The Grey NATO - Ep 70 - Gift Guide 2018

Published on Thu, 13 Dec 2018 06:00:05 -0500

Synopsis

The episode discusses a gift guide for the holidays, including recommendations for affordable items like a watch demagnetizer, Field Notes subscription, and the newly released book "The Watch Thoroughly Revised" by Gene Stone and Stephen Pulverit. They suggest items under $100 like the Bose QuietComfort 35 headphones, an Away suitcase, and a packable Patagonia puffy jacket.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, brought to you by Hodinkee. A loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 70 and we thank you so much for listening. We are recording from a small apartment here in the West Village in New York City. James and I are both in town here for the Hodinkee 10th anniversary weekend.
Jason Yeah, it's been a thing. It has been. There's been multiple panels every day and you know, these events at night, we've met a ton of really great people, lots of fans of the show, which is so nice for people to come out and kind of support Hodinkee at large. And certainly Jason and I, at some scope with this sort of thing, we had an amazing meetup at the Half Pint. So to everyone who came to that, I don't know what to say other than like, thank you. It was such a great time.
James Stacey I didn't do a headcount, but we had a really good turnout. We packed that little back room there. Yeah. It was, It was really special to meet that many TGN listeners in one time. I mean, I don't think we've really, you know, had sort of anecdotal feedback about the show and then you bump into people here and there, but to have that kind of gathering in one place was pretty incredible.
Jason Yeah, I would agree. I had a blast. I thought the bar was perfect. It was, you know, really close to where we were already here for, you know, the HoneyKey 10 stuff. And yeah, it was just really nice to meet people and get a chance to do that. And I think it's kind of case study in the fact that we could do something like that in other cities too. We gave some heads up for this. It was mentioned on the last show and obviously for anyone who wasn't able to make it, we'll try and make one the next time we're in the same place at the same time. But yeah, it's kind of fun to get to do a face-to-face episode. It's been almost a year. When would it have been? The ORS thing last year. Last January. No, last December. Like almost a year. Oh, December. Yeah, right. Almost a year dead on. Like today. Yeah, you're right. Today or yesterday. So yeah, this is fun, and episode 70.
James Stacey Yeah, and if our voices sound a little more baritone, it's, you know, we've been shouting over large rooms of people.
Jason My throat is shot, I just drank, I just ate some honey. I don't know, I don't know if that works or not, but that's where we're at.
James Stacey Yeah, it's been great. You know, H10, we're, let's see, we're two days into the three-day event here, and there've been some really cool panels. What surprised me is there've been some panel discussions that I watched that I didn't think would interest me, but they, you know, I'm not kind of into the collecting or auction scene, but like Oral Box was really fascinating. I could listen to the guy, read the phone book and be interested.
Jason And we'll put a link in the show notes, which of course are both in the app on your phone or at Hodinkee. There'll be a post for episode 70 with the show notes, but we'll put a link to those live streams as soon as they're available because you can watch them anywhere. We recorded all of them. And, uh, his is definitely worth watching. The guy's fascinating. He speaks really well. He's funny. Yeah. I thought he did... I mean, the panels have been incredible, and I'm just happy that we're making them available online. We'll be able to watch them later. But I thought it was really... I thought it was really interesting, the kind of insight that he had, and also just the level to which he clearly loves watches and the whole game. He's into the whole mix of it, for sure.
James Stacey Yeah, and he's such an affable European gentleman. He has good stories, and he tells them well. And then, of course, you and I were part of the panel on the first day, very early on in H10. And that was really fun to sit in with Rolf Studer from AORUS and Reza Rashidian, who's a big shot collector.
Jason Just the sweetest guy. Yeah, we had a really good time. It was a killer. You know, I got to run the panel, so I only had to kind of keep everybody talking. Yeah. But between yourself and Rolf and Reza, I thought it was great. you know, it was about dive watches. We had different perspectives. Uh, yeah, again, it'll be streamable if, uh, you know, if we can pull the audio maybe and put it as another episode of TGN as like a surprise episode or something, maybe we'll do that too. Um, but yeah, I thought those, those went really well. I was also pretty happy to have my panel done day one on day one. So now we going to record this and then head back to the space. Uh, and then this afternoon you and I will, you know, hide in the background of the, uh, editor's panel. Yeah. So yeah, it should be good. And that's the one that closes the event. And you head back literally this afternoon.
James Stacey Yeah, I've got a car coming right to the event, so I'll be flying home this evening. You know, it was so fun to kind of just wander the hall there, the venue. It's such a great space. A great space. You know, the old Lamborghini there and just some great watches around. And the funny thing is, I mean, you know, you think at an event like this, you're always looking at people's wrists. But I just found I was just talking to people. Just chatting about people, or with people rather, and the questions that come up and just kind of the usual thing, very indicative of the time in which we live, where everybody sort of, they introduce themselves and you get this blank look and then they're like, oh, I'm so-and-so from Instagram. And it's like, oh, OK. Jonathan Hughes, who goes by JJHughes69, I think, or 1969 on Instagram. A big British collector of CWCs and Omegas. I met with him and, of course, Jason Lim from Halios, and Jason Gallop from Rolldorf. Enrique from Mouchant was there.
Jason Yeah, we got a bunch of buddies. She rocked up. It's great.
James Stacey Yeah, yeah. And thanks to Enrique for bringing over the cronuts and the pizza.
Jason The cronuts and pizza. I mean, Enrique's keeping you fed, for sure. Yeah, yeah. As a maniac.
James Stacey Yeah, it was good. And speaking of Halios, I guess I'm looking across here at you, and you've got the new C4 Rolldorf edition. So we're going to kind of kick off the show here as we have been doing lately with kind of what we're wearing these days and that's probably the one you're going to talk about, right?
Jason Yeah, for sure. I mean, I came out here with the Explorer. Yeah. And then, uh, you know, when the, when the guys from Rolldorf and Jason rocked up, they had one of these for me and it's a, uh, so this is the, yeah, it's the, uh, C4, the Hallios Rolldorf edition. So it's a special kind of custom, super limited version of the C4. Mine is a black DLC case. with the kind of metallic green upper dial, and then the center dial is cream. And in most light, it just kind of looks like black on sort of a cream color, like a tuxedo dial. But as soon as you turn it, and I'm wearing it on like a green leather strap today, which I had it on a NATO yesterday, because we were doing the NATO thing. I've got it on this green leather strap from the Hodinkee shop. And I think it's killer. I think it's really pretty. It's time only. It's the same size. you know, fixed bezels and forth. So you're used to it. And I think for me, it almost has like a vaguely dressy sort of everyday charm to it that I'm really liking.
James Stacey It actually does not look like my Seaforth at all. I mean, it's a totally different watch. Yeah. Same case, of course, but really minimal text doesn't say Hallyos on it. That black case with that that green outer ring on the dial, just it sort of shrinks the watch, but it also just it just gives it a very almost vintage-y sort of dressy look, like you said, and yeah, I'm seeing it for the first time on that strap, and it looks really cool.
Jason It's a beautiful piece of design, and I'm really obsessed with the color. You know, we had that meet-up yesterday, and I kept taking the flashlight out, I'm sharing a flashlight, and, like, showing people the color, because it's darker than a British Racing Green. It's somewhere closer to, like, Porsche's Irish Green, or maybe even Oak Green, and it's super metallic, Yeah, it's really beautifully done and then all of the everything that you see here aside from like the center Cream circle is loom. Yeah, it also glows really well. Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah, really really that green inspired Did I hear it correctly that it was inspired by Jason Gallop's Land Rover?
Jason It may have been I'm not sure It's definitely like Gallop had a like a hand obviously in the design. Yeah, and with this custom dial it doesn't feel like a like a c4 no I absolutely love it. I'll link to some photos, some Instagram or something like that of it. And yeah, yeah, no, that's, that's awesome. And how about you? What's on wrist?
James Stacey Well, I wore, I only brought one watch this trip and I, you know, it's always this big dilemma about do you bring more than one or do you, you know, and which one to bring to an event like this. And I wore, I wore this, this old Teagraph, the Shark Hunter that I've been wearing probably most, most of all, all year since I got it back in the summer. And I put it on the big boon strap. It's fun to see people's reactions at an event like this. Everybody eventually says, what are you wearing? And I pull it out, and there's people that look at it and say, oh, that's so cool. Can I see it? Can you take it off? Can you show it to me? And then other people are like, huh, yeah, OK. I mean, Doxa has that sort of polarizing thing, and some people just don't quite know what it is.
Jason I think on the, I think on the, the bun, I don't like buns at all as a personal choice, but on your wrist, that looks killer. And it's, it's one of those things where I think it's the, you know, they say it with, they say it was some like, uh, they say it was some frequency on spikes car radio that like you understand your watch when you see it on somebody else's wrist. I think that watch, like, I don't know if I would wear it like that. I don't think it would make sense on my wrist, but I think it looks really good on your wrist. And it's very much like it has that, That's leaning so hard into the 70s to have it on the Bund. And the Bund, the quality of the Bund's really impressive.
James Stacey Yeah, so that's from my friend Nick up in St. Paul, who does a lot of the straps for Hodinkee, of course, and a lot of other places. And yeah, so he was kind enough to sell me one of these. And yeah, it's a lot of fun. So aside from the Docks, I've been wearing a different watch quite a bit back at home. I got it last week to kind of just check out It's from a Swedish brand called Tuseno, if I'm pronouncing that correctly.
Jason I wasn't sure how to pronounce it. When I saw the watch, it looks great, though.
James Stacey I saw it on your Instagram. Tuseno Blackwater, it's called. And it's a limited edition piece, 300 pieces, individually numbered. And he's, Johan, the guy who runs the company, he's contributing a good portion of the proceeds to the Swedish Sea Rescue Society, which is kind of like a civilian sort of coast guard. over in Sweden. He's based in Göteborg or Gothenburg, where, you know, Volvo is based and Poseidon and things like that. But it's a really cool watch. It has a bit of Black Bay or sort of vintage Submariner look to it, but with a kind of real glossy dial, glossy bezel with the red zero mark and sort of the Submariner vibe. But then it has an interesting handset. So the hour hand has a round cutout section that when it sweeps around, it sort of overlays the little cross, the Sea Rescue cross on the dial, which is kind of a neat little trick. I think the sort of centerpiece of this watch is the bracelet. You know, if you're a fan of the old GST IWCs with that integrated bracelet, whether it's an Ingenieur or some of the old Aquatimers from the 90s, this totally has that vibe going on. So it's sort of like Tudor, Rolex kind of dial and case vibe, that integrates well into this tapering, integrated steel bracelet that must have been quite an accomplishment for a very small brand to pull off. I would assume, yeah. You know, certainly the downfall of this is that you, I don't know that there are any aftermarket straps that you could wear with this watch, but if you're kind of a bracelet person and you like that very sleek sort of engineered look, it's a cool watch and it's got a Sellita automatic in it, made in Switzerland, you know, obviously designed in Sweden by Deseno, domed crystal, Super Luminova. It's it's a really it's a really fun cool watch and what what's sort of the price point for that?
Jason Is it out yet?
James Stacey It's I think it's on pre-order now, and they're taking I think I think said in the equivalent. It's in a Swedish kronor, but The equivalent US dollars comes to about I think you pay 500 down and then the other 500 when you get it's roughly something like a little less than a thousand I think so good good price for for the watch and
Jason It's funny. You know, I'm not a bracelet guy. Typically, I found some luck with a few random bracelets where they're charming enough that I like the way they look more than they wear. But integrated bracelets are like an absolute sweet spot. That's where you don't make a compromise to have a case that can also go with a strap. So like something like a Royal Oak, I put on that solid gold. There's a solid gold Royal Oak. I'm obsessed with these watches. But there was one at the shop during age 10. I put it on and walked around with it the other day. Because I really love that watch. It's just an insane thing to have exist. And then I like the sort of like incongruous element of the fact that that watch was designed to be steel by the person who designed it. And now in gold, it's somehow more fun because it's less purposeful, I don't know. But that sort of a watch like that, whether it's a Royal Oak or even something like a Nautilus, or then you get into things like this that have that fully integrated bracelet. The new Autodromo Group B has an integrated bracelet. So comfortable that you can literally make the shape of the case best fit for the bracelet. So you don't have any weird shoulders or areas where they don't work. And I mean, if you like a bracelet, if you want to have that metal on that much metal on your wrist, I think it integrated like a really solid way to go.
James Stacey And it's a really bold, it's a bold commitment for a brand to do this kind of design, especially a micro brand where you know, you have to get all the stuff custom custom made for you know what he's only making 300 I mean maybe he'll make it an unlimited edition at some point this watch if it didn't have this bracelet it would be far less interesting because the dial is kind of a derivative sort of Submariner style dial I mean the hand side is unique but but it's a dive the addition of that bracelet just really really kicks it up so really cool cool piece so thanks to to say no for sending that over to have me check out and we'll put a link in the show notes and a photo or two here and there yeah for sure on the post so yeah Um, maybe we should, uh, jump right into kind of our main topic today, which is, um, our annual or what's become our annual.
Jason Yeah, I feel like we've done, we've definitely done this a few times before where we try and recommend something like a holiday buying guide. This year we're trying to keep it faster and more simple. I think we learned a little bit. People seem to like the speed at which we went through the film stuff. Um, so we're each picking, I think it's four or five things. Um, the majority of these will be under a hundred dollars, which is important to us because so now if you have a relative that's asking that they'd like to buy you a gift or or your significant other is asking for some ideas, here's a few. And they range from a few bucks all the way up. So yeah, Jason, if you want to go first, throw one out.
James Stacey Sure. So this one was something I bought in 2018 out of necessity, actually. It was a watch demagnetizer. And a lot of watch nerds, probably listeners, have one of these around. But if not, it's a really cool tool because As most of us know, the most common issue that happens with mechanical watches is they get magnetized. Absolutely. Set it next to your phone or on a speaker or near your television or computer. They get zapped and the hairspring spiral ends up sticking together. The watch runs fast, like really like minutes fast a day. And a demagnetizer is just an easy way to do this. I mean, you can certainly take it to any sort of retailer and have them do it. But I bought this one for 68 bucks on Amazon. on
Jason It was $4 or $5 on eBay many years ago. Wow. But it has like a red button, you plug it into the wall, which is the scary part, like it's a certain amount, there's a certain amount of current going through this $4 item. Right. But you plug it into the wall and the idea is you actually don't want the watch to touch the demagnetizer at all. So the idea is you kind of have the watch near it, turn it on and then pull it away from the watch. There's like a technique you have to watch on YouTube videos. But I have actually used it on several watches, because sometimes I'll take like a Rangeman, something with a compass, and put a watch next to it, and you can watch the compass go kind of off, off kilter, and you're just carrying some sort of magnetism, and you can quickly de-mag a few watches with that.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason And it's fairly straightforward. I know the ones... I've seen the ones that are like the MRI machine, and then they have ones where you actually put the watch on the unit itself, and it starts a little process where it brings... There's like a motor or something that brings the D-Mag close to the watch and then away.
James Stacey Oh, I see.
Jason Sure.
James Stacey Uh, so yeah. Yeah. So, um, you know, it sounds like you got one for four bucks. This one was, it was 68 and uh, I've used it one or two times this year, but it's nice to have around because stuff like this happens. So anyway, check it out.
Jason If you don't have to do any, like waving it around, maybe the 68 bucks is better spent. Right. I'm sure by the time I got the one from eBay, it was $15 for the shipping and everything. So my first one is actually really straightforward. I'm trying to stick with things that I use almost year-round. Things that if I lost, I would buy again immediately. I think that makes a pretty solid gift. So I would start with the Fjallraven tote bag. I spoke about it when I first got it. I've probably brought it up a couple times since. I mean, the thing has now been literally all over the world with me. This is called the tote bag number one, and they make them a little bit smaller and a little bit bigger. And I think the little bit bigger is the one to have. It's about $100 US. Oh, yeah. But this one, the tote bag one, it'll hold a 15 inch MacBook. So you can zip it shut. I mean, there's no padding. So you still have to be like mindful of what you're doing with the bag. Yeah, it's not a laptop bag. Yeah, it's just a bag. It's like it's it's a few pieces of their G 1000 material in a zipper across the top.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason But I really like it because it'll hold a MacBook I can get two camera bodies in it, like small camera bodies, a film camera in a 6500, something like that. I can get a little bag of like batteries and wires, like a little tech bag. Yeah. And then it has a zippered pocket on the inside and a big zippered pocket on the outside. So there's some way you can kind of divide up your life in there. Yeah. Um, I love that it, you can basically go from like, there's two leather holds you can use, which is how I also will like connect it to my roller suitcase. Sure. Yeah. Um, and that works really well. And then there's, two longer handles that make it like a legitimate tote that you can put on your shoulder.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason But one of those handles is channeled. Yeah. You can pull it down and it turns into backpack straps. Oh, sure. Yeah. So you can have like kind of like a normal handbag or backpack or a tote. Yeah. And with all of those things, it also gives you a couple of ways to like loop the handles around something if you want it to stay on top of a suitcase or something like that. And I absolutely adore this. It's really well made. It comes in like 20 plus colors. The bigger one has a leather bottom. Sure for setting it down on the street. Yeah, I've been very smart because this one's just dirty. Yeah, it's fine. I don't really mind Yeah, I've been navy blue. I think I may get the bigger one in like a tan color would be pretty nice So when I travel I still use like that tenba bag Yeah for all my gear and the laptop and everything. Yeah, and then this goes in my suitcase as it's thinner than Press it down, right? So that way I have I have a bag for carrying things around that isn't this big
James Stacey If you're traveling on a trip where you're going to do some shopping and you want to bring some stuff back, it's that extra bag.
Jason Yeah. Or like, you know, you go somewhere, I'll go, I'll go on a trip. Like I'll go, like for this H10, I have multiple cameras and a laptop, all sorts of gear, but I only want what I want for the day. Right.
James Stacey And this becomes your kind of bag for moving around. I think the G1000 material, it, I mean, now that I've seen it in person this week, um, it, it's a little more, I don't say masculine, I guess for, for, For a tote, because I've had totes and I haven't quite been that thrilled with the look, but this one kind of has a bit of a tactical look to it that I like.
Jason And I now have pants in this material, and I just bought a full winter jacket in the G1000. They're green. I'm kind of really loving the brand at this point. But the G1000 seems like really good material. You can wax it, so it can be super water resistant if you want to. It seems to hold up really well. I mean, this bag, Like at $100, like it doesn't cost enough that I'm ever going to baby it. Right. I'll treat it like I would treat a Filson. It's well made. It should last a long time. Yeah. Uh, so yeah, that's my, my first pick is absolutely, uh, pick up one of these bags just cause pure flexibility. And if you do actually travel with it, it doesn't take up that much space under a seat in front of you. So there's still room for your feet.
James Stacey Sure. Yeah. Good one. Um, my second one is, um, it's a subscription to field notes. So field notes is, Chicago company, founded in part by a guy named Aaron Draplin, who was kind of a graphic design guy, who took inspiration for these little portable paper notebooks. They're a pretty humble product. But he's kind of a Midwestern guy. And I guess in the old days, back in the early to mid part of the 20th century, farmers, when they would go to get their order their seeds for the year, they would get these little notebooks as gifts from the seed companies. And he really liked the look of these seed books because they always came with some sort of interesting information like calendar, temperature charts, windchill charts, you know, I don't know what it would be, average temperatures over the course of the year, kind of on the inside covers of these little pocket notebooks. And so he wanted to kind of recreate that look and feel for kind of the average person. And so he came up with Field Notes. And, you know, like I said, it's a pretty humble product, but they're They're just the right size, kind of little paper notebooks with like a grid pattern on the pages, fitting in like a chest pocket of a shirt or jacket, which is nice, not a big kind of... You know, the Moleskines are nice, but they're kind of big and heavy and a bit of a commitment to carry around. So what's kind of cool about Field Notes is that every year they do kind of these special editions where you buy like a three-pack and then they come with I bought one in the middle of the year here. It was kind of the NASA edition.
Jason Yeah, we talked about that.
James Stacey Yeah, it was in the final note. Yeah, and so they kind of do these I think three or four times a year. And if you buy the subscription for $97 a year, you get all four of these annual kind of special editions that come with a little freebie. One of them came with like this cardboard models of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo capsules and kind of a lot of cool information. This is definitely in the line of a non-essential, well it could be essential I guess if you're someone who takes a lot of notes, but kind of a neat gift. I think it's kind of one of those stocking stuffer things for a guy who likes old school writing stuff.
Jason I wish I was a notebook guy. I have notebooks, I'll walk into this, there's a Vancouver pen store, and I saw this brand I'll have to find out what the brand is, but I saw this brand and it was said like the finest paper in the world. I was like, well, you know, I'm going to buy six bucks. Yeah. Am I buying the finest of something in the world for $6? Yeah. I'm going to try it.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason And I got it and like, it's great. And it works amazing with a fountain pen. But like, I just like, I'm so attached to my phone and to Google keep. Right. I carry that Papa travel wallet from our guy, Robert, who's at the meetup last night. Thousand-yard style so yeah, I have one of these wallets in the the field note and the moleskin are too tall Oh that wallet like it's more. It's very much designed around passport. Yeah, but I guess Muji makes a Block of paper, that's just the right size for it that will tuck in behind the passport So maybe that's how I'll start because I carry a pen in that because when you have to fill out like a customs card So stocking stuff are easy one you know Yeah, I won't say more about it, but it's a cool one Uh, yeah. So my next one is, uh, is one that, you know, connects with something I talked about a few episodes ago and it's to, uh, chill on the camera you already have and just find a weird old lens and an adapter. Oh yeah. Just something to, so for let's, I'm going to say, I think the safe money would say that the adapter on Amazon is going to cost you about $25 to go from one type of lens to whatever body you already own. Yeah. And then beyond that, just go online, go on eBay, go on Craigslist. I've had great luck on Craigslist. Yeah. And buy some manual fast lens. Find something between F2 and F3, 50 mil, whatever, and just breathe some life into your creative photography by trying a much more manual attempt. Yeah. And buy an old Asahi Pentax, buy an old Helios, buy an old whatever. Buy some FD glass and put it on your on a EOS body or buy some Nikon glass and put it on. I mean, you don't need an adapter for the Nikon stuff. They didn't change the mount until your new one. I think it's hard to, like I said, kind of breathe some inspiration back into your photography without occasionally playing with the act of photography, which means new gear often. And I think that new gear is very expensive and doesn't necessarily make you a better photographer most of the time. But I do think for $50 maybe, or $60 or $70, definitely under $100, you get into a lens and an adapter, you can have some really fun. And don't go shoot a client's, don't go shoot work with it, but shoot your family, or shoot some flowers, or do some Christmas photos, take pictures of the ornaments on your tree, just have some fun with it. And that's absolutely what I would do, and I've given away a couple lenses and adapters as gifts this year.
James Stacey I think it's fun too, with old lenses, It's a really tactical experience where the new lenses don't have that because everything is motorized and kind of driven through the camera. And with the old lenses, when you have an aperture ring that you actually have to turn and click in all the positions to open and close the aperture, it just gives you that tactical feel like winding a watch or turning the bezel on a dive watch or something. Absolutely. And then also the focusing is the same. It's always heavy. And the lenses are, you know, they have these metal bodies that, you know, a lot of new lenses are plastic bodies and they just feel good. You know, for the price, like what you're talking about here, it's like you get a lot for that amount of money. Really well-made stuff. For sure. What do you got next? My next one comes from a brand I've talked about before. It's kind of one of my favorite clothing brands, Alps and Meters. Most of their stuff's pretty high-end, pretty expensive. Ski pants and sweaters and things like that. But they do make kind of a nice stocking cap that I like, but they also have this really kind of handy They call it the winter collar, the alpine winter collar, and it's a lamb's wool, just sort of a gaiter that you'd wear on your neck.
Jason It's like they're spinning a buff or something.
James Stacey Yeah, but it's pretty luxurious and it's nicely woven and it kind of comes down to sort of a chevron in the front so it kind of fits into the front of your jacket or you can kind of leave it out and kind of bunches up around your neck. So if you're someone who, you know, maybe you're not a scarf person, but you need You want to tuck something in for when the wind picks up and you want to put that on. This works out really well. Or, you know, I guess their inspiration was these sorts of things were used, you know, back in the mid 20th century for skiing as a way to kind of keep the wind off your neck. And so I find it just, it's small and it's 75 bucks. So, you know, it's a nice kind of little bit of luxury that you can kind of take with you. Fits nicely in a bag. You know, if you're, if you're traveling to a colder place, maybe you don't want to take a big long scarf. or you're just not a scarf person. Yeah, check it out. It's a nice kind of luxury piece. I think it feels like, at least for people in the Northern Hemisphere, or wintry climate, it's a nice gift.
Jason For sure. I like that idea. And yeah, so my next one is, I can actually go right alongside that, and it's some sort of a packable puffy jacket. So like not a super puffy, like nothing really insane, not 800 fill, but like You and I love the Nano Puff stuff, which is the synthetic line from Patagonia. Yeah. I live in mine. Yeah. You can wash them pretty easily. They're easy to take care of. They're nicely made. They're typically like, I bet you paid almost 250 bucks for mine. Yeah. But if you can go on there on Patagonia's website and we're talking now U.S. dollars, I mean, I was talking Canadian there, but and buy an off color.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Yeah. They're going to be around 100 bucks. And if that doesn't work, Eddie Bauer makes a fantastic one, the Ignite Light. which you can do a hood or without. I actually think it might be thinner overall than the Patagonia, so it puffs and it's a little bit smaller when it packs into its pocket. And if you don't even want to spend that much, if you want to come in, I think at like under $50, Uniqlo sells a whole line of puffy style vests and jackets and all that kind of stuff. And it's going to be well-made. It's not going to be a Patagonia or an Eddie Bauer, it just isn't. You won't have the warranty that a Patagonia or an Eddie Bauer has, which I think is kind of important when you put zippers on a jacket that you really love, that sort of thing. And like Patagonia will repair anything. I like that a lot too. But you also can drastically cut down the price. My brother bought a Puffy that packs into its own pocket from Uniqlo. And I want to say it was like maybe 40 Canadians. We might be talking 30-ish dollars. I don't know that it was synthetic. It was probably some sort of a down. Yeah. Um, I like the synthetic because you don't have to be worried about where they got the feathers, that sort of thing, which like matters. Yeah. It's very important to Patagonia and obviously Eddie Bauer, despite being the fact that they're always selling everything 40% off, they make some really cutting edge stuff. Yeah. Uh, there's just, the company doesn't do that well that often. Yeah. And, uh, and yeah, so I think, you know, whether it's Patagonia or Eddie Bauer or something else, a packable down or synthetic down jacket is never not handy.
James Stacey Yeah.
Jason Short of, short of the tropics. Yeah.
James Stacey Even the tropics. I mean, when I go to the tropics, like it's usually a long flight and a very cold airplane. Yeah. And, um, because you have a pillow and it's not, it's a, it's a good pillow. And it's also something that when you get there, you, you stuff in the bottom of your bag and you don't look at until you get back on the flight to go home again when you're all sunburned and like acclimated to the heat and it's cold in the plane. And, and then there isn't this weight penalty or space penalty in your bag.
Jason Yeah. Yeah. If you don't put them on. The other thing I really like about the Patagonia one would work for any of them is in that tote bag, I'll cram it into the bottom and then not use a camera insert. I'll just put my cameras right on the padding so that there's a little bit if I drop the bag quickly, someone kicks it as they walk by, there's a little bit of padding there. Which I like. I do the same thing with a $10 shemag. I'll put it at the bottom of the bag just as some padding. I think you can get a bunch of use out of them. They kind of look good everywhere. If you're listening to Great NATO, it's in the realm of probably how you would dress on the weekend or maybe every day.
James Stacey I saw a few at the get together yesterday.
Jason Absolutely. And I like them because you can have a lighter jacket and treat all of your kind of winter wear, maybe not in Minnesota, but you can treat it more like a skiing scenario where you would have a layer and then a layer and a layer.
James Stacey I mean, I came here, Minneapolis is colder than New York, but I brought just a barber, waxed cotton, Jacket, you know fairly light jacket, but then I brought my nano puff vest And I'm I've doubled them up and it makes for a good easy thing to walk 15 20 minutes in the city So yeah, good one. Perfect my last kind of affordable one is a Poster or a framed print from ad patina and we've talked about ad patina on the show before ad patina is Guy who has a website. He's also on instagram at ad patina but he has sourced all of these old watch and he's kind of getting into camera ads now too from old magazines you know you get these old Rolex ads, Audemars Piguet ads, Omega ads, etc. from kind of that that golden era of print advertising and great old if you're a collector of you know you have a cool vintage watch and you want to get like kind of an ad that represents what how it was sold back in 1972 or something you know he sells them you can get them framed or unframed from you know $40 on up to over $100. If you want it nicely framed, he'll do that for you and send it to you in a nice padded shipping box. Just a nice, again, a nice gift for a watch lover. If someone you know has an old Speedmaster or something and you want to get one of their old ads showing an astronaut or something. They're just cool. I've bought a couple of from him. I bought a really cool Bolivar Oceanographer one from him. And then I've got an old Red Submariner. 1680 ad from that kind of golden age of Rolex advertising and I've got them hanging in my office.
Jason He was kind enough to send me one for the Explorer 2 that I have that has advesters. Oh cool. Walking along. Oh yeah. Heavily surracked bridge and and yeah they're great. I think they're they make such a really really cool gift and the fun thing is is if you're happening to listen to this and you're buying for somebody else none of them aren't cool. Yeah. It's nice to maybe have the one for your watch. Yeah yeah. But like if you know the person roughly has a few interests, like whether it's one of those ones where it's like, if you were flying Concorde today, you'd be wearing, and then it's a GMT Master or something like that. I mean, they're just fun. And I love that he's doing the legwork, he's finding them, you can just find out what he has and buy it. It's cool.
James Stacey Yeah. I'd love to know kind of his business model if he's out scouring old bookstores for old magazines. But the ones I've gotten are crisp and they're not all crinkled up or faded or torn. So yeah, he's doing a great job.
Jason Very cool. Great pick. Uh, so my last one before we get to the kind of no budget, higher budget sort of scenario for our final pick, uh, my last one is, uh, is actually a pair of earphones. I now own two because, uh, they need, they have like a proprietary little charger, but it's the Jaybird X3. Um, so I mean, everybody kind of has their own, like, I don't listen to a ton of music when I'm not at home. Yeah. It's podcasts. Yeah. But when I travel, I don't like having wires. I also find that if I don't, if I have, This sounds crazy, but if you, if I get on a plane and I don't have headphones that plug into the system, I work. Oh yeah. If I have headphones, I'll watch a movie. Oh, interesting. So these are Bluetooth headphones. They're about a hundred dollars. They're about 120 bucks Canadian. I absolutely adore them. They have only one Achilles heel and it's that they're so small and compact to charge them. There's not a plug. Oh, you have to clip them into this tiny cradle. Literally tiny. It's the size of a piece of gum. Yeah. Yeah. So if you if I forget that at home, then I don't know. It's not like I can just plug it in with a normal USB micro cable. Anyways, aside from that, it's 10 hours of battery life. I actually get 10. They have a companion app that allows you to go. I can put the and it changes universally for the phone, but I can put the phone in a less aggressive audio. It's like less taxing. So the brights are padded way down. Oh, sure. And if you're if I'm going to listen to 10 hours of podcast or something like that, it just it's a little bit more It sounds weird, but I've seen this in car stereos as well, where there'll be like extended listening mode, and it just pulls some of the brightness out of it. So it's not good if you want to show off your stereo to somebody, but it's way more comfortable after a few hours. Especially if you might be falling asleep and waking up, it's a little bit more muted. But I absolutely love these. I have two pairs, so if I'm on a really long flight, or if I have very long days, I can have one charging while I use the other. And I highly recommend them as long as you're okay with an in-ear solution, which I like to run. So I have them when I run. You can use them when you work out. They stick too far out of my ear for me to lay down against a pillow. It's pretty small earbuds to be able to keep in on a pillow. But aside from that, it's fine.
James Stacey They're two separate pieces. They aren't connected.
Jason They have a connection through the wire. Oh, they do. It goes behind the head? Yeah. Well, you can do whatever you want, but it goes behind your head.
James Stacey And they stay in your ear if you run?
Jason Oh, no question. Really? Yeah.
James Stacey Because that's always been my problem.
Jason They're really comfortable. I actually think the audio quality is really, really high for what they are. Yeah. But like, if you're talking about like actual headphones that are designed for music, they're not comparable.
James Stacey Sure. But like, I'm always looking, I'm always struggling to find good Bluetooth in ear
Jason Earbuds for like I wear I'm like Nordic skiing in the winter and like they're always falling out the ones I get or they're almost Guarantee it and then the other thing I like about them is I don't I don't like the ones where it's two separate pieces I haven't gotten on board with that. Yeah, it seems like that's for making calls or like being like fine in the city But like yeah, yeah, these they're not they're light enough that I can put one in my ear and take a call They don't like weigh themselves down sure and then because there is an antenna.
Unknown Yeah
Jason in the receptions. Ridiculous. Yeah. Yeah. I can like, I don't know how much you use Bluetooth, but like, it's weird. You'll like bend down to get your bag and they disconnect because there's too much water in your body between the signal and the phone. And yeah, I love them. They're great. Jaybird X3. Jaybird makes a bunch. I don't know why you'd buy anything other than the X3 because they'll stay in no matter what you're doing. They sound pretty good. They have the app. And I also like that at least, I don't know if they do this on iPhone, but in Android, they show you the battery life in the menu bar at the top of your phone. Oh, nice. So like mine are connected now and I can see I've got 50 percent.
James Stacey Yeah. Huh.
Unknown Cool.
James Stacey Well, I'm going to launch into my budget buster, which is the over $100 category. And coincidentally, I'm following up yours with a also a headphone recommendation. And these are the Bose QuietComfort 35s. I think they're up to a Mark 2 version.
Jason Yeah, which has Google Assistant built in, which is pretty cool.
James Stacey So I've got, you know, the first generation of these. And, you know, if there's there are a few things in life that you think are some of the best investments you've made, and given the amount of travel that I've done in the past couple of years, I would say this is up there with a good puffy jacket or a good shoulder bag or suitcase. I should stop putting off buying a pair. I keep fighting it. I absolutely recommend these. I love these. My wife has them. I gave a set to my dad, and I got him the non-noise-canceling version. They're just absolutely fantastic. Sound quality is great. I'm not a connoisseur of hi-fi or, you know, audio quality products, but to my ear, they're fantastic for everything from, you know, podcasts to music or whatever. They come in and they're a little bit bulky, I guess if I had to say, but I've gotten so used to it and you can clip it to the outside of the bag if you're traveling.
Jason Because they're in like an EVA sort of case, right?
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah. They lay flat. They come with a cable for connecting to the airplane. Or if you just want to plug it into your phone. If the battery, the internal battery goes dead for whatever reason, because they never go dead, they last for, you know, on a, so flying from Minneapolis to Sri Lanka is 25 hours of travel in the plane. And I think I looked, I fully charged it before I left on this last trip. It was down to 30% when I landed. So it lasts forever. The battery life lasts forever. And if it doesn't, if it does wear out for whatever reason, you forget to charge it. which is just a simple little USB charging cable. It will still work, it will still play music through the cable without noise cancelling. And, you know, it comes with a little adapter for those odd airplane systems that have, like, the little two-prong thing. Yeah, so it comes with a little adapter for that. You know, I think between battery life and the noise cancelling and just the comfort, my only quibble is I'm not religious about shaving all the time. So I have little stubble on my neck or on my, on my cheeks or whatever. And if you kind of wear them down around your neck, like when you're talking to somebody on the plane or walking around the airport or whatever, the, the foam, the kind of the coating on the foam is starting to kind of scrape off a little bit. And I ended up with like little black flecks on my, on my face, but this is only a very recent thing.
Jason So maybe it's just because I wonder if like you go on Etsy and get like a little cover or something. Oh yeah. Yeah. Christmas socks. Oh yeah. Right. Right. Stuff like that. Yeah, sure. And usually those pads are fully on a both. They'd be fully replaceable. Yeah. If you want.
James Stacey Yeah, that's true. Yeah. So I, I absolutely adore these. They're the 349 or $350. Or 50 Canadian. I'm just pulling, just pulling them up again.
Jason Oh yeah.
James Stacey How many times I've looked at these things. I, I, I, I can't recommend them enough. Um, you know, these aren't, these aren't some exotic product. I mean, you see half the people walking through airports wearing these. Yeah, you see them constantly. But, um, there's a reason they're, they're great. And, uh, And I swear by them.
Jason So great choice. Yeah. Uh, mine is also for travel. This is my blow the budget, uh, selection as well. And it is the away suitcase. Oh yeah. So I'm basically going through my normal travel kit now, the stuff that, that like, if I'm leaving, I would take it with me. Yeah. You've got your tote, you've got your puffy. Yeah. And I mean, it was really between the red wings, the iron Rangers, we talked about this for a little bit and the away. And I think a lot of people listening probably are like already know a red wing. Yeah. It's a great poop. So I'm going with the with the away suitcase. I have the carry on like for the money that they're charging. It is so good. And I've now fully figured out how to like, really effectively. I mean, I'm in New York for like 1516 days. And I'm like, Yeah, this is all I have. I'll have to do laundry. Yeah. Yeah. But other than that, like I have a ton of clothes in there and get my Fall Raven bag in there. And It has, uh, you have the battery pack, which I use all the time. I did not think that was an added bonus. I keep it charged. It's in, um, I keep two of those battery, like 10,000 milliamp hour chargers just available for my phone because that gives me almost four days, five days on the phone without power of things, if that's how it went down. But the, the one that pops into the bag is really handy. The interior arrangement is really good. And it's also flexible. If you don't want the compression panel, it just unclips and comes out entirely. Um, the built-in, um, dirty laundry bag is super handy for not having like random socks and underwear around your hotel room or like, uh, what, what I used to do was just, I'd have a dirty corner where the dirty clothes would go. And then when I was ready to repack, I would pack it up. Now it's in a nice little bag. That bag can also be used to hold a wet bathing suit and keep everything else in your kit dry. The compression panel in the center, the zipper goes wide enough that if you want, you can put a laptop in it. So if you don't want to have your laptop in your main bag and you want to clean up a hotel room so that somebody coming in, you can put it in there and then put the bag to the side and it just looks like where you'd keep your clothes, which is super handy. I love the ability to not have my laptop have to be on my person all the time. They weigh five, six pounds. So yeah, the Away Carry-On, they make four or five sizes now and they have like 20 plus colors. Absolutely worth $225. Zero question. I would, if it, if like it broke or I mean, they have a great warranty. So if it broke, I would get it fixed. Yeah. But like, if it broke in a way where I wasn't going to have it for a little while, I would buy a second, just have a, and I'd cycle it once it was repaired. Yeah. They do a really nice job. I really love the interior. Like once you learn how to pack a clamshell versus just a normal top, you know, soft side, it holds a ton of stuff. It looks really nice. Like, you know, I got a TGN sticker on and a Hodinkee sticker. Yeah. That's interesting.
James Stacey I, um, I've used a Tumi Tegrelite for years that I got as a gift years ago.
Jason That's double the price, maybe more?
James Stacey I have no reason to replace it, but I think it's kind of a similar size. Obviously, we're talking maximum legal carry-on size. If I were to replace it, I would definitely look it away. I'm interested to know that you use the charging block, because to me that was, at least initially, their excelling point, one of those quote-unquote smart bags. But I didn't realize it had all those other features, the internal stuff, which makes a difference. And just a note too, we met Mark from Away, I think when we were out here in March, and he was at H10. I like Mark and it's cool. I like what they're doing, I like the people who run the company. And the price, I didn't realize they were that inexpensive.
Jason Like a Rimowa carry-on would be a grand. I'm sure it would be amazing. Yeah, I'm sure. And like, I think the plus you'd get maybe with a Ramo is if you broke it while you're traveling, you could probably walk into the Ramo store at the Munich airport, and they put a new wheel on it right there. Sure. Maybe. Yeah, right. Probably what they would do. Right. It's gonna be a little bit different with Away, but they're putting up more stores. Yeah. And I think, I mean, they shipped it to me in a couple days. So how bad could it be, right? Yeah, right. Yeah. Good product. Cool. We actually have one more, one more that we wanted to do kind of as a team one, because it was, you know, partly produced by somebody pretty close to us is Steven Pulverin's book, The Watch Thoroughly Revised. He helped write the second edition of this fairly classic.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason And it's a considerable thing. It's a really fair price that you can actually buy a signed copy on the Hodinkee shop if you want. So I wanted to at least make mention of it because we, Jason and I both now have seen it and have a copy and I really, really like it. And it's something that I think it's kind of a perfect gift. I mean, if you like watches, you're going to like this book and you're going to learn something too.
James Stacey Yeah, it's very sleek. And it's, you know, again, you know, we're both friends of Steven and Life's a Guy, and that's not really the only reason we're even mentioning this.
Jason Fully biased choice, but it's also a really good book.
James Stacey I mean, let's face it, you know, as watch nerds, as most of us are that are listening, there's a pretty limited selection of books. You know, I mean, it's kind of rare to find good watch books. And when one comes along, it's nice to add it to the collection. So, yeah, that's a good one.
Jason So, yeah, that's the watch thoroughly revised Gene Stone, Stephen Polbright. Yeah, good one. A winner. So I think all of those things present a solid like 10, 11 item list that would be pretty solid. You could find one or two things on there for just about anyone that likes the show. And yeah, I think that's the easiest way to go.
James Stacey Yeah, and hopefully with this episode going live here a couple weeks before Christmas at least, you know, it gives people some opportunity to get some last-minute shopping, or at least requesting for that.
Jason Well, do you want to dip into a quick final note? I mean this whole episode's kind of been final notes.
James Stacey Yeah, yeah. I have one. It is one of our TGN heroes, Conrad Anker. He was recently, he actually relaunched his website recently, which is how I found this, and there was a link on it too. He recently took part in Desert Island Discs, which is something I've mentioned on a Final Notes a long time ago, BBC radio show. Mike Pearson favorite. Goes back to, boy, I think the 1940s or 50s. For sure. And, you know, everyone from, I've listened to Edmund Hillary to, you know, Randolph Fiennes. The Randolph Fiennes one was great. Wilfred Thesiger and all these great explorers and just, you know, musicians and politicians, etc, etc, have been on the show, talking about if they were stranded on a desert island, what music would they bring? And in the old days it was records and CDs and Now it's just songs. And Conrad Anker was on. And I just enjoy listening to him. He's really an articulate, interesting, thoughtful guy. And between the music recommendations, which are fun, the interviewer always kind of asks these kind of very probing questions about the people's lives. And Conrad has arguably led one of the more interesting lives. I mean, given his background, he's the one that found George Mallory's body on Everest. And he talks at great length about that during this interview. You know, his best friend Alex Lowe died in an avalanche, and then he ended up marrying Alex's wife and adopted his two kids, and they kind of delve into that a little bit. Meru, of course, the great movie that we've talked about.
Jason The yet-to-be-announced project that they did at Olvitana, the wolf's fang in Antarctica. I can't wait to find out what that is, but they climbed it, definitely.
James Stacey Yeah, yeah. So, it's a good one, and his song choices are really interesting. I think he's got some Rolling Stones and some Pearl Jam, And even, uh, I think there's a handle or Mozart in there. And so, you know, he's, uh, he's, he's a really thoughtful, interesting, well-spoken guy. So, uh, Conrad Anker, Desert Island Discs, uh, from the BBC. And we'll, we'll put that link in the show notes.
Jason Absolutely. And mine kind of goes right in line with that. Obviously it's not really final notes. If we don't do an outside online, like something from outside magazine, um, just an absolute standard of, uh, of kind of our internet reading. And this is a post really simple one that ties in really well with the topic today. but it's a what an award winning travel writer keeps in his pack. And it's this guy, Chris Solomon, uh, travels all over the world and he just kind of lists a few things that he really likes to have him with them. And after what we've talked about for the last, you know, hour or so, I thought it fit in pretty well. It's a really interesting piece. Everything from like a, that Starbucks via, which is like a pretty solid camp coffee. Like, yeah, it works pretty well too. Like a lightweight Patagonia jacket. He's got a Sunto watch. You know, if you have to be all over the world, I can see, I can see going that road, especially if you don't want something mechanical. He's got a notebook recommendation in there, a water bottle recommendation, which is always a good one, favorite sunglasses, some shirts, a bag. He's got an option here called a My Map app, which I guess allows you to have a map without... Without having a connection. Yeah, so a lot of places that I travel are probably more luxurious than where he travels, so I just have a normal cell phone connection. But if you're in the middle of nowhere and there's no connection, or if you're not going to pay whatever they're charging, in a third world country for, uh, you know, an active, uh, GPRS connection, something like, uh, the ability to download maps, uh, uh, makes perfect sense. I remember trying to do that several years ago. Like I think before that was a thing and it just doesn't work, but now you can do like vast pieces of Google maps. You can set us offline, which is clever. And then finally, something that we chatted about, uh, he recommends a VPN service and I don't know if I've ever recommended one on TGN. I feel like we might've talked about it. In the past, if you use your phone or your computer on public-ish Wi-Fi, Starbucks or airport Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi in the lounge, you should really be using a VPN of some sorts, a virtual private network. And that just makes sure that from your device to a server that isn't the same server that's providing that direct connection. Yeah. that hub. It's private. It's encrypted. I use one called PIA, which is very longstanding and super popular, but there's tons of them. I think I pay $30 a year for PIA. I use it all the time. If I'm at an Airbnb and I turn on my Wi-Fi, I turn on PIA with it. It's just easy. I can also, if I want to make sure that I get a US price on a car or a watch, I can put the PIA into a US server. and then reload a website and actually get .com, not .ca. All those sorts of things where they're now even sub-hiding it, so you can't tell you have to go in and actually change the currency. It fixes all that kind of thing.
James Stacey I think in his article he even mentions that with that VPN, if you set it for Switzerland or something, you can watch downhill skiing on the internet, stream sports things that you can't stream.
Jason Netflix, that's why a lot of people know what VPNs are, is because you used to be able to get US Netflix if you weren't in the US, Now, not only is Netflix very similar all over the world in terms of what they have, Netflix has wised up to the VPN thing. Netflix doesn't seem to care that everybody's sharing their password with everybody else, but they do seem to care about the VPN thing. And my guess is the content providers get really upset if they're not getting licensing for all the areas. But I know that with things like sports and stuff, they're not always checking for VPN connections from known VPN servers. So maybe you can watch some downhill skiing and catch a game that you wouldn't otherwise get.
James Stacey Yeah, well, that's a good one. I think, you know, OK, so that's a great Final Note article, but I just think the VPN is a great Final Note in itself or even a gift idea. Absolutely. Well, that kind of puts a wrap on it. I think it was a good holiday episode. It was great to see you. Good to record in person. And we're going to head back over to H10, the event for the final day.
Jason Catch the last few of the panels. And a big thank you to everyone who came to the drinks thing yesterday. Definitely. And we're going to endeavor to do that whenever we can. It wasn't that much of a lift. Chelsea at Hodinkee actually set up the space and kind of interfaced with us. We didn't really even do that. Yeah, I know. We just showed up and had a couple beers. Yeah, right. Yeah, showed up, had a few drinks and got to say hi to some really great people. So thank you for coming out and to everyone who came to H10 and said hi and expressed love for the show. I don't really know what to say other than thank you. It's very touching. Yeah, it was great.
James Stacey Really good to meet people. All right. And for this week, as always, thanks so much for listening and a big thanks to Hodinkee for supporting the show. Hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey, and be sure to follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please, as always, write to TheGraynado at gmail.com, and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
Jason And we leave you with this quote from Robert Louis Stevenson, who said, for my part, I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move.