The Grey Nato - Episode 07 - "Partners In Time"

Published on Tue, 26 Apr 2016 08:55:37 -0400

Synopsis

This episode of The Grey Nato podcast covers watch brand partnerships, from celebrities and sports to adventures and charities. The hosts discuss how certain partnerships have influenced their interest in particular watch models. They interview representatives from the Australian Marine Conservation Society about their partnership with Oris to protect the Great Barrier Reef. The episode also includes recommendations for books, articles, and music related to watches and exploration.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Welcome to Episode 7 of The Grey Nado, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. I'm Jason Heaton.
James Stacy And I'm James Stacy. Today we're talking about watch brand partnerships from celebrities to sports to adventures and charities. We've even got an interesting interview on that topic. Before we dig in, a special thanks from Jason and I to Michael Stockton and Fertella Watches for their coverage of the Grenado. It was all too kind and oh so much appreciated. You can follow Michael, at Mike in Frankfurt and at Fertella Watches on Instagram. Long live Speedy Tuesday and on with today's topic. So again, we're talking about watch partnerships and this is something that I think everybody has an opinion on as far as the way brands want to interface with other entities within pop culture. Etc. And the way you know, I made some brief notes on this to try and collect my thoughts. And I think that the types of partnerships fall basically into five rough categories. So you have like a celebrity partnership. So that's a personality and or a product which so it could be anything from an actor to a role they play in a movie. Then you have products. So that's everything from you know, Aston Martin and Richard Mille have a brand new partnership. Breitling and Bentley, Jag and Bremont. Then you have sports institutions. So that could be like a team or a series. So Tiso has a very like new and big connection with the NBA. Rolex, of course, has their endurance racing series. Chopard works with Porsche Motorsport. Then you have exploring and endeavors. That could be like Rolex and their connection with the Mountaineer, Alpinist, Ed Veesters, or even James Cameron and the Deep Sea Challenge. Also Bremont and the Terra Nova expedition. And then finally, you have charity slash philanthropy. So that could be like Blancpain, The Ocean Commitment, Cobalt, and their factory in Nepal and their connection with Randolph Fines. And then you have ORIS and, you know, a number of various partnerships, including things like their Great Barrier Reef initiatives. So Jason, let's start from the enthusiast perspective. Has a partnership ever pulled you in to buy a watch? Has it ever kind of piqued your interest and brought you to a model that maybe you wouldn't have leaned on beforehand? What's your experience with watch partnerships as an enthusiast?
Jason Heaton Well, I'm a big, for me, watches are, it's so tied up in storytelling. And for me, the history of a watch, the history of a brand, that whole tie-in has always resonated with me. So I think, you know, certain partnerships work better than others. But for the most part, if it's an ambassador or an expedition or even a charity or some sort of conservation cause, it really has to resonate with me. And as listeners will know, and as you know, James, I mean, for me, I'm a real outdoorsy guy, I like diving and climbing and sort of the history of exploration. And so a lot of the brands that you mentioned earlier are ones that maybe they didn't draw me in based on a partnership, They have sort of endeared me to the brand and I think, you know, Bremont is an example. I followed with great enthusiasm the Terra Nova expedition a couple of years ago when the polar explorer Ben Saunders did that man haul from the edge of the Antarctic Peninsula to the South Poland back and he was actually wearing one of their watches while he did it. And they sort of had this dramatic debut of the watch on the last day of the expedition. He took a picture of it in his tent and said, you know, introducing this new watch from Bremont that I've been wearing for the past couple of months while I was doing this expedition. I thought that was, uh, it was great.
James Stacy I thought it was really cool that the watch wasn't simply an existing model that they slapped, you know, an icon, like a, a new logo on the dial to connect with a new partnership. Like they designed a watch around the rough parameters of that trip. So of course you had a GMT movement, which gave them the ability to actually measure compass heading. Yeah. In situations where the compass wasn't usable, obviously, when you're that close to the South Pole. Right. And also it's a titanium version of the Supermarine and that previously didn't exist. They were steel. So they had gone lighter. I mean, this was an expedition where they were cutting off the ends of their toothbrushes to save weight. Yeah. So it wasn't a joke when they decided to go with titanium and decided to go with a compass bezel. That was designed for the rough, and that's why they only made so many. I mean, it was limited. I want to say there's 300 Terra Novas. Yeah. And certainly cool watches, but an interesting actual tie-in with that event.
Jason Heaton I think that gets to a key point. I think I've always been drawn to sort of purpose-built watches. So maybe in the 50s, 60s, 70s, watches were, because they were legitimate tools, a lot of times they were built for specific purposes and you've got I think the brands at that time, you didn't have the full on partnerships that you have nowadays, but they still recognize the appeal of having a Reinhold Messner in a National Geographic ad wearing an oyster quartz while he's on the summit of Everest. And I think that legitimacy is important to me when I look at watch partnerships, especially from that celebrity or ambassador or expedition type genre that you were talking about, because there are some certainly some lazy examples uh of watch tie-ins where you know you're slapping a logo on a dial or um you know just creating a certain color way to commemorate a special edition and to me that that doesn't draw me in like like some of the more legitimate ones with with ambassadors or or causes things like that yeah i think generally i would say that like
James Stacy these sorts of partnerships especially ones with actors and such i'm not that interested in like they probably wouldn't lead me to even change my opinion of a watch uh like i find it kind of fun when you can spot a watch on a late night talk show or in a movie and you know what it is like that can be kind of fun but i generally don't necessarily care who's wearing it at that point yeah it's more just like the watch nerd crowd of being like you know oh i paused the pvr and oh i know what that is yeah so what's your what's your take on
Jason Heaton on the James Bond tie-in with Omega.
James Stacy How do you... I think it's hugely powerful for the brand, but I don't think it's for enthusiasts. Yeah. So when I say that I'm not that interested in most of these partnerships, I think most watch enthusiasts consider these ancillary to the watches. But I think for the most part, the idea is that You know, it's about attaching watches to a non-watch enthusiast audience.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy So I don't think Rolex or Omega or Blancpain or some of these brands that have a lot of interesting partnerships or a lot of kind of big name celebrity partnerships, which let's face it, aren't that interesting generally. I don't think they need a lot of help selling watches to people like us. Yeah. When it comes to watches, we're not very price sensitive. Um, we'll save up and buy, um, we'll, we'll sell and trade and flip and get to what we want. Eventually it can take a long time, but a lot of these brands have been around for so long. It doesn't matter. They just, and they're, they're about curating enthusiasts at a certain level, but I think most of these brands, and this includes even brands that are pretty subtle with their general partnerships, like Rolex. They don't need a lot of help selling to enthusiasts, but they do need a lot of help connecting at an emotional level with people who have never felt strongly about a watch. So they find a product or a cultural offering that connects with an audience deemed to be, you know, of the right age and income level and price sensitivity to be capable of buying their watches or to be likely to aspire to buying one of their watches. I think that's the secret sauce of this whole formula. It isn't so much, you know, oh, if we get Clive Owen to wear a Reverso, are we going to sell more Reversos to guys that already own two or three JLCs? Or two or three watches of a JLC price point? No. Like, I don't have data to back that up, but my gut tells me no.
Jason Heaton What's interesting about a tie-in with somebody like Clive Owen and Jaeger LeCoultre is that That alone does not draw me to the brand or make me like, well, I shouldn't say, you know, actually I take that back. It almost makes me like Clive Owen better than it does.
James Stacy Agreed. I think it's a net positive gain.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And, and I, with, with these actor or celebrity ambassadors, if, if it feels too just like blatant, like where they just sign them up to wear the watch, it doesn't feel as authentic. But when you listen to a guy like George Clooney, who was attached to the Speedmaster back when he was a kid, because of his interest in the space program and his father had a Speedmaster in the 60s. It feels more authentic. I mean, and maybe I've just, you know, take it and drank the Kool-Aid at this point, but, um, to hear him and his passion for that is, is very interesting to me. And similarly, I've read interviews with Clive Owen, you know, whether true or not, it rang authentic to me. I think he has genuinely taken an interest in, in his watches. And frankly, with a brand like JLC, You kind of feel like if somebody's talking the talk and they're visiting the factory, chances are, you know, they're going to, they're going to kind of drink the Kool-Aid as well. I get the sense that he's kind of a watch geek.
James Stacy Yeah. And I would totally agree. And I think that celebrities may be not as, not as haphazard in all its scenarios. I think watch guys and gals tend to be, you know, tough. And certainly I am on things like ambassadors, because it seems like, you know, a watch brand simply attaching themselves to another household name. But I do agree that in situations where you find out that this person whose work that you like, whether they're an actor or in some situations, maybe a race car driver or an alpinist or whatever, just somebody that you kind of admire for one reason or another, shares a little bit of this kind of crazy hobby of loving watches, which is a really crazy hobby. Yeah, yeah. I think it's endearing, basically.
Jason Heaton And at the other end of the spectrum, and again, I think we both know the reasons for this, and you touched on it before. You get a partnership like Tissot has with the NBA, which it's clearly, it was done at a very high level. It made sense for both the NBA and for Tissot, exposure for Tissot, some sponsorship money for the NBA. And the watches, you know, I saw them at Baselworld, and they're very unremarkable watches. I mean, if you want a $300 or whatever dollar quartz chronograph that you get with the Quickster. You know, it's a fine watch for what it is, but the NBA branding to me feels a little lazy. You know, the back has the team logo on the case back, and then it has some sort of team colored striped NATO strap with it.
James Stacy I mean, to me that feels... I think that's a perfect example of the watch that isn't for watch enthusiasts.
Jason Heaton Exactly. It's for the guy who's buying, and I was asking a person from Tissot about this partnership, and I was saying, are these watches being sold, you know, at the arenas where the games are being played? And she said that, yes, they will be sold in some of the arenas. They'll be sold right next to the, you know, at the t-shirt shop or the sweatshirt shop or the pennant you're waving or the cap you're wearing.
James Stacy This is why Tissot is the largest exporter of Swiss watches in the world. they're hitting a mass market audience with a, in my opinion, like a really nicely made watch at that price point. I don't follow any team sports and I have no affinity for basketball, but if this gets more people to buy a Tiso, then let's go with Invicta, an easy target. If this puts a few more Tisos on someone's wrist than an Invicta and they get to kind of connect it with something that they love. And so in this case, not an actor, but you know, a pastime that they probably shared with their family, then I understand, like, I get that. That's a very powerful connection, especially with people who love a specific team from their town, that sort of thing. Right. The other side of it is I actually think it's a little interesting that you brought up Tiso because they have a connection with a guy named Tony Parker. And I'm not entirely sure what sport Tony Parker plays in.
Jason Heaton He's a basketball player and he's he's actually French.
James Stacy OK. They've had a connection with him for a while. Right. We might cut that because that makes me sound like a complete idiot because I have the page open on my computer. But the people at Tissot were saying that he could probably rep for more expensive brands, brands that operate in a higher price point than Tissot. But he has a distinct opinion that he likes the idea that a watch that he wears is a watch that his fan could wear. Interesting. And that seems really powerful because there's a lot of
Jason Heaton actors that are wearing watches that well and the thing about Tissot with the NBA going back to my earlier point yes it doesn't appeal to me specifically but I'm also not the type that tends to wear team logo sweatshirts or baseball caps and I'm not into team sports like you aren't but if you're at the arena and you go to the concession and you're going to buy a sweatshirt which nowadays you know sweatshirts are probably pushing 80-90 bucks or something like that for a decent quality one with a printing on the front If they have a watch sitting in the case, that's a $300 Swiss watch with a reputable brand on the dial. At that point, it's a bump. It's a stretch for a lot of people to spend that kind of money that maybe just went to the ballgame. But I can see how it can work. I can see how that's a win-win for Tissot and for the teams.
James Stacy Yeah, I think watch partnerships are a crazy thing. And as much as I say, Oh, you know, as a watch guy, maybe I'm not swayed one way or another. You know, I've spoken about the fact that I have an Explorer 2, you know, a polar Explorer 2. And I can remember in Ed Vester's book, him talking about when the start of his relationship with Rolex as, I don't actually know what Rolex calls their people. I think they're called testimonies. Oh, okay. Well, fair, fair enough.
Jason Heaton With a double E on the end.
James Stacy If you go to Rolex, you actually have to click on a menu on their website and go to the world of Rolex. And then you can pick sports, arts and culture, science and exploration. So they really break it down. And then you actually find out they have a number of partnerships with all sorts of people and endeavors. So everything from the, you know, the Bloodhound SSC, that ultra fast jet car, all the way down to, you know, they have obviously a history in mountaineering because of being one of the first watches on the peak of Everest. And then, of course, they have a relationship or had a relationship. I'm not exactly sure how that worked with Ed Visters, who's the first American to do unassisted climbs of all 14 8,000 meter peaks in the world. And in the book, he doesn't mention, I believe, a specific model, but he does mention that it was a white dialed Rolex. And that always kind of stuck in my brain. And I really like Ed Visters, so I can't honestly say that that didn't in some way measure into my background math when I was kind of drawn to hunting down and finding a 16570, the white dial. Oh, sure. Yeah. And a cool watch and a cool backstory. And I love the Explorer for a number of its backstories, including the fact that despite having started as essentially a caving watch, was adopted in some metric by the Alpinist community, a community that I'm fairly fascinated with.
Jason Heaton I think Rolex is a great example of a brand that doesn't overdo it with their ambassadors and partnerships. They're much more subtle in their approach, and I think it's what has appealed to me. Ed Veesters is a good example, and I mentioned Reinhold Messner earlier, who was arguably the greatest mountaineer of all time. But back in the 70s, you know, this watch ambassador thing was not nearly as big as it is today. But I remember the old Rolex ads from National Geographic magazine, and there would be a picture of a guy, I remember his name was Red Adair, and he was he like was this firefighter, or he owned a company that was hired to put out the oil fires during the first Gulf War. And the whole spiel in the article was Red Adair wears his like Rolex Datejust while he's out in this, you know, multi hundred degree heat fighting fires in the deserts of Kuwait or something. And it was like, it was, um, you know, it was just such a weird, it's not your usual ambassador, but, but I liked, or they, you know, these guys that study volcanoes or, you know, obscure, you know, cave explorers and, and that appealed to me about Rolex and it still does.
James Stacy Yeah. And they certainly have their kind of more or less standard partnership ambassador relationship. They have a connection with the equestrian world and with golf, of course, like a fairly strong connection with the golf world, which makes sense. That seems to fit. Yeah. They have a longstanding relationship with motor sports and of course, uh, endurance racing. And then of course, uh, tennis. Yeah. where they have uh you know kind of a specific connection with roger federer which has to have been powerful for the brand like there's no way that isn't that seems like like a really good example of the point i was trying to make earlier and then into science and exploration on their site like and then you've got underwater exploration and you've got uh various different awards and and i believe they have like a scholarship program uh they do some pretty interesting things but they are fairly quiet about it with a few you know yeah A few examples or a few exceptions, certainly the deep sea challenge with James Cameron, that was a big event for Rolex. It allowed them to draw a very straight line between the original, you know, between the original bathyscaphe mission, the Navy mission to the bottom of the Mariana Trench. Yeah. And then, of course, the next one they did with James Cameron and his one man sub, they built a specific model that they sell you know, the, uh, this deep CC dweller. And I actually have a note on that later in the show. And then they built a specific model that went on the outside of the sub and it was actually worn on like the wrist of one of the mechanical arms on the outside of the sub. And that's so laughably Rolex to a certain extent, but it is that kind of thing where like that they're, they, when they do it, they, they seem to do it in a very specific manner. Like if another company did that, you would kind of think like, well, they're kind of ripping on Rolex, but like, you know, There's other companies that have put their watches on the outside of submarines to see what happened. You know, Rolex, specifically with that deep sea, did some amazing technology to make sure that it would last to the bottom.
Jason Heaton You know, I think what, where, you know, if I really had to analyze my own appeal or what draws me to a watch partnership, specifically when it comes to ambassadors, it's whether or not a watch is actually worn for some specific purpose that draws me. I'm not necessarily discounting others, but in terms of my own appeal, something like a Speedmaster. Yeah, Speedmaster, which was a completely unintentional partnership, or a Ben Saunders wearing the watch, or Randall Fiennes wearing a Cobalt, you know, on a trek to the North Pole or something, as opposed to, you mentioned golf or tennis, which these are sports that don't lend themselves to wearing a watch, with the notable exception of somebody like Rafael Nadal and there, you know, with his Richard Mille, which, which has its appeal to me because he wears the watch for the activity. Whereas the golfers, I understand why they don't, but you know, putting on a watch just for the award ceremony to me does not, it's not as appealing as a guy who is diving with his watch or something like that.
James Stacy Yeah, certainly. And I think that maybe, maybe I, maybe we missed a certain type of partnership, which is this kind of weird partnership with the history of your watch. So whether that's Rolex with, you know, one of the first watches at the top of Everest or Omega with the Speedmaster, I don't think that can be discredited because they're still leveraging that as a partnership. And, you know, you and I both saw their attempts to make, again, to draw a line to today from back then, from the Apollo program when we were in Houston. And maybe that's not a one-to-one relationship anymore. You know, those watches were picked for nasa's reasons not for marketing reasons right um which is largely i think the secret sauce to why the speedmaster is what it is yeah it's it's entirely it's so legit it and it's legit because somebody else said it was legit you know yeah yeah and uh i think the last phase of it is uh is kind of the watch companies that want to extend into something outside of kind of a traditional marketing space or simply selling more watches and they try and connect with philanthropy or with um what i would call some sort of a discovery or ecological sport yes whether that's you know uh freehold diving or really really deep diving or you know just general eco green-minded initiatives on various platforms i know you yeah i mean i i think that this is a relatively new sort of uh
Jason Heaton partnership is the sort of environmental causes. But I think what watch companies are seeing is a heightened awareness for environmental causes in general. And so a company like Jaeger LeCoultre that I mentioned earlier, you know, I met with the head of the UNESCO Marine Heritage Program last year in New York, and her name is Fanny DuVert. And I was really surprised to learn that J.J. LeCoultre actually is the primary finance source behind all of their work, which is something that, you know, JLC doesn't really do a lot of marketing around that. I had no idea. Yeah. And they're like, they're like the biggest budget, you know, financial source that UNESCO's Marine Heritage Program has. I mean, they basically pay for Fanny Duvert's salary, probably, and the travel costs and all this other stuff. And to me, that immediately made it more legit. I mean, JLC could easily make a dive watch or some sort of a watch and slap, you know, UNESCO on the, on the dial or on the case back and make it a special edition, but they don't do that. They just, they're taking a chunk of their earnings of their money and giving it to UNESCO, which I think is great. And I had the chance to visit one of UNESCO's marine heritage sites just as a separate trip as a vacation down in the Pacific coast of Mexico. And, you know, to actually kind of witness firsthand what's going on on the ground and then tie it back to to what I had heard about what Jaeger-LeCoultre is doing, really, it was very powerful to me. It really resonated as opposed to a lot of other sort of rubber stamp sort of we're, you know, we're green, we're carbon neutral, or that sort of those sort of statements.
James Stacy I know you had some experience with Oris and Carlos Costa.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and I had a chance to take a free diving course with him down in Bonaire last summer. And he was just a great guy. But you know, what was really neat was going back to this notion of somebody actually wearing a watch for the purpose. You know, he had, you know, they've made several Carlos Costa special editions and he wore one of them while we were, while we were free diving. It was the chronograph special edition. And, you know, while he was training me, we did some static breath hold training in the pool and he was timing how long I could hold my breath underwater. And he was actually using his AORUS chronograph, which I don't think was just for my benefit. I think he actually wears this and uses it regularly. So to kind of be able to geek out over watches and and talk to Carlos about, you know, free diving and watches and his interest in both, um, you know, was, was just a really kind of a cool thing.
James Stacy Well, yeah. And, and, and I think Oris is kind of an interesting example for what we're talking about. Cause they have connections with everyone from, uh, F1 teams to perform, you know, performance athletes. And then finally, of course, even as recently as this past Baselworld, we saw another one of their, uh, watches designed to help support a charity. So a certain amount of the proceeds from their great, their Aquis Great Barrier Reef II, which is the second in now this charity series, is going to support the Australian Marine Conservation Society and their efforts to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Assuming that this falls within what you and I believe is the realm of the grey nato, you know, we love diving, we love nature, we love watches. I actually wanted to go a little bit deeper on what that relationship between ORUS and the AMCS is like, and we actually connected with the AMCS for an interview. So I spoke with their director and a conservationist that is working with them. It's an interesting way to look at it from the charity side. We always see it from the watches side and from their marketing, but we wanted to go right to the source. So let's jump right to the interview. We really hope you like it. Okay, so I've got Darren Kindlesides and Imogen Zaitoven from the AMCS on the line. They're all the way in Australia. It's tomorrow in Australia, which is exciting. Darren, let's start with you. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your role with the AMCS?
Darren Kindlesides Yes, thank you. Lovely to speak with you today. I'm the director of the Australian Marine Conservation Society. I've been here for seven years, probably seven of the best years of my life. wonderful heading up AMCS, which is Australia's leading marine conservation charity, one of the oldest conservation charities here in Australia, and have really been at the forefront of protecting this wonderful marine environment we have here in Australia. So that's me in a snapshot.
James Stacy Excellent. And from a broader scope, the AMCS operates as a charity and it's concerned with exclusively marine habitats surrounding Australia. Obviously, that's a huge area to consider, so it's more than just the Great Barrier Reef, correct?
Darren Kindlesides Well, that's right. I mean, our focus is Australia's oceans and the ocean territory here is the third largest on the planet, but also it's been officially ranked as the richest in terms of marine life by a group of international scientists called the Global Census of Marine Life. So it's one of the largest ocean territories, and it's the richest on the planet. And it stretches from the warm waters, the tropical waters of places like the Great Barrier Reef, all the way down through the temperate waters to the cold sub-Antarctic, and we have some amazing island territories down there. So look, you know, Australia really is an incredible place, incredibly important when it comes to the protection of ocean wildlife because we have so much of it and such a range of it. Our work in simple terms is to protect Australia's marine environment and that includes fighting to protect very special areas like the Great Barrier Reef or places like Ningaloo Reef on the West Coast, another fantastic place to dive. We do a lot of work protecting threatened species, turtles, dugongs, dolphins, but we try and focus on doing the few key things that have the greatest impact.
James Stacy And what are your current programs in place speaking directly to, say, the Great Barrier Reef?
Darren Kindlesides So, yes, the Great Barrier Reef and the protection of the reef has really been in our DNA since we formed 50 years ago. The Australian Marine Conservation Society led the very first campaigns to protect the Great Barrier Reef, starting way back in 1965. And so really ever since, it's been core to our work. And Australia now has the single largest network of marine parks of any country on the planet. And again, that's down to the work of AMCS and organizations like ourselves.
James Stacy That's very cool. And then obviously the kind of shortest line between the Graynado, the podcast, and the AMCS is through ORUS. So would you be able to speak to that partnership and how that's worked as far as helping the AMCS with its goals to protect the reefs?
Darren Kindlesides AMCSE is delighted to be partnering with Oris Watches again to help protect the Great Barrier Reef. This is the Oris Great Barrier Reef Limited Edition 2 watch. The first watch came out in 2010 and back then helped raise both funds and raise awareness for and of the need to protect the Great Barrier Reef. That really came at a critical time when The future outlook for the reef was looking quite poor. Threats were beginning to mount, including the expansion of industrial ports, shipping, large-scale dredging. And those funds really were very timely in helping us supercharge our work to protect the Great Barrier Reef. Work that over the subsequent five years has helped achieve some amazing things. in terms of protecting the reef from mass-scale dredging and, well, mass-scale dumping, at least, of dredge spoil, helping protect the reef's sharks from fishing, and help protect some of the most precious parts of the reef's coastline from port expansion. But look, really, the partnership with Horace Watches, it brings much-needed funds for our work to protect the reef, but also helps bring attention to the need to conserve the reef If you were in Australia today, walking through an airport, you'd see large billboards promoting the watch, but also promoting that partnership with ANCS and the need to protect the reef. So it's something that works in both ways. Yes, we need resources to make sure we have the funds to be that champion for the Great Barrier Reef that we have been for the last 50 years. But we do need to have the public seeing the threats to the reef. and wanting to do things to help protect that reef.
James Stacy Okay, that's excellent. It's encouraging to hear that there's an actual, that it's not just something that a watch brand decided to stamp into their kind of portfolio of marketing and then move on. Imogen, I have a few questions for you as well. You're a longstanding player in the marine conservation space and a recipient of the Order of Australia. Would you be able to give us a quick breakdown of your background and your current role with the AMCS?
Imogen Zaitoven Sure. Well, I first started my relationship with the Great Barrier Reef way back in 1983, a long time ago. And I went out off the North Queensland coastline, right out to the Outer Barrier Reef, did my first dive out there. And it was, you know, something I'll never forget. It was a whole new world that opened in front of my eyes. Just the extraordinary beauty of the corals and The enormous quantity of fish, it was just extraordinary. Soon after that, I decided I really wanted to dedicate my life to conservation. As soon as I could, I became more and more focused on marine conservation because that's my passion. And for many years, I've been working either on the reef, Great Barrier Reef, or more generally on marine conservation, sometimes globally. or on particular species like sharks, for example, which are severely depleted. But I was absolutely delighted late last year, in September last year, to be able to join the Australian Marine Conservation Society. I'd actually worked alongside AMCS for many years. I've worked alongside Darren for many years. And so I was really delighted to join the organisation. and to take up a position running AMCS's Reef Campaign. I have to say, on the other side of the coin, I found many of the issues were still very much alive. Many of the threats were still there. So, in some ways, it was same old threats. In other ways, it was just, you know, important to recognise that huge gains had been made in the last two to three years by my predecessor. culminating in some new legislation that restricted industrial port developments all along the Great Barrier Reef coastline, which was a fantastic result for AMCS and for the reef in general. So I'm now doing the next phase of the campaign, looking ahead at addressing other threats.
James Stacy Okay, and I know I read an article last week that would suggest widespread bleaching of the coral on the Great Barrier Reef. You were talking about your first experience, you know, a little over 30 years ago. What's it like diving the reef today? What's changed? What are the successes of the conservation programs?
Imogen Zaitoven The bleaching event has just happened quite recently, and I'm actually going out to the reef tomorrow, so I'll actually be able to give you a better answer in 24 hours. But I've certainly seen a lot of videos and footage and photos of the far northern section of the reef. It's a very shocking image to see what's happening up there. It's not uniform across the entire Great Barrier Reef because it actually is a vast area. But in the northern third of the reef, it's very, very concerning.
James Stacy What would you really like a, say, ecotourist, a diver, a traveler to know about that fragile ecosystem from like a personal level? If somebody was going to go and visit Are there things they should avoid as far as behaviors near the reef, working with certain partners to make sure that everything's above board in terms of how you're diving, things like that?
Darren Kindlesides Yeah, reef tourism is incredibly valuable here to the economy in Queensland. It's worth $6 billion a year and employs almost 70,000 people. Largely, over the years, the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, the government's management body for the park, has brought in a really good system of managing the on-water tourism. And so, of course, we would encourage people to go out with listed reef tourism operators and, of course, when in the water, just be very wary of the environment that you're swimming, snorkeling or diving in. Reefs are very, corals are very fragile and susceptible to a fin kick here and there. And so, look, you know, of course we encourage people to get out in the water of a reef and enjoy it because being such an important economic asset provides even more reason for our governments to protect it beyond just its importance to biodiversity. But of course, we need to be mindful and careful of the environment we're in.
Imogen Zaitoven Yeah, I was just going to add some practical things when somebody's out there. It's really important not to stand on coral. It's bad for the coral and you'll probably get cut. And of course, it's important not to put too much sunscreen on because sometimes, you know, when there are over 100 people jumping into the water having a delightful time and they're all lathered up with sunscreen, it can actually have an impact on the health of the reef because the corals are very, very sensitive little animals. So they're just two really important tips. And of course, if you're looking for a good operator to go out with, make sure that you go out with one that's eco-certified. That means that you'll get really good education, interpretation of the reef, and you'll get the most out of your trip.
James Stacy Those are great tips. And I guess to wrap up, we'll try for A little bit of consumer advice. Both of you have a great deal of experience with the reef. If, let's say a listener was planning to come and do some diving in Australia, do you have a couple of favourite spots you could recommend? Something they could Google Map or read up more about for maybe some reviews?
Imogen Zaitoven Sure. A couple of my favourite places, one is called the Cod Hole and you go there from Port Douglas, which is about an hour's drive north of Cairns. The Cod Hole is famous because it's where you're guaranteed to see potato cod, which are very big fish. They are named potato cod because they look like potatoes, and they're very charismatic. They're used to seeing people, and so they don't get frightened by you, and it's just a joyful experience seeing them there. Sounds great. The second one is a place called Steve's Bomby. Beautiful reef. Just got gorgeous corals on it, very beautiful coral cover, and it's a well-known favorite dive spot, again, up in the general vicinity, north of Cairns. So, if you can do both of those dives in your trip, that would be brilliant.
James Stacy Well, those sound both like amazing dives. I've certainly seen videos on YouTube of the potato cods. They're just huge, and they look like a blast to dive with. Darren, Imogen, thank you so much for making time to speak with me and answer a few of the questions. We're thrilled to hear that AORUS is actually having an effect in the world where these watches kind of make sense, where you're diving and appreciating that environment and that ecosystem. Beyond having, say, a listener buy one of these watches, should that be something they're interested in, do you have anything you would ask people at large as far as ways that they could be involved with the AMCS or help out
Darren Kindlesides But look, I would encourage people hearing this or reading about it to visit the Australian Marine Conservation Society's website. That's marineconservation.org.au and look at the work we're doing. Perhaps sign a petition to our politicians here in Australia, encouraging them to protect the reef. But also, we're limited by what we can do by resources. So I would just encourage people to consider donating to us directly. So on their behalf, we can keep doing the work that's needed to protect this global icon that is the Great Barrier Reef.
James Stacy Excellent. Thank you so much for that. If anyone has anything else they want to check out, be sure to go to marineconservation.org.au and you can swing by our show notes for a link to that. Again, thank you so much for the time and for speaking with me.
Imogen Zaitoven Thank you. Thank you.
James Stacy And we're back. I hope you enjoyed the interview with Darren and Imogen. Thanks very much for making the time, both of you, for that interview. We're going to try and do more interviews, as many as we can really, and we're going to try and make them as varied as possible. So if we can find a charity to talk to about watches, we'll be sure to do that. So we're going to move into new business here. So Jason, let's take it away. What's new on your plate these days? Well, I've been
Jason Heaton reviewing the new Breitling Exospace B55 Connected, which is a bit of a mouthful, and it's kind of a departure for me as a watch to review. It's actually a watch that they showed us a sort of a prototype last year, but it was really kind of fully introduced more recently. It's Breitling's, it's sort of an evolution of Breitling's classic sort of analog digital pilot's watch. It's got a black titanium case, it's really well made, nice blue rubber strap, And it's got all the usual Breitling functions with the analog hands and then the digital display that has a bunch of alarms and timers and things. But what separates this watch from kind of a typical Breitling Pilot's Watch is that the functions of the watch can either be controlled by the crown of the watch, like the typical ones, but it also has a specially developed app on the phone that interacts with the watch. And trust me, I am not, you know, I'm a mechanical watch guy to the core. And so I was very skeptical about this, but I've been wearing it for a couple of weeks and I'm really quite impressed. It's really, you're in the dark side. Yeah. I don't know. I, you might have to drag me back, but it's, it's really, it's really, it's really been kind of a fun watch to get, get to know. And I think what's really impressive about it to me is this app. I mean, it, that, that is really what separates it from a standard, you know, Breitling analog digital watch, but, um, Anyway, I'll have that review up on Hodinkee in a few weeks.
James Stacy And it's not just the app, like you also have, it also does like your notifications and things like that based on pushing them from your phone.
Jason Heaton Yes. It certainly is. What it doesn't have is it's not an activity tracker or sleep tracker or anything like that. It is, it purely, it's the app controlling special functions on the phone and then also receiving notifications. So if you have a meeting reminder or an email comes in or a text message or a phone call, It'll vibrate or beep and you can set all this up through the app to react how you want it to.
James Stacy I mean, if you're already in the market for something like one of their analog digital watches. Yeah. This seems like a no brainer. I mean, it's an expensive no brainer. Yeah, it is very expensive. In the world of smart watches. It is, yes. But Breitling, you know, you may, people may have opinions one way or another about the look and the size. of a lot of their watches, but they make a really nicely made watch. Yes. They are very high quality. Yeah, exactly. And, and I know, uh, I know someone who has a B55 and had it for quite a while, uh, basically since they were available in the States and said that it works really well every time. It doesn't have the same teething issues that some of the other smart watches, including, you know, watches like the Apple watch have had. Yeah. So not only does the, You can control all the silly, difficult, complicated pilot watch features in the app, but you can also do all your notifications and it just works. And you're at any point you look down and you're just wearing a Breitling, which is like a cool, nerdy space watch. It's neat.
Jason Heaton Exactly. And that's exactly what I like about it. It's not trying to be an activity tracker or anything too smart. It's taking existing Breitling, what they're already good at and adding this additional functionality to it. And, you know, I had also worn the B-50, the B-50 cockpit last summer and That watch was just, it felt too big. It was kind of awkwardly shaped. This one's a little bit smaller. Yeah. This one, this one, I don't know the diameter off the top of my head, but it's, it's a, it wears really well. I've been wearing it almost every day for the past, uh, probably a week to 10 days and, and I've really grown to like it. So stay tuned for that review. I'll certainly mention it on a future show and we'll put up a link when that goes live. So that's, uh, yeah, that's, what's new with me. What about you, James?
James Stacy A few episodes ago, you'll remember that I had mentioned that I was looking for strap options for that Explorer II. And one of the ones that came back in a couple of emails and more than a handful on Instagram was Everest straps. So Everest makes essentially like custom as close to what you could get as possible to an OEM rubber strap for Rolex. Now, most people who know Rolex will know that they don't make rubber straps or rubber style straps except for one watch. So you can get what's called an Oysterflex on, I think one or two versions of the Yachtmaster, the Everose Yachtmaster. But otherwise you can't buy a sub or you can't buy an Explorer and then buy a Rolex rubber strap. So in comes Everest and they offered to send me one. So full disclosure, I didn't pay for it. Looking at it now, I actually, you know, I've had it for a while and I haven't, I put it on the Explorer and I haven't taken it off because I really really like it. So the strap is, uh, 225 US. And for those of you who have never bought an OEM strap from a luxury manufacturer, that's going to sound fairly expensive. And I totally understand that you look at, um, like I've talked in the past about something like a Hirsch Pure is about 60 US. And then what do you figure an Isofrane is? Isofrane is about a hundred bucks. Okay. So about a hundred bucks. And then from there, there's kind of a no man's land. It's a full on no man's land for Rolex, but there's a no man's land. And then you typically land with the OEM options. So if you've ever priced, here's another easy example is a watch that I have is my Omega 2254 Seamaster. There's an OEM strap for that. You can buy through a supplier online, like a reputable Omega supplier online. And I want to say it's about 600 bucks. They're so expensive. I know exactly what you're talking about. I want to say it's about $600. Maybe in my brain, I'm doing the conversion to CAD. My point is that it's quite expensive and Braymont offers their Temple Island rubber strap, which I have one and I rather like for my solo. And that comes in, if you do the conversion from the British pound to CAD or to USD, I believe somewhere around 225, 230 bucks. So I think if you look and look at comparison, and if you've ever had to price the strap, like the strap on your Breitling. Yeah. That you're boring. One Breitling makes really nice straps. I don't care for the way that they say Breitling.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacy But the actual quality of the strap is awesome. Very good. With the Everest, I'm just overall really impressed. And I think if you're in a position to have a Rolex and you want a rubber strap, I'd be really surprised if you got this and you hated it. The one I have is a bluish color. The rubber is beautifully finished, so there's no kind of errant seams or rough patches anywhere. The edges are really clean, really nice. It's on a simple pin buckle. They make a version that allows you to use the clasp from your bracelet, which I think is a neat idea if you don't intend to swap between your bracelet very often, because otherwise you're swapping in the bracelet and then putting the clasp back on it. It's just a lot of work. So I asked to check out the one with the tang buckle, and it's a simple tang buckle with kind of a recessed tang that allows it to sit right up and shoulder up on the strap. It's a perfect fit into the case, which is largely their secret sauce, is that they're making a strap that theoretically will fit perfectly with your case. No gaps, no wiggle. This one's kind of a nice, not quite royal, not quite navy blue, somewhere in the middle. It's a great color. It's really, really soft. and it's just starting to get warm in Vancouver, and the watch seems to handle sweat pretty well. It has kind of an internal relief, a little pocket on the inside, so it's not just a bunch of rubber directly against your wrist, which is what the Hirsch Pure is like. It doesn't handle sweat as well as I'd hoped. And I mean, go on Instagram and take a look. The blue with the white dial, I love the way it looks. It's really, really comfortable, super summery.
Jason Heaton Well, I think, you know, I remember when these first came out, The first brand I think that came out was the brand called Rubber Bee. Rubber Bee, yeah. And they were quite expensive and they were all about, you know, we're made in Switzerland and whatever else. And then when Evers came out, they looked appealing. I thought, boy, they look very similar to the Rubber Bees, but they actually came in cheaper than the Rubber Bees. And I tried to get one for, I've got the 14060M, no date Submariner from the mid nineties. And, um, I really wanted to get one of these straps for that watch, and they still don't make one that fits the 14060, and so I'm patiently waiting for them to come out with that one. I can't imagine it's that much different than your Explorer II, but I'll definitely have to check that out.
James Stacy Yeah, the Rubber B is 240, and has kind of a different aesthetic in the way that they kind of have like a lug design, a rubber line. that goes along the, and like aesthetically, I like the Everest a little better if I was just to pick them without knowing the two brands. Sure. I haven't seen the rubber B in person, but, uh, I do have a buddy, Max, uh, Max, if you're listening, you're awesome. Um, and he did a review of the rubber B on YouTube. At a certain point, a lot of people may not like any of these straps because you have to be comfortable removing the bracelet from your watch. And in a previous episode, I mentioned, buying spring bar pliers. So if you're the type of guy that would spend $90 on a spring bar plier for your Rolex, you're probably a pretty good candidate for testing out, uh, you know, kind of a semi more expensive custom-y sort of rubber straps. Sure. Swing by their website. Uh, I really enjoy the watch and the rubber strap is just another way to wear it. And it works really well. It feels very close to the overall design and it's something that's pretty successful. All right, so it's time for a little Q&A. If you have a question for Jason and I, please, please, please write us, thegraynadoatgmail.com. We're taking all sorts of questions. I'm collecting them. I'm replying to almost everything, but if you don't get a reply, it might mean that you're going to get on the show. We really love all these questions and we're getting some really fun ones. Like this one from Matt, who wrote us an email asking, what not currently produced or historic models from any brand would you like to see reintroduced? So obviously Matt's kind of, you know, the vintage re-edition trend is huge. They recently picked a new Octavia for next year, selected by the Watch Nerd community. If we could simply have our whims and snap our fingers, what would we do? Jason, where do you think you would land on that?
Jason Heaton Well, I've got one, and this relates actually to Tag Heuer, a watch that I've always loved that I think would actually be pretty nice in a modern edition. is uh people might be aware of this watch it's the the heuer it was called the bund flyback chronograph and it was a watch that they made and i think zinn still makes a similar watch they made it for the german military back in the in the 1970s and it's it's just it's a big oversized steel chronograph two registers with a rotating black bezel you know it's got the flyback capability it was it was hand wound i believe But it was a big watch. It was like 42 or 43 millimeters, like probably a 20 millimeter lug width. So you could almost just reproduce that watch as is. And I just think it would be a fantastic watch. And I think since TAG is kind of digging into their archives lately, you know, who knows, maybe that's one that they'll pull out in one of these coming years.
James Stacy Such a super cool design, like a really military Octavia.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Now, since I mentioned that, and I did bring up the Sin, If you do want a modern re-edition of that watch, you can get pretty close with the Sin 156B, I think is what it's called. So you can check that one out. But it's not quite the same, but it has that same aesthetic. What about you, James? What would you dig up?
James Stacy I have a real strong love for a chronograph that I don't think gets any general appreciation. I think they're fairly rare. It's the Girard-Perregaux Olympico chrono. So these were mid to late 60s, maybe into the early 70s. You'd have to check with an expert, of which I'm not. But they had a 12 hour bezel. They used the Excelsior Park EP40 movement, which is this awesome column wheel chronograph movement. And they were kind of a race inspired, but, you know, kind of like a mix between like an Octavia and an Omega Mark II. In a, you know, they weren't too big, they weren't too small. Really, really great design. So it'd be awesome to see GP turn around and make a new Olympico. especially if they stuck fairly close to the original formula. Obviously there's going to be differences, but you know, with how they are today, they could put an amazing movement in it and they could make a really stunning watch. They, they, they make so many nice watches and I don't think that they necessarily have the sports watch, uh, market right now. I think that they have a few models that are interesting. I really liked the WWTCs, but I think they could do a lot with those Olympico. I think it's a cool name. I think it has a neat history. And I'll link a photo in the show notes, but a really, really cool watch. And then on top of that, another one that I love that I honestly think they could turn around and just make right now is Seiko used to make world timers. So if you Google or show notes, it's a 6117-6400 or a 6117-6410. And there was like a few model ranges in between those, but these are kind of vintage. world timers with an independent city bezel that's controlled by the crown. And then of course your crown, once it pulls out, it does the time and a 24 hour hand and gives you the ability to track like it's a true world timing function. These watches like on eBay, I obviously can't speak to their legitimacy, but there's a few on eBay at any one time. And they're not a fortune typically under $500, say between four and six. And I think they're really cool. And I think if enough people notice them, they're going to get more expensive, but those are really cool. And then I think lastly, and I know Jason, you're going to feel, you're going to feel the same draw to this one as me is, uh, I'd love to see an old school 50 fathoms. So it doesn't have to be vintage inspired. It's just, if you look at the current 50 fathoms, I believe they're 45 millimeters and they're quite shiny, but a simple, Aesthetically simple 50 fathoms with a brushed case, maybe 40 to 42 millimeters. If you could, the same movement that's in the bathyscaphe three-hander, it's a fantastic movement. And I think that there's some, there's a pocket that's just missing in Blancpain's dive watch because they don't have, essentially they're like sub fighter. They have a bigger 50 fathoms that, you know, the bathyscaphe is awesome, but it's, it's, it's decidedly modern. Yeah. I think that if you blended the two together, basically, you could come up with something just really, really cool.
Jason Heaton Well, the aesthetics of the current Fifty Fathoms, the aesthetics really tie back nicely to the original with the bezel and some of the dial markings and things. It's just too big. I mean, it's a giant watch. I had the tribute to Aqualung for a while for a review a few years ago, and I love the watch, Yeah, if they just size that thing down to 40 millimeters, for one thing, I think they'd hit a market that not many people are in now. I mean, you know, Omega's at, you know, 41, 42, you know, of course the sub has always been around 40, but there aren't many others in that space. And I feel like a good, you know, retro style, 40 millimeter Blancpain would be, would be super cool. You know, your, your mention of the Olympico and the 12 hour bezel made me think of another one that I'd love to see, reissued. It's the Breitling. They made a watch called the Co-Pilot. I think it was called the CP-765 was the reference, and it was the watch that was recently discovered to be worn by Jean-Claude Kili, who was an Olympic skier back in the 60s, who then became a very high-level executive at Rolex, ironically. But it's a beautiful watch. It's the reverse panda with the white subdials, black dial, a really slim 12-hour rotating bezel, classic sort of 60s chronograph style. You know, given, given this sort of retro trend and Breitling has, has been coming out with, with a few kind of cool ones. They have, of course, have always had the Navitimer, but then the, the Transocean, I could see this one slotting in nicely with their, their collection.
James Stacy Another 12 hour bezel. That's not going to hurt anyone. Yeah, right. And hey, if you're, oddly enough, Jason and I landed in roughly a similar place with a couple older chronographs that haven't been given the reissue treatment just yet. And if you're a fan, if you're looking, if, if you're clicking a show link or you Googled along at this co-pilot, beautiful watch or the Olympico, or, or if you're, let's say you're a fan of the, uh, Inacar, uh, Sherpa graphs and things like that. Uh, one final note on this before we move on, just follow, uh, watch Fred on Instagram. It's almost exclusively pictures of vintage, cool vintage chronographs. Not, not excluding things like the bun. that Jason spoke about, but also things like very cool, lots of cool Breitlings, uh, lots of cool Ina cars. He has a fantastic collection and he very much an eye for photography. So if you want to scratch that itch without maybe actually spending the money on one of these, you know, difficult to find old chronographs follow watch Fred for kind of a daily dose of a really cool chronographs and such.
Jason Heaton Yeah. He's a good follow.
James Stacy Yeah, no doubt. Well, Matt, thanks again for the question. I think that was an absolute winner, and I hope that you enjoyed your answers. Any of you listening to this right now, pick up your phone, find the post for episode seven, and let us know, what would you like to see remade? I think we could actually get a kind of cool discussion going on the Instagram thread, and we'd love to know what you would like to see new. Like I said, feel free to send your question through to thegraynado at gmail.com, and we'll get to it as soon as possible.
Jason Heaton Okay, and we're back with our final notes section. This is where we like to share with you some recent discoveries, whether they're books or movies or short videos, freebies, anything like that. James, what have you got for us this week?
James Stacy All right, I got a whole collection of free stuff and then possibly something expensive, if you so feel it. So the first step is actually two posts by a great blogger, watchesbysjax.com. He did a post about the Rolex Deepsea D Blue. So this is a watch that like in the pantheon of all the Rolex sport watches is one of my like one of my least favorite. It's not that I actively dislike it. I just not especially interested in it until I took a moment to read this piece that he wrote because it explains the engineering behind their ring lock system. So I really don't want to spoil it. You should seriously consider going to the show notes clicking through the link and checking out his post about this watch and the really cool way that they manage the huge pressures in an attempt to get a watch that is 3,900 meters water resistant. Brand new respect for the watch. It's better explained in my opinion here than it is on the Rolex website. And it's really worth checking out if you're a watch nerd, especially if you're into dive watches, but even just in general mechanical engineering, And, you know, interesting design. I think this is worth looking at and there's graphics that explain various elements of it. So swing by and check that out. And then within that document, um, he posted a link to an older document from, uh, mid last year about Seiko's Marine Master Tuna Diver surviving a similar style submarine plunge into the Pacific. So. In this one, Seiko is so beautifully Seiko in the way that they do things. So apparently they simply went to their manufacturing line, grabbed a few marine masters, I believe two automatics and two quarts, zip tied them to the outside of a submarine, pointed a camera at them and just went down. And you can see that the time syncs up with the timestamp in the video. And they literally just went until the second hand's all stopped. So again, this is one where I'm just, I'm flat out, not going to give it away. I want to tell you, but I won't, uh, how deep, how much further these watches went than they're rated for. But the one teaser I will give is they provide a photo at a certain depth where the case back of these Marine Masters, these are like big tuna can Marine Masters. The case back is visibly deformed. It's so cool for someone who likes the sorts of things that I think a lot of us you know, that would make this podcast or listen to this podcast like I highly recommend you check those out. Both of those are on my Twitter because I love them and they're also on the show notes. So check out both of those. I think they were both excellent posts and just the exact type of posts that I like to read. Next up is a watch review from the guys at Worn and Wound. So this is of the Halios Delphin PVD. So the guys at Worn and Wound are great and they did a fantastic review of a watch that I've seen in person and I dove with in Mexico, but I haven't had a chance to review yet. Swing by their site or the show notes, whatever, and check out their review of the Delphin. So Halios is a small watch brand in Vancouver. I'm sure a lot of you know Halios. And the Delphin is a, you know, 43 and a half millimeter dive watch that they make, you know, an external bezel, traditional style dive watch. But true to Hallios' form, the watch itself is their design. They're not specifically making an homage or a reference to anything else. And I actually think the watch is gorgeous. It's a great case. I took a steel version, not the, in my opinion, cooler PVD version. diving in Mexico, and it's a killer dive watch. Great bezel, super legible, lots of fun that way. And the guys at Warner One do a really nice job giving you a breakdown of the PVD version, which is identical except for being black. And the black, in my opinion, really suits it. Yeah, I think so too. Yeah, I think it's a really solid look. And the main reason I bring this up is I've reviewed, I think, almost every watch that Hallios has ever made, and I get a lot of flack because Halios has sold out almost every watch they've ever made typically before I can post a review or someone else can post a review so this is one of the few rare times where as we're recording this the Delphin is actually still in stock but if you know Halios and you've been wanting to pick up one of their watches and you simply didn't realize the Delphin was in here's your little PSA that like they have them in stock And this is a watch that, uh, it's 9015 based. It's, uh, well under $800 with shipping. And I think it's a killer watch for the money, great value. Uh, and by all means, check out the review and then make the decision for yourself. I don't believe they're going to make more dolphins in the future. I could have that wrong, but. Helios tends to eventually retire designs and move on entirely to something else. And finally, this is a first for us. I'm actually recommending a piece of music. So this may totally backfire, but a band that I really love and generally feel is misunderstood in the world, The Vines, released a new single this week. So I don't know, you get Spotify or wherever, go on YouTube. It's called In Miracle Land. Check it out. I'm really happy that The Vines are still making music. You know, they were quite famous for some time for songs like Get Free, and Ride With Me, and I don't think those songs really illustrated the true sound of The Vines, which was more psychedelic, has elements of The Beatles and Nirvana, and obviously some of those elements play out in Ride and Get Free. Check it out. It's great. I'm really enjoying it, and I can't wait for a whole new album by The Vines. That wraps up my final notes. I think there's plenty there to check out. Jason, what do you got?
Jason Heaton Well, I was waiting for you to hum a few bars of that song.
James Stacy I don't know if I talked about it enough to be able to play it.
Jason Heaton I don't know what the rules are. Well, on my end, I have some reading material for you. Actually, the book that I'm going to recommend is not really reading material. It's more just a visual treat. There's a great photographer based out of Los Angeles. His name is Michael Muller, and he kind of cut his teeth doing snowboarding photography. while he was living in Colorado. And then when he moved to Los Angeles back in the mid-90s, he fell in with kind of this crowd of up-and-coming movie stars or actors at the time, including Leonardo DiCaprio and a few others. And his photos of them garnered a lot of, they were just different enough that they garnered a lot of attention. And pretty soon he got gigs making movie posters and shooting a lot of commercial stuff for advertising. But his true love was the sea, and he's a real avid diver. And over the past, I don't know, about 10 years, he's taken a great interest in photographing sharks of all different types, including great white sharks and hammerheads and things. And just to throw a watch angle, he's a big IWC fan. He actually shot all their catalog photography. back in 2008, 2009 for the AquaTimer release at the time. And they actually, it was one of his first expeditions. He went to the Galapagos and did a lot of shooting for the AquaTimer. And I still think that's, that was such a great, great set of photography for that, for that watch. But he just came out with a new book. It was published by Toshin, which is a European publishing house. They always do big, beautiful coffee table sized, you know, photography books. The book is simply called Sharks. And it's, it's just stunning for anyone that likes photography or, um, nature, um, sharks, diving, whatever. Um, just a great book. You open it up. There's, there's no text other than in the last maybe quarter of the book where there's some essays and some notes about the photographs. Um, it's just one page after another of just beautiful shark photography.
James Stacy I saw a few of them on Instagram and I started following him and a lot of his Instagram is like celebrity photos and yeah, like movie posters and things like that. But a couple of the shots of the sharks are like. legitimately breathtaking. Just wow. Yeah.
Jason Heaton So, yeah. His whole spiel is, is he, um, he really wanted to replicate studio lighting in an underwater environment. So he actually had high powered, you know, 1200 watt studio lights engineered that could be taken underwater with electrical cables strung over the side of a boat. And he'd have like car batteries on the dive boat up above providing the power. Yeah. I mean, really hardcore. And he, and he does it in really challenging environments. So. Uh, that's a really cool one. And then the other, uh, recommendation I have is it was a New York times article that ran a couple of weeks ago that is sort of near and dear to my heart. It was called an insurance salesman and a doctor walk into a bar and end up at the North pole. And it's, it's about actually the first legitimate or, or undisputed achievement, uh, of the North pole, um, in history, actually. And it was in 1969 and it was actually undertaken as an expedition almost unwittingly by an insurance salesman based right up the road from where I am here in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, who got together with a buddy of his one evening up in Duluth and decided, why don't we take our snowmobiles and ride to the North Pole? And they got a little bit of underwriting, including from Omega, who provided Speedmaster watches for their navigation. And they were very ill-prepared, other than their watches, of course. And they just set off for the North Pole and they had a couple of false starts, a bunch of blunders. But this article is just a great read. It's laugh out loud, funny. But in the end, I found it very inspiring because it was just some normal guys that set off and did something really remarkable. And I thought that was really cool.
James Stacy Yeah, you linked me the post and I read it. You were excited about it. And I read it and it's a very human story. Yes. These were obviously like adventurous guys, but they weren't like polar explorers. No. Yeah. And you know, they had they had some backing from was it Bombardier? Yes. To get some snowmobiles. And they just kind of went for it. Yeah. And really, it shouldn't have worked. right right one of them should have killed one of them and and and and there should have been way more infighting and and you know that there's no way an early snowmobile really should have been capable of what they did but they had a guy you know keeping them running yeah it's a really wild story anyone anyone who's listening should click that link it's really fun yeah great way to spend a coffee break or or whenever you have time to read something really uh really cool uh story i definitely endorse that one yeah and just a final note on that one too it's such a testament to really great long form journalistic writing which i'm a big fan of too so definitely worth the read no doubt love some uh love some long form the more the better really yeah speaking of long form as always thank you so much for listening hit the show notes for more details you can follow us on instagram jason is at jason heaton i'm at j e stacy and you can follow the show at the gray nato If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com or hashtag TheGreyNado on Instagram. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts, or you can grab the feed directly from TheGreyNado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzer via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And until next time, we leave you with this quote from Helen Keller. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.