical appearance with right kind of funky Markers straight out of the 70s kind of like a racing dial style And you know just just a really cool piece Again, you know pretty expensive, you know the watches You know like eleven thousand nine hundred dollars, so, you know, not something I'll be buying anytime soon But you know always fun to see them and and kind of dream a little bit. So that was cool |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. Do you want to, uh, looking at the, you know, the pricing of the, uh, Blancpain's not really in our general wheelhouse. You want to talk about Sertina? They had something that I know you were pretty excited about. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So Sertina, you know, it's a brand we generally don't see. I don't know if they carry it in Canada, but they, we've, I've never chatted with them before. We, we don't get Sertina in the U S it's, it's not a brand that Swatch Group, uh, sells in the U S uh, like Mito a few years ago. Now we're getting Mito. So maybe, maybe at some point we'll get a Sertina, but, um, I bumped into Christian Hagen, who's a Danish watch writer and kind of all-around cool guy, and he said, oh, have you seen the Certina DS Diver? And I was like, no, I don't get appointments with them. And he said, oh, go talk to so-and-so there and tell her I sent you, and you've got to see this watch. So I went over and managed to sneak in an appointment. And this DSPH200M, which is a bit of a mouthful, but a throwback piece to a watch that Certina made in the late 60s. Sertino's, you know, it's got an incredible history of dive watches that were used in Tektite and Sea Lab and Royal Australian Navy, etc. And this watch was great. I mean, it was, it's, you know, about 42 and a half millimeters, so it's a little on the big side, but nothing outrageous for a diver. What was cool about it, you know, is it uses the, for one thing, it uses that Powermatic 80 movement that Swatchback makes that has an 80-hour power reserve and some decent anti-magnetic qualities to it. And then the crystal is a he's a light or an acrylic crystal, which okay Wow, you never see on anything outside of a Speedmaster so that was really cool and then and then the kicker on this watch is that it's It's like 600 and some Swiss francs. So about $700 us which Just just crazy crazy good for for a watch with that sort of spec sheet and and Aesthetic so I mean that'd be a sweet pretty sweet buy if you're traveling |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, you're right. And you can get it at duty free. So you're not even paying the tax when you're coming back in. Yeah, it's under well under $1,000. I mean, yeah, it's probably gonna sit around 700 bucks if it's that much in Swiss francs. And yeah, I mean, I'm sure that there's lots of websites that will sell Certina anywhere. Right. But hey, if you're doing the cruise ship thing, or you're killing time at Frankfurt airport or something, see if they're selling Certina in there and and and you know, take a look at it. Right? Yeah, it looks like a really nice looking watch. Yeah, yeah, I loved it. Where do you want to go next? I think we can go right next door. The show is Mido. This is my first time, I think, that I ever had a meeting with Mido. And as a brand, I can't say that the aesthetic connects with me that strongly. Yeah. But they did show a watch that is very cool and very much outside the norm of what I like, and that's called the Commander Shade. And it's part of their... You know, they're celebrating their 100 years this year, 1918. And they made this kind of monoblock constructed 37 millimeter dress watch. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | But it's that kind of 70s dress watch. So it has kind of a funky marker, funky hand. It's Day-Date. It's got some great font and text use. And they make a version in steel and they make a version in plated rose gold. And I actually liked both. I'm going on the record. Um, if you, if, if you wanted like a palette cleanser for, uh, you know, a drawer full of dive watches and, and, and Speedmasters and, and whatever, I think that this is like super casual. It looks different. It's definitely the sort of watch that like I could buy and wear and my wife could wear. Yeah. Which doesn't really exist in a lot of scenarios. And basically you have a, an integrated steel mesh strap, which looks great, feels really good on wrist. And, you know, they're powered by an ETA caliber, you get 38 hours power reserve, it's four hertz movement. So it's probably something in the vein of a 2836, I guess, if it's a Day-Date. And, and pricing is 870 US dollars for the steel one, and I think just a hair over a grand for the gold one. And I think that This is one that I would just say, if you're listening to this and you've seen a picture and you're like, I cannot believe you guys are talking about this, this weird little Mido, see it in person. I would say that it shares a very similar charm to the Hamilton Intramatic. |
| Unknown | Oh, right. Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | But about 20 years later. Yeah. And like it has a very defined aesthetic that's on the other side of Mad Men. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I agree. I like that watch too. I think it felt like the kind of watch that you are thrilled to find at like a vintage shop or an antique store. Oh, for sure. And, you know, and this is like the modern version of it. So. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. So I would challenge anybody just to get a chance to see that. I'm going to do a write up for Hodinkee that'll probably be up by the time this episode goes. Where to next on the list? I can do Casio. Did you have a meeting with them? I did not. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Tell me about this Metal G-Shock. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. So Casio had a ton of stuff and I'm not really a G-Shock fan. You know, I love the Rangeman, the last generation Rangeman because of what it did as far as a legit tool watch. Yeah. So I tend to wear something like a Casio the same way that I wear something like the Garmin, the Phoenix, or even a dive computer. I have a specific task. I'm going hiking, I'm going running, I'm going diving, and that's when the watch comes out of the drawer and I wear it. As a day-to-day watch, I don't think either you or I have really any emotional connection to G-Shocks. Yeah. They did make one that I think will be interesting. And for people who are in the vein of liking the 5600s and the 5000s, the DWs, things like that, they make a GMW B5000, which is essentially an all metal spin on their classic 5600 shape. So yeah, in short, it's basically an all metal version of the 5600. It's one of those ones where like the strap wasn't sized. So it's really hard to tell what the actual weight would be like on wrist. But if you're already on board for the style and you like the 5600 or you like that kind of the basic everyday G-Shock aesthetic, going to the all metal is kind of a cool option. And then if you want to take it a step further, they're making an IP plated gold version, which is very punchy. You know, if you have that kind of street style, if that's kind of your look, that'd be a really interesting route to go. You know, I'm not going to buy either. I don't need a another G-Shock or a digital watch, but I did think that it was notable. So the pricing is like 600 bucks for the stainless steel version. The gold one's more like 700 bucks. They also have one with a rubber band, which I didn't see. And then they have a special edition with Porter, the Japanese apparel sort of brand. And the Porter one is all black with the red circle. It's a DLC treatment with the red border around the display. So it looks a lot like the G-Shock of your memory. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | And that one was really cool. I mean, all of them would be just more fun if the bracelet had been sized to have a real idea of how they wear. But again, if you're on board for the G-Shock, this is a pretty cool expression. And I think they'll probably be kind of a hot ticket in that crowd for a while. So with Casio out of the way, how about Breitling? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, another big name. You know, we kind of talked about quite a bit of Breitling a few weeks back because we were in New York for the The big kickoff for kind of the new generation of Breitling and the Navitimer 8 launch. But they still had a couple of new things at the show. I was particularly smitten with the, that 38 millimeter Navitimer time and date, which I was surprised at. I liked it. I liked the size. I like that beaded bezel. And I think the slide rule works without the chronograph. I was really surprised. |
| Blake Stacey | You know, it just seems like it's going to be entirely in Congress to the aesthetic. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | And then in person, it's pretty good. |
| Unknown | Yeah. I liked it. I liked it in blue. Great size. Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | Oh, the blue one was definitely, definitely the way to go. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | And then I was quite happy to finally see like running actual versions of the Navi 8 Unitime. Yes. So the world timer. And, uh, and that's, uh, that's a fairly clever thing, that world timer. It's a step above your standard world timer, because this is still doing jump set local. And the local remains coordinated to the hour differential. Oh yeah. So if you have a certain time zone difference established between the two displays, if you jump the local, it jumps the world time display. Oh yeah. Nice. They have it listed as a manufacturer caliber. We're in the meeting with Louis Westphalen, who does a bunch of stuff for Breitling now, and he clarified that it's actually just a very complicated module that they put on top of an existing movement. Oh, okay. So it is their B34 movement, but the module and that functionality is essentially just Breitling's, and it's clever. The watch basically wears like a Bremont. It's a 43 millimeter watch. It's not too thick. They had them on steel and on the leather. And for me, of course, you can tell the size a lot better when the watch fits and the leather was very nice. The silver dial looks really good. And I actually think while it's definitely expensive, it's around nine grand. For its functionality, there's not a ton of competition. I think it's cool. I think I love world timers. And typically that's an expensive functionality to get into. And I think that this one could do really well for them. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think especially as a sporty world timer. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I think there's lots of fancy ones. I agree. And what did you think of the 44 millimeter chronograph, the Superocean Heritage 2? Oh, I loved it. |
| Jason Heaton | I loved it. The Superocean Heritage has been my favorite Breitling family for a number of years. And this one was just so good. You know, I mean, the size is good. 44 is good. It's big, but I don't know, in black, that sort of glossy dial, that new logo. I thought it was really, really nice. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I thought it looked really good. It's also one that, like, I don't think comes off very well at all in images. Yeah. Because all of them kind of, like, the aesthetic is so similar across all the different sizes that just an image, you know what it looks like, but I think it's one that you really have to kind of put on your wrist. Yeah. And it's still a very big watch, but it's still very much a Breitling thing. You know, I genuinely enjoy that aesthetic, especially at the smaller case sizes. And I think that it's cool to see them, you know, apply the better movement, apply a slightly more reserved case size. Yeah. I think all of that's a positive. I mean, again, we're talking about another fairly expensive watch. Yeah. But that Superocean Heritage line has become the most successful aesthetic within Breitling's lineup. So it's no real surprise that they're going to want to try and find iterations and fill any gaps in the sizing and the movements and such. Yeah. I guess from Breitling we can go right into Bell & Ross for alliteration. Yeah. What did you think of their offering? I actually am really starting to like some of the directions they're going in. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I do too. You know, they've got such distinct sort of families, which is tough. I mean, a lot of brands don't do that. You know, they've got this sort of very instrument style, square, modern stuff that they've become well known for. But then the round, more traditional, sort of more vintage-y kind of watches do just as well. That's the family that I like. I really like kind of the throwback stuff. And they had a couple of good ones this year. I know you liked the, what was it, the V2-94, the Chrono? |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. So they had the two limited edition pieces for their BR Bird plane concept. It's a little bit of a confusing thing where they design a plane that they have no intention of making, but they use that design to inspire some watches. They've done this with a few other things in the last few years, cars and motorcycles and that. And I think it's a dubious concept at best, but I will say that of the two models, the three-hander is fine. It feels a little plain. And then the chronograph, I really like. And then here's another first for me. The three-date window, which I normally don't like, they sunk it into the relief of the chronograph sub-dial. So that it actually has to follow the shape of the sub-dial itself. So it's not, it's the same radius as the sub-dial. And I think it looks cool. It works just fine. I would prefer, I would always prefer a single date window, but it adds a little bit of interest to have it almost like it's a skeletonized, you know, display in the sub-dial. Sure. And I like that it doesn't interrupt or in any way kind of throw the balance of the watch off. I thought it was great. You know, the case size is really nice. It's 41 millimeters. They're only making $999. I'm sure that, I don't know if that's a lot or a little for Bell and Ross. I don't know how many watches they sell, but I like a nice bright dial like that. And obviously the blue, orange, and then some gray accents. I think it's a winner and it's really nice on wrist. So good for them with that one. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. You can tell that this is a brand that was founded by designers. I mean, these guys really care about the aesthetics of the watch. I mean, and in some cases, you know, we, we tend to get very hung up on, movements and technology and innovation and that sort of stuff. And Bell & Ross hasn't... I mean, they've done a few things like that, but they tend to really focus on the design. And I think that's just... that's just fine. I mean, I think it's... they do such a good job with it. They're very visually appealing watches. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, for sure. I 100% agree. What did you think of the Blue Diver? |
| Jason Heaton | Blue Diver was great. You know, I had some time with the black one last year, the first edition, and quite liked that watch, even though square watches and me just never have gone together. Um, the blue one was great. They did a bronze version this year, and I feel like bronze is maybe, I don't know. Are we over bronze? I think I'm kind of over bronze. I mean, with a couple of exceptions, I think the, of course the Aorus, uh, has always done a good job with bronze and continue to do so. But, uh, I don't think there needed to be a bronze Bell and Ross diver. I think the blue one works really well though. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. I actually have the black one on request for review with Hodinkee that was supposed to come in the next week or so. Yeah. And I'm going to see if I could push that and get the blue one. I'm not sure it really matters, one color or another, but you know, the newer one, if they happen to have it in. Yeah. Would be fun. I haven't had the experience of spending any, anything more than a couple of minutes with a square, with one of their square case models. Yeah. So I'm excited to get a chance to take a look at that. They photograph really well. And it's kind of like, I'm trying to reach a little bit beyond my normal, Like dive watch thing. So this is still a diver, but it's a different case style. And I think I'm going to try and get that Mido, um, you know, the, uh, that commander shade. So just, just to try and branch out a little bit and see, see what other things I like, but I haven't given a chance. Yeah. Yeah. Um, I think Bell and Ross, they definitely are really strong designers. Yeah. And if you can, if you can get a chance to see some of the stuff in person, it's, uh, it's cool, but we'll put links to, uh, to that stuff in the show notes. Yeah. And then I guess you would have seen Victorinox, which this is my first year that I haven't, I hadn't seen their stuff. And then it's also the first year that they launch a watch that they said they probably couldn't do. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | So, um, the Enox, which is a watch we've talked about before that I think we both really like, it's a great value. Um, and, and up to now, uh, it's always been a quartz movement, which has gone with kind of the whole raison d'etre of that watch, which is, you know, just sheer survivability of pretty much anything. Um, but this year they come out with a mechanical version. It's an ETA 2824 movement and has a clear case back. So same aesthetic as the ENOX, but they cannot sort of obviously guarantee the same level of resistance to all the things that the quartz one was able to stand up to. So you can't drop it from, you know, 30 feet or 10 meters and expect it to survive. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I remember in past meetings that had been the question is why not do a mechanical and they said they don't they like They will not survive that drop test right no way no way, but that said Aesthetically very very cool. |
| Jason Heaton | I I've always liked the the Enoch's kind of look and then this time they added this hobnail dial which is kind of taken from the texture that you get on the case of a Swiss Army knife, you know, that sort of texture. Right. Of course. Um, looks really, really good. The blue dial was fantastic. And then they make a version with, um, I guess their shtick this year was they handed out and they ask you to guess what the material of the, of the strap is. And, and I thought it was cork or something, but it's actually the wood from a lime tree. I'm not exactly sure how they incorporated it into a strap, but, uh, it looked really good. It was, it was very unique. It was very cool. And these are $800 watch for a mechanical, you know, sturdy, well-designed, good looking Victorinox. So. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. And I mean, you always have the option of going with the quartz if that 30 foot fall is going to be a big issue for you. I would say that, that like, if I'm falling 30 feet. Yeah. Not so worried about my watch at that point. Yeah. Yeah. I might be later if I survive, you know, it depends on how you land. You got to roll, I think is the ticket. That'll probably take a lot of the stress off the watch too. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| Blake Stacey | Right. Yeah. And then you had some latitude for a few smaller brands. Do you want to run through those? I think otherwise we pretty much covered the gamut of what stood out for us at Basel. |
| Jason Heaton | I think so. I mean, I just, I'm just going to give a shout out to a few of the small brands. I got a chance to go over to Hall 2 and pop in and say hello to the folks at Anonimo, you know, who you just don't read about or see very often. Checked out their kind of new dressier watch and the Nautilow diver, which is Which is cool, it's sort of a modern, sort of Panerai-shaped watch that has kind of almost a Bremont-esque, like a supermarine-style crown protector on the side of the case, which was neat. And then, another brand that I really wanted to see was over in the hotel near the main hall there, and it was the Triton watches, which... Oh, their stuff is so cool. So, so cool. bit on the spendy side, but actually when you look at them you can sort of understand why. It's a very unique case with the crown at 12 o'clock and kind of a hinged protector that doubles as a, you know, sort of a strapped lug system on the 12 o'clock side of the watch. Beautiful dial colors, sort of a black, a blue, and then this beautiful sort of sage green color and an excellent bracelet. So I was really pleased to kind of finally meet up and see Triton And then you and I did an appointment with Garrick. It's a very small brand from the UK that is very impressive because they're making everything in-house like entirely in England, including cutting wheels and making the dials and the hands and the whole bit. They're very, I guess the aesthetic of the watch we looked at, the S1, which is kind of their flagship. They're only gonna make 10 of these watches. It had a very sort of And I don't mean this in a negative way, but sort of almost a homemade, almost like a project watch look to it. You know, you can just tell this thing was made by hand, but in a very, in a very nice way, it was a beautiful watch. It was a gorgeous watch. And then I guess the last appointment that I was really, really keen on was, again, offsite with Vortec. And Vortec is based in Colorado. It's run by a single guy named RT Custer. R.T. was raised in Pennsylvania near the roots of Hamilton Watch Company. He takes old American pocket watches and converts them into wrist watches by 3D printing titanium cases for them. His big goal since the beginning, since he started back in 2013, was to make a case that could accommodate a lever set pocket watch, which is a pocket watch that You set by unscrewing the bezel and crystal and then pulling out a little lever and then using the crown to set the time, which of course in a wristwatch would be very difficult to do. So he actually had to engineer a longer lever that he replaces in the pocket watch movement and a spin-off sort of bayonet style removable bezel that allows you to access that lever. Oh, wow. So, you know, these aren't watches that, you know, you could even pretend to wear every day. They don't go with shirts and jackets and everything else. you know, he'll take your old heirloom pocket watch and, and kind of do this kind of really cool thing to it that allows you to actually wear it. Um, I would, I would entirely wear one of these to Basel. I think it would just be such a conversation piece. Um, and the cool thing is you can actually convert it back to a pocket watch. So it's not like he's ruining your, your heirloom. Um, but it is cool. It's kind of off the shelf pieces. He's sourcing pocket watch movements and dials from, you know, cases that have been, melted down you know by scrappers or pawn shops or whatever else so he's kind of rescuing all of this great watchmaking heritage and doing something really cool with it so that was fun so yeah it was it was good to see you know a few of these little guys and kind of catch up with these these really passionate you know one-man bands like Triton and Bordick and met with Giovanni from Unimatic as I mentioned and Etienne from Baltic so Um, real highlights for me, um, from, from this. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, I think, I think next year we'll have to maybe plan to set aside a whole day, uh, to arrange these, uh, arrange for these meetings and get more of them in. Cause I think a lot of them really speak to the sort of stuff that we're into. And the, these guys don't always get the coverage that, uh, it's easy to get drowned out by the Rolex, the Patek, the Tudor, all of that. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | So, I mean, you gotta go, you gotta go where the heat is when it comes to Baselworld, obviously when you're being paid to go out and cover it, but, uh, I would like to find an opportunity to make the most of being in the same, you know, relative geographic areas, all these interesting watch creators. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. And yeah, so I think that's just about our list for the show. If we missed anything, please let us know. We can tack it on to another episode, but I think this definitely covers everything that I saw that my jet lagged mind can recall. But if you, obviously, if you think different than please the greynadoe at gmail.com. And we had mentioned on the last episode that we do a kind of a Q&A. So we have a couple of questions about Basel that we thought we'd get to quickly before some final notes. Pushing into a nice long show. I hope people appreciate that. And Jason, listener of the show, friend of the show, Ken Nichols, he wrote in asking kind of what's the Basel pack list this year? I don't think our gear has changed very much. So we've mentioned that kind of before. But I figure maybe for anything that's kind of changed or things that you did differently this year versus last year, which we would have spoken about. How did your pack list go this year and did it work for you? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I've, after doing this for a few years, I've sort of dialed in kind of the right number of, uh, pairs of socks and, you know, uh, battery chargers and all that kind of stuff to, to, to bring along. But this year, um, I made a few tweaks and, uh, one of the, the biggest things that I did this year was I, I kind of dumbed down my wardrobe a little bit. I went a little bit more casual. Um, I, I see a lot of people walking around Basel with sneakers and stuff on and I've always been envious. So this year I actually just brought a pair of Adidas running shoes and wore those with decent slacks and a sport jacket. And you know what? It worked great and my feet and legs were very thankful for it and it was a good decision. I rocked the Uniqlo comfort jacket again, sport coat, which was again a very good choice. I just love that thing. crunch it up in a bag and it works really well, very comfortable. Natapuff vest from Patagonia was kind of my layering piece for walking to and from the show, which was vital. And then finally my, you know, the annual decision about which bag to bring to Basel. This year I opted for a new one. It actually isn't new to me. It's a bag I've had a few years. It was the Filson Magnum camera bag that they produced a few years ago. And it worked out. really, really well. I'm really glad I made that choice. It's a waxed canvas, waxed cotton, you know, Filson bag, really well padded, great shoulder strap, lots of little organizing pockets and held everything I needed. So that was my go-to. And I'd say this year was probably my smoothest Basel in terms of kind of packing and gear. So yeah, must have done something right. How about you? |
| Blake Stacey | Anything new? I forgot my battery charger. My double A batteries. So I ended up going to like the grocery store and buying another 24 batteries or something. It was like 26 francs. And I ended up not using any of those batteries. The ones I had charged, I brought enough, you know, charged double A's to actually make it just through the last meeting. My flash was starting to slow down. Oh, wow. I resold. I got my A&E Allen Edmonds boots resold and those were perfect. So I've just brought the one pair of shoes. I wouldn't have minded something like a pair of running shoes, but I actually don't have running shoes currently, unless the ones that I actually run in, which I don't really want to put in a suitcase full of clothes I have to wear to meetings. And yeah, beyond that, I mean, it's the normal gear. I use the Tenba bag. It was perfect again this year. I'm still not crazy about the way it looks overall. You know, I'd love the same functionality in a more classic form. But it's inoffensive and it works really well. And it's really good for going to and from Basel, like on the plane. And then it works just fine to lug gear around at the show. Other than that, you know, I brought the 6500, the Sony this year, because I've got it. And I use it a bit for wrist shots and stuff like that. But for the most part, you know, I'm using a flash, I'm using the Canon and the same gear I've used for several years now. So not a big change to my pack list. I brought way too much clothes, which is fine. It's easier that way. And, you know, especially being with Honeki, you want to live up to kind of the sartorial level that they established. I didn't want to be too, too casual, but it went well and no trouble there. Certainly the Uniqlo blazer comes in handy and any piece of outlier that I could fit into an outfit worked out just perfect. So, Ken, I hope that answers your questions. Obviously, if you have something more specific, send us an email. And we'll move on to the next question, which was sent in by a listener named Chris. And he said, how do embargoes work? Do people share them on the inside, talk about them, et cetera? And does this lead to leaks very often? It's an interesting question. I would say that neither you or I are necessarily so deep in the watch journalist community, and maybe I'm projecting this onto you, Jason, but are so deep into the watch community that we have a lot of people to tell about, like, if I'm given an embargo, I'm going to be getting it downstream from the folks at Hodinke or from you, like I may be one of the last stops on an embargo personally. And generally I would tell you, like we would chat about a watch that's embargoed and that's literally as far as it goes. Occasionally in other scenarios, I think that it does leak a lot. And I think that sometimes that is part of the publicity strategy. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I've wondered that too. You know, these brands will say, Oh, don't talk about this until the first day of Baselworld and then Inevitably a photo leaks out of a new Seiko or something and I often think like they must know that that in this day and age the stuff leaks out and it kind of adds to the kind of the buzz. But yeah I mean we you and I neither of us live in a community of where we're brushing shoulders with a lot of watch industry insiders so. Yeah for sure. Yeah it's basically you and I on a slack chat channel sort of saying hey did you get the press release from so and so and it's like yeah I did it's pretty cool you know and that's about as far as it goes. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, and then typically sometimes the embargoes are so far away that you forget. Yeah, yeah. I mean, you'll see something at Basel and they'll say, oh, you know, this is embargoed for the summer sometimes. So we'll send you the information when we're ready. |
| Jason Heaton | Right. It was a little tough, I guess, when we were in Colorado with Oris in December and they showed us some new pieces and said, you know, we're not releasing this until March. I mean, it's not like I'm burning to tell people about this stuff. But, you know, then you and I do an episode where we're talking about our experience with Oris and you really want to tell people about this. Um, you know, like a bronze and steel diver 65 or something and you just, you can't, but then after a couple of weeks you forget about it. So it's fine. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah. Pretty much. That's pretty much how it works. Yeah. Yeah. So it's, I would say for us, it's only a bummer where, yeah, it's something that you'd like to mention on the show. Yeah. And you can't, or worse, and this hasn't happened to us yet. You talk about it on the show and then you realize later, like, oh, that was embargoed. So we haven't gotten there yet. And luckily it's the kind of thing I would catch in an edit if it was to happen. But Chris, I hope that helps explain a little bit of the world of Embargoes. You know, it's basically a date established by the brand, often a date and a time to try and give all the various writing community, you know, all of the various players in that community time to level the field in terms of their coverage. And yeah, I think that it's a lot of secrets that aren't that well kept and a lot that are simply forgotten until the day before the embargo when everybody actually, you know, goes into their system and starts planning a post. Yeah. All right. We're nearly two hours in. How about a quick blast through final notes? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I've got a little bit of voice left. I only have one this week, so why don't you lead off if you've got a couple. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, sure. So the first one is not going to be helpful for our international listeners, at least you're gonna have to check your area, but on Netflix, and it's on US Netflix, and I found it on Swiss Netflix as well. So I was able to download it and then watch it on the plane coming home. The Alex Garland movie Annihilation, which is in theaters still is also on Netflix. Just a small thing, Mark from Oris, the Canadian rep from Oris, he asked me if I'd seen the movie. We ended up in customs together going into Zurich. And he asked me, hey, did you see Annihilation? I was like, well, no, I don't get to a theater very often. He's like, oh, it's on Netflix. So I don't know. I didn't do the research beforehand to understand what kind of deal Netflix made to be airing a pretty big, like a huge budget movie while I could go see it at a theater in Vancouver right now. Um, but it's Alex Garland. It's the guy who did Ex Machina. I watched, I watched it twice. Wow. And, um, because I had a lot of flights that flight home, I'm not going to be that guy that complains about flights. I did on Instagram already, but the flight home was very bad and took forever. Um, so I ended up watching through the movie roughly twice. I slept through part of it just cause that's the, that's the experience. Um, I have almost no idea how to contextualize this movie. It has certain elements of movies like The Thing, which I adore the original The Thing, one of my favorite horror movies. A few examples of a horror movie that I can actually watch and not be terrified. But it is that sort of mix of sci-fi and horror. And then there's really strong elements of like the pervasive paranoia that's established in Ex Machina. And then it's a fairly, like, not fairly, it's a hyper advanced take on kind of sci-fi that's not I mean, it has at times the same tone as Arrival, but then it gets really wild. I would say that if you like your sci-fi without blasters and spaceships, this is rad. I can understand why it's probably maybe not doing that well in theaters, because I think it's a lot to absorb. It's awesome to see Natalie Portman in a lead role in a movie that's, you know, It's it kind of it has elements of action and horror. It's very it has a very much like a feel like the thing. And it's like I said, it's still in theaters in Canada, I would say yeah, if you want a site like a really strange sci fi sort of movie, I would highly recommend seeing if it if you can download it or I mean, stream it on on Netflix. And the only thing I would notice is like, it's very much an adult movie. Oh, okay. Uh, it's, it's very gory, very scary at times and super cerebral. So I would just rec, you know, it's not something you're just going to start putting on like with your kids in the room, or at least I certainly wouldn't. Yeah. Uh, so a small heads up, if I'm going to recommend a movie, it's, it's probably rated R or, or, or, or something similar to that. So give it a try. I'm just, I was blown away. It's on, it's on, it's still in theaters, like a big budget, cool movie. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. Well, I've got something completely the opposite ends of the spectrum. This is, This is a total outlier for me. I'm going to recommend a children's book, which is strange for me because I don't have kids. But this is a book that actually has a Basel connection and it also has a watch journalist connection because it was, it was written by a friend of the show and a good friend of ours and a fellow watch journalist, Barbara Palumbo, who if you're on Instagram, you can follow her at what's on her wrist. And Barbara, did sort of a short, uh, rhyming piece, um, entitled florist, Dolores and the Oris Cranoris. So there's a lot of rhyming going on in there, but she, she wrote that for her blog. Uh, last year, I want to say it was around Basel time and it led to kind of a discussion with, um, VJ and the folks at Oris about maybe turning it into a, like a bonafide full length children's book. And as time went on, she ended up finding someone who could help illustrate the book, a woman named Anne Marie Drury. And lo and behold, at Basel this year, at the Oris meeting, they were kind of giving out this small illustrated book that Barbara wrote during the meetings as kind of a press gift. And apparently it's kind of become quite popular and she's in discussions to turn this into something maybe a little more extensive and offer it for sale or through the Oris boutiques or on the Oris website or as gifts and that sort of thing. So I guess what's interesting to me is I feel like writing anything in rhyme is a bit of a lost art and this entire book, I'm not seeing page numbers, but it's a, you know, it's a good 25 page book and it's just full on, you know, line by line rhymes, which is impressive in its own right. So as a final note, this might be a little bit cruel because I'm not sure you can actually find this book currently, but word is that Oris might possibly be offering this more publicly, so just kind of stay tuned for that. So congratulations to Barbara on that one. |
| Blake Stacey | Yeah, Barbara gave me a couple copies for my girls, and I read it through with my four-year-old the other day, and it's really charming. A really neat thing, not like something I've ever seen before, and I thought it was a cool project. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, a children's book that incorporates like a Swiss watch. That's a first, so cool. |
| Blake Stacey | All right, so let's wrap it up. One last final notes. Some of you might have seen this on my Instagram. It's a quick note about a product called LEGO Speed Champions. I'm fairly obsessed with it at this point. And it's these LEGO sets, and they're not necessarily very big LEGO sets. I think I paid $30 for the one that I got. And it's these LEGO recreations of actual cars. So the one that I got is two cars in a little race standard. So it's the Porsche 911 RSR and then 911 turbo three liter like a 70s. Oh, yeah, 911. And it's really, really cool. Super fun if you've got kids and honestly, it's gonna be super fun if you don't if you're just into cars. But I just thought I would highlight it because I knew that they had made the Porsche one only because some car blogs covered it. And then you turns out you go and I'll put this in the show notes, but you can go on the on their website onto the speed champions website and they have like a 68 Mustang They have this bigger set that's like the ultimate Ferrari garage with a GTO. They have this really cool Ford Fiesta rally car, Corvettes, McLarens, a Bugatti Chiron, all sorts of stuff. I think it's really fun. It can be a really quick end to the show, but I'll definitely end up with a handful of these on my desk. I have this nice Viper green three liter turbo right in front of me now, and I love it. It's great. |
| Jason Heaton | Legos are so cool. I hadn't done it in years and then I got that Saturn V rocket and it's like, I see you posting these car ones and it's like, I just, I don't know if I've got enough horizontal space in the house to kind of hold all this stuff, but it's awfully tempting. |
| Blake Stacey | I totally agree. I don't, yeah, I'm not really sure. I'm lucky that I have like, cause I came with two cars and my daughter took one, the modern race car. So I didn't have to be responsible for having two of these cars, but I had that Ford The Mustang Fastback is in like Highland Green with a gold wheel. So I think that's going to have to happen. I kind of like a handful of these. So it's really fun and it's a nice little thing to do. And I found it quite stress relieving. It's different than anything else I do in my life. And it's not super hard. You're not going to mess it up. It takes 10 minutes to build one of these cars. But it was a whole different mental speed than I was doing throughout the day when I built them. And it was a real treat. Yeah, I agree. Yeah, cool. All right. So I think that's the end of the show. I do want to say a quick thank you, not only to everyone who listened to this episode, but for everyone who wrote in and commented and said all sorts of very nice things on Instagram. I think it was a really successful look at Baselworld and a lot of support from you guys. You know, obviously I am sorry that the vlogs didn't continue this year as they did last year. I got a ton of messages about that. It wasn't in the books. Maybe it's something I can readdress in the future. And then finally, again, just for me, I'd like to offer a big thank you to the Hodinkee team for allowing me to integrate in and work with them and run on their schedule and all that. It was an amazing experience being able to see how a big team like that can work at such a professional pace and, uh, and get so much done. I thought the coverage that was put out during that timeframe was, uh, was really remarkable. And it was, uh, it was nothing short of a treat to be just involved at any level. Cool. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I think that's, uh, |
| Blake Stacey | That's a wrap on Basel. I'm going to fall asleep. So, uh, as always, thanks so much for listening. You can hit the show notes for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J E Stacey, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGraynado at gmail.com. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts and the music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Jules Renard, who said, laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you are tired. |
| Blake Stacey | Little on the nose. |