The Grey NATO - Ep 71 - Fav Watches (and Other Stuff) Of 2018

Published on Thu, 27 Dec 2018 06:00:25 -0500

Synopsis

In this episode, Jason and James reflect on their favorite watches, travel experiences, photography gear, and other highlights from 2018. They discuss standout timepieces they wore or reviewed, like the Tudor Black Bay GMT, Omega Seamaster, and vintage watches from brands like Doxa and Tornek-Rayville. Jason talks about his first full year working freelance, with opportunities to review cars like the Aston Martin DBS Superleggera and photograph people like Moki. James shares diving adventures in locations like the Revillagigedo Islands, Maldives, and the Great Lakes. They also touch on new camera gear like the Nikon Z7 mirrorless system. Throughout the episode, they express gratitude for their listeners and partnerships that enable their work.

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Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton	Hello and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, brought to you by Hodinkee. A loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches, this is episode 71 and we thank you for listening. Hey Jason, how's it going?
James Stacey	Pretty good, pretty good. We're coming down to the end of the year here. This is actually our last episode, so... It sure is. It's been quite a year and, you know, I just got back from a short trip out to Colorado. I was in Aspen where Ghoshani and I did a little skiing and some backcountry adventuring and came home and now, you know, Scrambling to do a little bit of last minute holiday shopping. But, uh, yeah, we're, we're coming down to it.
Jason Heaton	How about you? Uh, yeah, I mean, it was in New York for quite a while for the over the age 10 thing, which we spoke about on the last episode. And it's been, uh, it's been a pretty busy December, a lot of, you know, kind of moving around and trying to keep up with, uh, yeah, gift buying and work and all those sorts of things. And then, I mean, things kind of start up immediately in January, we get a couple of days into the year and, uh, and you and I'll be back in Colorado. Uh, you know for for another press event, which uh, you know, I think we can probably talk about at a later date But it'll be pretty obvious as far as instagram goes. Yeah. Um, and yeah, I you know, I think for this episode There's not a lot necessarily like you you you were away on a trip for a little while But it's also one you can't really talk about just yet. Uh, I think for the most part we can probably What do you think just jump right into the main topic?
James Stacey	Yeah, I think so. I mean it's it's kind of a logical final episode of the year no big surprise if anyone looked at the Kind of the title of this episode, we're going to be talking about our favorite watches of the year. Um, mainly ones that you, that you and I have handled and maybe try it out. Sure. And then just kind of a, a brief sort of look at, at, at what was a pretty significant year, I think for, for both of us here at, uh, at TGN.
Jason Heaton	I agree. Yeah, entirely. I mean, like obviously I think some, some big kind of breaking ground scenario is, uh, you know, we got brought into Hodinkee as far as, As part of, you know, kind of an inside podcast, uh, set up and, and, and that's been amazing. And then we had a Hodinkee 10, which only comes around every decade. So that was also amazing. Uh, we had a really great response. Uh, Jason, I'm sure you got some nice messages. We've got a ton of emails about Hodinkee radio, our appearance on Hodinkee radio, which was awesome. And we had a blast, uh, you know, big thanks to Steven for making that possible.
James Stacey	Yeah, that was fun. Um, it was, it felt so different than, than just recording TGN to just have that third person in the room. And Steven's such a great. sort of catalyst for discussion and, and, um, just a good host. So it was really, it was just very natural, felt very fun.
Jason Heaton	I was worried that it was going to sound a lot like just a lot of you and I talking about ourselves for a little while. And I didn't really know how that would be received, but it seems to have gone over fairly well. So I feel better about that. And, uh, and yeah, it was, it was fun to be able to do that well in New York and all those sorts of things. And then, yeah, I think this episode is just going to be mostly review of, you know, some wins, maybe a few misses and, uh, and then yeah, some favorite stuff from the year.
James Stacey	Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think, you know, just to kind of revisit, I don't want to always talk about, uh, uh, are being brought on by Hodinkee. I mean, we've talked about it on a few past episodes, but I think just to put a kind of put a button on it at the end of the year here, I think it was, it was something that, that, you know, I think we both had talked about for a while and, and people had some questions about, you know, what's going to change with the show. And just in the past, I don't know how long we've been doing it now under the Hodinkee banner, so to speak, but, um, you know, a handful of episodes and, Nothing has changed. I mean, I think it's been a really nothing but positive. I mean, we had a great response to our Meetup invitation in New York. Absolutely. We've gotten some great... It's nice to see people being able to comment within the Hodinkee posts on the on the website when our episodes go up and just, you know, just growing the audience, I think it's been fun to kind of bring in some new listeners.
Jason Heaton	So. Entirely agree. And, uh, and yeah, I mean, I think that's probably as far as the show is concerned, kind of the big, the big change for the show this year, we took that nice little break over summer holidays. I had been traveling almost nonstop for a while, so just kind of needed to not have to be producing the show for a little while. And we stretched it kind of as long as we could to, uh, know make the most of getting a little break but then we came back in full force and I think I mean the partnership's a lot like the stuff we write for Hodinkee where there's not a lot of involvement where you know we're asked to do something that we are capable of doing and they you know have faith that we'll turn in something that people want to read or listen to or whatever so.
James Stacey	I think also you know this was a significant year certainly on your end I think other than Um, you know, TGN we've done for a couple of years, but this was your first full calendar year as kind of a, a full time, uh, content producer, you know, being a writer and, and take, you know, doing a lot of photography. And then of course the, the podcast, I mean, you're, you're kind of, you're kind of living at full on these days, aren't you?
Jason Heaton	Yeah. 2018 was the first year where I'd like, you know, cause it was August of last year where I made the transition, um, out of a day job. And, and with, uh, with 2018, it was the first year where I kind of had, a full understanding of like how to operate a calendar as a writer, photographer. I mean, like in this scenario, I'm essentially a staff writer for two places. So I was able to devote a huge amount of time to some really fantastic work with Nouveau Magazine in Vancouver. And then, of course, lots of projects with Hodinkee over the year. And I mean, the outcome for me was it was a really like a remarkable year for work. A couple talking watches. We did the Tudor GMT shoot in San Francisco and LA, which I'm very, very proud of at this point. I got to be very much involved in things like Hodinkee 10 and Hodinkee and the UTA crossover in LA earlier this year, which was great. And then as far as cars, I mean, it was the best car, best driving year I've ever had. Certainly, the Aston Martin Superleggera DBS, the 720S from McLaren, got to drive the new Continental GT long before it Made its way to these shores and all of that stuff is not something I take for granted. I mean, it's all.
James Stacey	Seemed like every, every episode of TGN, it was another spectacular car. I mean, I think you, you had the, I think you did something with the Rolls Royce SUV. I mean, just, just stuff.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. We did the, the Colin and launch in Wyoming was another fantastic one. And we did, uh, I was at the, uh, you know, the launch of the new Bentayga V8 in Portland. There's a lot. And I mean, I got to drive. Angela's Crest a couple of times in really remarkable cars, the 720S and the Portofino from Ferrari. Both were two of the best days I've had in a long time. And to take that nice Ferrari convertible up the crest on a Saturday morning and get coffee at Newcombe's, the days that just kind of stick with you. I mean, the light's something else up there. And it's a really, really lovely way to spend a Saturday morning. And I also like where if I'm talking about driving a DBS in Germany or the Connie GT in Austria, that's not relatable.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	literally is not relatable, but you could pretty much have the same, loosely have the same experience driving up the crest in a normal car or, you know, borrow a Mustang on Turo for 80 bucks for the day.
Unknown	Sure. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	And take it up the crest, get a coffee at Newcombs and drive it around for a little while and then drop it off. You'd have a great day for that kind of money and have a really fun time.
James Stacey	So I, you know, it occurs to me that, that, you know, what, um, what we do a lot of, and especially you with, with the car stuff is you're, you're able to take these experiences that, Let's face it, most listeners and most readers won't have driving these really high-end cars and in some cases the watches that we get to review. I took a number of really incredible watches diving this year and a lot of people won't get that. I think the trick is and kind of what our job entails and what it is and what I don't take for granted or lightly is relating those experiences to people in a very kind of down-to-earth way. patting ourselves on the back for doing a good job at that. It's just a constant, um, constant quest to kind of be able to do that.
Jason Heaton	That's a focus for sure. And the idea isn't like in many ways, the idea that sometimes it is about the car or the watch. And at that point, when I still read that sort of media written by colleagues and other people in the scene. So, I mean, I think there's still some fun to be had in simply experience, like reading about somebody else's experience.
Unknown	Right.
Jason Heaton	You're talking about diving somewhere. I mean, most of the places that you dove this year are accessible. A diver could get to them. And if you're talking about all these great places I drove, Angeles Crest is my favorite. And if you're in LA, even if you were in LA for a long enough layover, you could take a rental car up Angeles Crest and have a pretty good time. It's good. Like it's fun. Uh, it's about the scenery. It's about the way the light is up there. It's about the fact that you can get a decent cup of coffee at a place that feels like authentic. It's not a Starbucks. I think that there's a lot of it that's transferable to a day that doesn't cost half a million dollars in somebody, you know, in some amazing supercar could cost 50 bucks in some Turo. Sure. It'd be pretty easy that way.
James Stacey	So I think too, going back to, you know, this being your first full year kind of on, on this job or in this job, um, what stands out is when I think of the significant stuff that, that you did for Hodinkee, for instance, with on the watch side, um, uh, a good number of it, uh, a lot of the stuff that really stands out has been sort of combined media. You know, it's been photography writing and video or, or just video in the case of You know, my favorite talking watches possibly of all time was your session with Moki. You did the David Robinson. You've been on Hodinkee Radio a few times. The GMT review in San Francisco area. You know, it just goes to show what's happening to our business. I think it plays to your strengths. I think, you know, you do well in those environments and it's been kind of fun to watch from my side to see you kind of just take this on, you know, in the past 12 months and just, just make it your own. And I think a lot of readers have appreciated that as well.
Jason Heaton	I certainly hope so. I mean, you obviously come to these things and try your very best. And there's a few scenarios where the request was well outside of what I thought I was capable of, including talking watches. I didn't know I would get offered the hosting ability on top, on talking watches at any point and to do two, let alone two that were really easy for me. I mean like really good guests that just wanted to talk and you basically just stay out of the way and things go. as they're going to go between that. And then, you know, I joked on hoding key radio that I had shot for, you know, that fashion piece for concourse of delicate guns. I mean, that's way outside my comfort zone. Um, and, and, and I'm, you know, pretty happy with the results and, and to have a year where I was able to not only make the transition from kind of one life to another, but also have people around me that were willing to kind of push my abilities. I can't take that for granted. I mean, like I just can't, I can't, I found, you know, you're, you get the best when you work with the best team and they get the best out of you and that sort of thing. And that's what I get with, uh, with really the, the, on both sides, both the, you know, the editorial team at Nuvo's incredible. And then, um, you know, we've talked at length about Will and Gray and Dave and Steven and everybody at Hoding Key that, that puts these things together and gets these projects off the ground and, and, and can kind of steer them. I think maybe you and I maybe wouldn't always be capable of steering some of these Things from an eye, or at least I wouldn't be capable of steering something from like an idea to the end point. Whereas some of it's being steered for you. So you look good in the, in the end, uh, but you, I, you know, I don't deserve, you don't deserve all of what comes from that.
James Stacey	So, yeah. And I think on my end, you know, that, that notion of the expectation of content producers, um, it isn't, you can't just be a writer anymore. You need to be able to take a good photo and maybe talk in front of a camera. Um, and that's a big change. I mean, you know, even from when I started, you know, 10 years ago, kind of doing this sort of stuff. And, um, it has also opened my eyes to kind of knowing your, your limitations, knowing your strengths, um, you know, having just watched how the H10 event was, was put together, um, and, and being around that production team, um, from Jay who, who designed the facility, you know, from, from bare walls and bare floor to, Yeah. And, you know, down to the, um, the video guys and, and even that photo essay that Houdinki put up was, you know, just incredible stuff to kind of pull all of that together is, is really amazing. And I think, you know, we, you know, we do kind of a small scale version of that with, with the things we do, but it's, it's good to be surrounded by, by all these good people. And, and even on my personal level, um, I think we talked about it on Houdinki radio and, you know, Ghoshani, um, my wife who does most of the, the underwater photography, You know, like I mentioned, she's kind of the unsung hero. I mean, she gets all these great photos of the watches and me diving and that sort of thing. So I guess the moral of the story is, you know, looking back, end of the year is always a good time to kind of think of what you're thankful for. And for me, it's just being surrounded by these people that continue to kind of not only make my job easier and kind of enhance the work I do, but also kind of to continue to challenge me.
Jason Heaton	So, oh yeah, I couldn't, uh, I couldn't put it better than that. But I, and I agree absolutely wholeheartedly is like the defining factor for 2018 was definitely like partnership and cooperation. And I never really saw my, like, I think I probably found myself on a path to this line of work because I didn't like working with people. Oh yeah. And what maybe I didn't realize was I didn't like working with people who didn't want to work. Yeah. Yeah. And when you work with people who just want to grind it out and make it good, and find the good bits and things that I think it's a whole different scene and I'm absolutely grateful. You learn so much every day from people operating at that level. Yeah. Yeah. Yourself included.
James Stacey	Yeah. Well, it's been a good one. I mean, I think maybe we should jump in and maybe start talking a little bit about some of the kind of significant high points, whether it be watches or maybe watches we've tried this year. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	Let's start with watches. How about that?
James Stacey	Yeah. I think, you know, the obvious one probably for you is the Tudor GMT, right? I mean, that was the big week on the wrist that everybody enjoyed and just turned out so well, but the watch itself was kind of the star of the show.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, absolutely. And I would say, yeah, for me, the ones that stood out this year, as far as ownership, I bought my Doxa in February, which really kind of changed my entire mindset on Doxas, especially these kind of vintage inspired ones. the sub 300s. Yeah. And it's been a watch that I've worn almost non-stop since then. Definitely it would be in contender for, you know, most worn watch if it wasn't for the fact that I traveled so much this year that I wore the GMT, the Explorer 2 quite a bit. Yeah. Really fantastic stuff. And then, and then the one that, yeah, definitely that stood out from like a loner, you know, sort of experience, but I didn't buy sort of scenario is that Tudor Black Bay GMT. I think it's a, it's an incredible watch. Not only did we do the, the week on the wrist with it, uh, which I assume most people have come across. Um, but you know, also produced a piece for Hodinkee magazine, volume three, that was kind of a look at eight different GMT watches. Yeah. And of the funny thing is, is the two for me personally, that stood out after spending even more time with them. I already knew the tutor very well, but the Rolex GMT master two on the Jubilee, you know, I had two or three minutes with it at Basel world, maybe, maybe five minutes on the table. Yeah. And I just kind of thought like, you know, it's another one of these, it's a maxi case. It's kind of chunky. It, you know, it's got the same kind of not quite blue, not quite red bezel and then the Jubilee. But when you have that Jubilee and it's the right size, right. It's something else on risk. That's a really, that's a really great watch. So to get the chance to just kind of see both of those watches right next to each other, I think shows, you know, there's a huge amount of appeal for the Rolex and an incredible value in the tutor.
James Stacey	Yeah. Yeah. And I think you've kind of, it's funny, you've, I think we all sort of, Um, I don't say be known for, but you know, we, we sort of gravitate towards these watches that reflect our lifestyle and what's important to us. And I think you've become kind of the travel watch guy. I think starting with your, your humble SKX that you refit a 12 hour bezel, but, um, you know, you've, you've really sort of championed the, the GMT or, or kind of the travel watch. And, um, it's, it's such a, it's such a rich. Uh, vein to mine, you know, there's just so many great travel watches out there, but that the tutor was definitely the highlight in that realm. I think at least for me for this year.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, I would agree. And then oddly enough, you know, I've been traveling for most of December and I had my Explorer 2 with me, but I recently took delivery of a gift from my friends at Rolldorf as I'm leaving Vancouver to move to Toronto. They gave me a going away present, which was one of these C4ths that they made with Hallios. Yeah, yeah. It's the Hallios Rolldorf edition C4th and I literally put it on at Hodinkee 10 and I've not taken it off. Oh, wow. I'm absolutely hooked on it. I think it's gorgeous. It wears really well. I talked about it on the last episode, but if we're talking about watches that like made an impact this year, I mean, it's just absolutely incredible. I adore my pastel 12 hour bezel C4 and I think this one, you know, obviously it has immediate sentimental value to me. These are some close friends of mine from the Vancouver area that, uh, I'm leaving, you know, to, uh, to move to Toronto for, uh, in the new year. And it's just a, you know, it's kind of a sweet thing for them to do. And it's an absolutely gorgeous watch. I hadn't really seen the end result until just a couple of days before Hodinkee 10. And then to, uh, to have one to call my own is, is, uh, you know, it's just special and it definitely made an impact on me.
James Stacey	Yeah, that was, it was fun to see. It was really cool to see it kind of fresh on your wrist at age 10. And I mean, I think though, you know, those three watches, the, the Doxa, the sub 300 that you got, the, your Explorer 2 and then this Helios. It's kind of a cool three watch collection. I mean, you could kind of call it good right there.
Jason Heaton	Absolutely. I mean, I'm constantly confronted with like extreme privilege when it comes to watches, as are you. Like not only do we get a chance to own some really, really fantastic watches and kind of the ability to track down the stuff that we really like, but then to experience some stuff that like, maybe we're not going to buy it, but it still made an impression on me. And like for Basel, one of my most favorite watches with that, the Oris pointer date, especially with that kind of faded blue dial. And that one, you know, I was scrolling through Instagram to try and pick up on things that kind of hung, like stuck with me over the year. And I caught up that the wrist shot of that from Basel. And that's, that's another real winner. Like there's just been some really good watches this year that are, that are under 2,500 bucks, the, the Doxa, these Oris, the Hallios, you know, these continue. And then, you know, you want to spend a little bit more money. You get it like it's, you know, you double that you you're into the, into the Tudor, which, uh, in-house GMT and jumping local jumping hour. There's a lot, there's a lot. It's just a really good year for sport watches.
Unknown	Yeah. Yeah, it really was.
Jason Heaton	It's easy to be pessimistic, especially with the, whatever's going on with Basel and SIHH and watches seem to be like, everybody says that watches are getting more and more expensive, but I think what's happening is sure. Some watches are more expensive. The price is going up for certain luxury watches, but on whole, I think the value proposition is coming down.
Unknown	Yeah, I agree.
Jason Heaton	And, uh, and so I think there's a ton, a ton on offer in this space and certainly the space that you and I love so much. What, what kind of stood out for you? Maybe, maybe something that was loaned that, uh, you know, you, you remember, you think about.
James Stacey	Um, yeah, kind of looking back at, you know, the early part of the year, SIHH and then Basel kind of January to March. Um, you know, there were some, some really exciting watches that I saw, um, at both of the big shows and, and was able to take three of them, uh, diving in Bonaire back in April, kind of as a, of You know, just raves about that watch. The Bond Seamaster, of course, has a very loyal following since the 90s. Absolutely. Never quite did it for me. Never quite warmed up to it. The scalloped bezel, the kind of overly sort of complicated bracelet, etc. Even the wave dial, I wasn't all that keen on. But boy, that watch was, it was one of those that just kind of blindsided me because I absolutely loved it. it was kind of a combination of things you know for one thing it's uh it's it's it's a very slim watch it's nicely sized it's 42 millimeters um you know i could do without the the helium release valve but you know whatever take it or leave it that's fine um but the strap was fantastic it was on the rubber strap and it just it at the end of the day and after wearing a couple of other watches i had i had the oris pro diver gmt and i had the the geiger lecoultre polaris um i found i was always just putting the seamaster on it just it felt like It felt like an older watch, you know, it felt like my Submariner or, um, you know, I've got a Speedmaster, obviously a similar kind of case shape and size and, um, excellent watch. Great price point. You know, that's, I think we're talking between four and $5,000 and it's incredible value. I mean, that movement is their master chronometer certified movement. So it's, um, highly anti-magnetic and of course it's in a 300 meter case, et cetera, et cetera. And, um, so I quite, I quite, um, was smitten with that watch. Um, being able to kind of wear it for a week and taking it diving. And then, as I mentioned, the AORUS ProDiver GMT, again, you know, AORUS with its dive watches, great value, of course, but they're kind of, you know, dive watches are just really a strong suit for AORUS. And I think the ProDiver family, I mean, the Diver 65 family is such a big hit and it kind of overshadows the ProDiver family. I think the ProDiver family is the set of watches that kind of appeals to those that want the bigger, chunkier, you know, they're in kind of the, the planet ocean territory versus the, uh, the Seamaster 300 territory. So you want kind of a bigger watch that makes a statement. And the pro diver GMT was, was just a fun kind of big burly, uh, dive watch. And then I had the JLC Polaris, which, you know, back at SIHH to me, it was kind of the, the real hit of the show. It was absolutely as a sports watch guy, SIHH hasn't always been a terribly relevant show outside of a couple of brands and the Polaris family was just fantastic and I had the memovox version so I had the alarm. You know also on that trip I was able to kind of sneak in a couple of dives wearing the Certina DS PH200M which is kind of a mouthful but a real sleeper I thought at Basel and then Certina is a brand that isn't really even on the radar of most people in the U.S. because it's not really sold here, there's not really a dealer network, and you know, you can get pretty much anything these days online, but the watch is less than $1,000, so when we're talking about value and we're talking about a lot of these micro-brands, etc., that Sertina makes a really strong case for itself. It has this great retro styling, it's a little bit oversized, I think it's closer to like 44mm, so a little too big for a lot of people, You know it has this 80 hour power reserve movement, the Powermatic 80 that's used in several other Swatch Group brands. Just a fun dive watch and kind of was my last appointment at Basel, literally before I walked out of the hall there. It really stuck with me. The, uh, the docs, uh, had a chance to, um, to try out the Poseidon that came out early in the year. Yeah, for sure. Um, the yellow dial Poseidon diving star. And then, and then of course, yeah, the sea rambler, uh, sub 300. So, uh, it was, it was a great year for dive watches and yeah, I mean, I, I think those are kind of, that's kind of, those are the ones that stand out in my memory. And like you, I was kind of flipping through my, my Instagram to, to find the ones that, that I took the most pictures of and sort of had fun with and.
Jason Heaton	The other note that you put in our show notes here is that it was a big year for micros, which like I couldn't agree more. Yeah. So in, in a year where, you know, we, we've seen some incredible stuff from, you know, you've got a nice little list here, like Unimatic, Hallios, Baltic, uh, that Tuceno, which you spoke about on the last episode. I have a fair chronograph among two or three others that I saw this year. Yeah. You have, um, the, uh, the Morode, Bonaire, Diver. I mean, it was, it was like a really good year for watches under, again, like we've already talked about it to a certain extent, but like a really good year for watches under 1500 bucks, two grand, a lot of these well under that. I mean, I just finished, uh, just recently my, my hands on with the Baltic Aqua Scaf went on Hodinkee. I'll throw it in the show notes in case anyone missed it. That's a really killer watch for the money.
James Stacey	Oh yeah. Yeah. Really swinging well above their weight. Yeah.
Jason Heaton	It's really nicely made. They're like very upfront about when you'll get it, which I kind of like, like buy it now comes in June. Like I like that, you know, people have had problems with the transparency of when they pay, when they get it with these watches, like watches in this price point and from these one or two man brands.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. But the Baltic is like a really thoughtful design. The beads of rice is really good. I really liked the way it wears on wrist. It's the right size, you know, it's 38 to 39 millimeters case to bezel. you know, a simple movement, a really, really clever bracelet in terms of like tool-less removal that fits your other Baltics. If you have another Baltic, or if you buy another one in the future, you can move the bracelet. Like there's a bunch to like about that as well.
James Stacey	So I think this year you, you reviewed that one and the Merode Bonaire, right? Absolutely. Obviously I've seen it on Fratello did sort of a head to head comparison of the two. What, what, what's your feeling after having handled both of them? Do you prefer one over the other or are they both kind of equal in your mind?
Jason Heaton	I like the blue Marode quite a bit. I didn't have a Marode with the bracelet, but I think in many ways the Baltic on the bracelet is a, it's a little bit smaller feeling on wrist, which I like. And it's a little bit more like a skin diver. And I think the Marode of course is very much looking at a Blancpain design, whereas, The the Baltic is maybe one or two steps away from a very similar. Let's face it a very similar watch as inspiration Yeah, I really like both. I mean, I think if it was if it was my money I'd probably still lean towards like a Hallios and I now have several of them. Mm-hmm, but between the two probably the Baltic. Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacey	Yeah, it's it's funny You know, I'm a big fan. I think you are too. I mean, I think you've even bought a watch from him retro watch guy in Colorado and Jordan's incredible. And he puts out these these funky, colorful 60s and 70s dive watches that, you know, names that you haven't heard of. And I just think a lot of these micro brands are kind of occupying that space in our current age. And I think it's just really cool to kind of see all this sort of uptick in prevalence of these brands, but also, you know, their creativity and also the quality has really gone up in the past five or 10 years. So really exciting stuff.
Jason Heaton	Yeah, I fully agree. I'll actually add one note on Retro Watch Guy. um i'm gonna crowdsource a watch that i missed because i was lazy i think i might have spoken about it on a past episode but it was this um uh i'll put i'll link to it i mean it's sold so it's gone but uh jordan had this incredible walkman regate la mania a 1341 chronograph in plated gold with a gold dial and a bunch of color and it's just like incredible wild seventies yachting chronograph in gold. And I would absolutely love to have one. His price was super fair. And like I saw it on Instagram and I screen capped it and plan to, you know, go back. I was probably like waiting for a flight or, or whatever, whatever I was doing. I didn't just write him that moment, which is what I should have done. And I lost it. I didn't get a chance to buy it. But if anyone either has one of these, or maybe you bought it and you're not wearing it.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	The great NATO gmail.com. Let me know.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	It's a, it's a winner. I like it. It's like a big fun gold, It kind of has like a doxy-y sort of vibe to it, especially with that case shape and everything. So I'll throw the link to it from RetroWatchGuy, because we, you know, big fans of Jordan and what he's working on there. And the type of watches that he picks are, like you said, really, really fun.
James Stacey	Yeah. Well, I think, you know, on my side, in terms of watches that I acquired this year, the big win for me was getting that Shark Hunter T-Graph that I got back in the summer. I've talked about it a lot, so I'm not going to go into too much detail here, but it was a really rewarding experience. This guy tracked me down through an article I'd written about the T-Graph last year or the year before on Hodinkee, and he was the original owner. He lived out in Oregon, still does, but he grew up in the Chicago area and he bought his watch at the Chicago dive shop back in 1970 and saved up for it and bought it as a teenager. Was just looking to for a place to sell it and I raised my hand and said I'll take it and it was Wasn't a cheap watch purchase, but you know, it's right in my wheelhouse I had it fully serviced and I've worn it more than anything this year and it's just been It's just been fun It was it was nice to kind of know the backstory and chat with the guy who owned it originally and kind of my big My big win in terms of watch acquisitions.
Jason Heaton	So yeah fun one. Absolutely. I mean, it's been kind of a fun year for watches I think that like you found some stuff that that you really like, like, especially that T graph and, and that sort of thing. And then for me, I think that like I had a chance to kind of test the waters on something I didn't even know if I even liked, which is gold watches. Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. Yeah. And like, I'm going to keep, I'm going to keep at it for sure. Obviously, if I can snag that Walkman, I'll do a piece on that. Who knows? So I had a really fun time with that Mido. He would shout with that silly Hawaiian shirt and all that kind of thing. I mean, it's a shirt that I shouldn't say silly as I wore that shirt quite a bit this summer and we'll wear it again next summer. It's great. It was kind of fun to kind of have a chance to step outside of the normal sport watches, steel sport watches, kind of stoic things that we like and wear a lot. when I was in L.A. for UTA and Hodinkee, which I think I've spoken about this on a past episode, but I got a chance to try on this solid gold Audemars Piguet Royal Oak. Oh, jeez, what a watch. I think that might be a bit of a grail for me. Like, I think I might someday aspire to have one of those. I mean, it's absurdly expensive, so I'm not sure that I'll ever be in a position to have such a thing, but what a fun watch to wear.
James Stacey	Well, I think once you've, you know, now that you've sort of determined that you can pull off gold and that you like it, you know, that's kind of something to aspire to. And oftentimes when you aim at something high, you kind of, you'll find something halfway there that suits you just fine. So there might be something not quite Royal Oak territory, but you can more easily afford or whatever, you know?
Jason Heaton	Yeah. They had the, they had the, at age 10, they had a very similar model, but with a gold dial, like the, I guess the champagne dial instead of like the gray dial. Oh yeah. Also super, super fun. Yeah. Really. I think I put it on, I think I walked right over to you and then I took it right back to the display case. I mean, outside of watches, the other thing that I think stood out for, certainly for me this year, is that it was a really good year for photography. As far as gear and just having fun, I feel like I made strides in getting better and being a little bit more flexible with my gear and that sort of thing. And from getting into film, which might be part of it, to the old lenses, which definitely gave me kind of a different outlook on shooting and how to shoot and appreciating. gear and then now I've got, I have likely some new gear right on the horizon, which I'm, you know, moderately excited about. And then I know, I know for you, you've, you've accepted a new, uh, a new camera baby into the fold.
James Stacey	Yeah. So, you know, um, for, for years and, and admittedly, this is mostly a Gashani using the gear, but, uh, you know, I, when needed, I try to rise to the occasion, but, um, you know, we've, we've long been kind of a Nikon, household here with a D4S and I've got a DF and we recently sold a D800 to actually one of the TGN listeners and we're kind of waiting for Nikon to get into the mirrorless space. We've used a Sony Alpha 7 Mark II for underwater photography for years and it's a wonderful camera and we still have it but to be able to use all of our existing Nikon lenses of which we have quite a bit, it was big news when Nikon announced that they were coming out with this Z6 and Z7 mirrorless and so we we snapped up a z7 recently and I just took it out to Colorado and kind of put it through its paces out in the cold and at altitude and Just shooting a lot of kind of varied stuff and and it worked well, and we're really pleased with it It's it's it's got kind of a burlier case and kind of a nice fit and finish Along the lines of the Nikon SLRs that I've tried and so kind of exciting we'll see I mean I think we might end up getting an underwater housing for it, but Yeah, that's the exciting thing about photography. I mean, you know, you've kind of looked back at older lenses and film lenses. And then, you know, here we are kind of looking at the next stage of Nikon. So it's just certainly, you know, photography isn't all about the gear, but it certainly doesn't hurt that there's just endless fun. For sure. A lot of Leicas at age 10 too. I saw you trying one out.
Jason Heaton	Real Leica crowd for sure. That was definitely the game at age 10, especially like just if you kind of an aesthetic choice, a lot of Leica going on. Now with the Z7, how good is that viewfinder? That's what blew me away. The electric viewfinder, you almost don't realize it's a screen. Yeah, yeah. It's so much faster than what I'm used to with my 6500. It gets a lot better when you get to the A7s, which is what you're used to. But this Nikon is way, like is a legitimate step ahead of the A7.
James Stacey	So true. And I remember the early days of, um, you know, when Fuji came out with the X100 and I remember trying that. It just didn't quite look right when you look through the viewfinder and, um, yeah, the Nikon. It's seamless. This is like, this is like an SLR. It looks like you're looking right through, you know, through a mirror, through the lens. Um,
Jason Heaton	Yeah. One of the guys on the, on the Wyoming trip for the Cullinan, he had one. And so I walked right over to him and I'm like, Hey, could I just shoot a few frames? He handed it to me. It was a loner. And he had, I think he had it for gear patrol. And, um, and I put it up to my eye and I thought that the camera was off and it had like a passive through the lens view. And then I half pressed the, to wake it up, I half pressed the shutter and it did the autofocus point. And I was like, Whoa, Whoa, Whoa.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	And I didn't know if it was like a hybrid screen on top of a live view, but no, it's just a, it's just a, it's a mirrorless. Like it's just running. Right. It's just running the image, but the, the, the frame rate of the, of the eyepiece is incredible.
James Stacey	Yeah. And what's great too, that what really was kind of the kicker was, um, it accepts the same kind of chunkier batteries that, that we've used in the D 800, um, which give better battery life than, than what we were finding in the Sony. Um, and it's, it's nicely weather sealed. So yeah, it's a, it's a real winner. So, um, got it just, you know, a couple of weeks ago, literally. And, um, so 2019 will be, it looks promising for photography, I guess. And, you know, travel wise, um, I guess I'll jump in, you know, I had a great year of diving. I mean, I talked a little bit about, um, some of the watches that I was able to take, uh, take underwater, but, uh, you know, starting back in, in April, um, a trip to Bonaire for a week. Um, and then in May was this epic trip to Riviera Higedo with, um, with Blancpain and, and I got to dive with, uh, Laurent Ballesta and his team around the, you know, Socorro islands out to, um, Rocca Partita, um, you know, nine day liveaboard trip, which was truly some of the most spectacular diving hands down that I've done and just a wonderful opportunity. And then again, on that trip, I was able to dive with the, you know, this, this very rare vintage tourniquet, Rayville, uh, watch from the early sixties, which was, you know, highlight kind of on the watch side. Um, and then a month later, uh, Gashani and I went over to Sri Lanka, um, for kind of a vacation to visit family and did a little bit of diving there. And then we took a few days and flew over to the Maldives, which is really close by. And again, another great place I had never been. And, um, kind of similar to Riviera Higedo except, uh, you know, warmer water. Um, but you know, manta rays, whale sharks, uh, lots of life. So, um, that was good. And then I had a couple of nice, uh, Great Lakes trips. I did some diving in Lake Michigan and then over in Lake Huron we did, uh, uh, I did a, a, a wreck diving trip that I talked about to, um, the Daniel J. Morrell wreck. And then Kishani and I went over to Tobermory up, uh, up near where you'll be moving over in Ontario to do some, uh, shallow wrecks, uh, in Lake Huron over there, which was pretty amazing. It was a fun road trip and always fun to kind of get in some lake diving during the summer here. And then I did this free diving trip to the south of France in, gosh, I don't remember. It was in the fall with Ulysse Nardin. And so it was fun. So I would say it was probably my best year of diving. I mean, just kind of in terms of breadth of experiences from free diving in the Mediterranean to wreck diving in the Great Lakes. kind of everything in between. So not sure. It's like my year of driving. Not sure I can top that. Yeah. I mean, it was, you know, I'm, I, I, I don't like to be too kind of pardon the pun deep in, in any one area. And it seems like I went really hard into diving this year and, um, you know, I'd love to do some more, maybe do a little more backpacking or mountain sports in 2019. We'll see.
Jason Heaton	I mean, Hey, I'm down for backpacking. Let's get it done.
James Stacey	Yeah. Yeah. So good, good, good driving year. Good diving year. Good year for watches, cameras.
Jason Heaton	It's a real TGN sort of year, I think. It truly was.
James Stacey	It really was.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. I mean, the other thing that stands out, I mean, I feel like we say it every time and Jason, I know you feel exactly the same way, but like a big piece of this is everyone who's listening. Yeah. Like I'm under, neither of us are under any pretense that like we could do this if somebody wasn't putting us in a scenario where we can actually do the work. But then, of course, the other side of it is like someone has to read it. Someone has to listen to these shows. Someone has to comment on Instagram and send emails and all these kind of things. And to that, a huge thank you.
James Stacey	Yeah, definitely. Great to meet folks at H10 and at our meetup in New York, but also just, you know, the people that reach out and are passing through. I met a listener, Jeff, who was in town from Denver visiting his wife's family here. And we met up for coffee one day and chatted about watches and diving and that sort of stuff. I get emails all the time or direct messages on Instagram. I know you do too. People saying, you know, you guys have inspired me to, to try diving or, um, you know, backpacking trips, et cetera. Great recommendation on a book or a piece of gear. And I don't say this to, to, to toot our horns here. I think, you know, we, we get it coming the other direction from listeners as well, who are always making great recommendations to us and, and just kind of spurring us on to keep, keep on. So thank you.
Jason Heaton	Yeah. Yeah, a huge thank you for 2018 and we'll keep grinding for 2019 and try and make some fun stuff to read and talk about and see and all those sorts of things.
James Stacey	Yeah. Well, should we wrap it up, jump into final notes?
Jason Heaton	Yeah, sure. So my first one's really easy. It's something called Sweet Heat Skittles. Oh, wow. So I spoke briefly about my love of gummies on Hodinkee Radio and I was, you know, while traveling, I was at the checkout and originally I had seen these advertised as like a pre-roll on a YouTube channel, and I thought like, oh, hot Skittles sounds terrible. But they were really, really cheap. They were 70 cents or something like that. So I bought a package and really good. Should be bad. Really good. Wow. Are they like Red Hots? No, not at all. These are like they taste just like normal Skittles, I would say, like within a range. Yeah. And then they have like a lasting sort of just spiciness. Yeah. Highly recommend it if you're, if you know somebody who likes spicy stuff and you're making a stocking for them for Christmas or whatever, I think this could be kind of fun.
James Stacey	Cool. Um, my first one is, uh, Jimmy Chin's masterclass on adventure photography. So, you know, Jimmy's a hero of, of us here at TGN. I, you've interviewed him. I've interviewed him. Um, just a incredibly talented person, also very nice guy. Um, and if anyone's familiar with, with masterclass, they just, have assembled this incredible team of authors and chefs and filmmakers and etc to kind of do this video series where they kind of teach you how they do their work. Ghoshani and I were very excited because we're both big fans of Jimmy Chin so we watched it, kind of blew through it almost just like binge watched it which was kind of crazy because I think you're supposed to kind of take a lesson at a time and kind of put things into practice. There's a workbook you can download but Jimmy was just, it was just his masterclass on adventure photography. It was just fun to kind of sit through and just, and kind of listen to him impart wisdom about how he got his start, the gear he uses, how he pitches projects, how he edits photos, um, how he conducts his shoots. Um, and you know, there's kind of several cameos with Conrad Anker who, you know, is this, uh, he's, he serves as a model for one of the kind of sample shoots that he does in the Tetons. So, you know, it was fun. It was, it was 90 bucks, which is a fair amount to spend to kind of just binge watch a series of videos. But, um, you know, certainly if you're someone who's just getting into adventure photography and you want to learn from the best, it's, uh, it's not a horrible outlay, um, to kind of be able to sit and kind of, uh, listen to, to Jimmy Chin talk about, about how he does what he does. So that was a fun one.
Jason Heaton	I love it. The other thing you can consider with something like this is if you have fairly good benefits through your employer, This may fall under general education which might make it a write off. Learning how to work out or paying for a little bit of a gym education all that kind of thing Like if it's uh, or any sort of an educational element, especially if it's tied to something like master class Yeah, I mean like master class is legit let alone getting jimmy chin. I believe you can take a master class on comedy from steve, uh steve martin Thank you. Yes steve martin And yeah, so that's uh, that's really cool and it's now entirely earmarked Uh, I would love to rip through that over uh over whatever sort of uh holiday break i've got ahead You know, on the last episode, I spoke about this Papa wallet that I have from Observer Collection, which is a passport wallet that I love. I've been traveling with it. I keep all my receipts in it, all that kind of thing. It carries cards. It carries my tax documents for the watches. It carries my passport, a pen. It's fantastic. I really, really love it. Robert, who runs Observer Collection, just launched kind of the second edition, which is a little bit stiffer. It's a different leather. If you're looking for a really nice gift or you've got maybe some Christmas money to blow, by all means, I linked it in the last show. But I had mentioned that to put a notebook or something inside it to write in it, you would need to find something kind of passport size. And it turns out that I found one that I thought I was ahead of Robert and I pinged Robert. This is Robert Spangle. A Thousand Yard Style on Instagram. I pinged him and he said, no, no, those are actually recommended on the site. Those are the ones I use. So it's this company called Traveler-Company Japan. So Traveler's Company. And they make an incredible array of notebook products that are all modular. Um, so they have a smaller notebook product. That's about the size of a passport and you can get all sorts of inserts that essentially tie in. They use like pieces of string that, you know, you kind of loop this one spine against the other.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	I would say go to their website and you can totally understand what I'm talking about, but they make taller stuff. They make pens and rulers and clips and stickers and it kind of to no end. So I grabbed a few of these things. I found them at a store, like a stationary store and got really excited. And Robert's like, nah, I already got, I already got this. But they make some really incredible stuff. So what I recommend is just swing by their site and kind of see how the system works. So they have these travelers notebooks and one's kind of tall, tall and long, and you can get all sorts of inserts from planners to like pockets that hold receipts to sketch paper, to graph paper, to so you can kind of design this multi-use single notebook. Yeah. And it's really clever. It's really nicely made. And I picked up like a kind of a 60 blank pages, you know, no lines, no anything. And then this one that's like a little folder that you can kind of tuck receipts into.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	And so that's been running in my Papa passport wallet for the last week or so. And I'm absolutely thrilled by it. So my recommendation and quite a few people wrote in with recommendations of passport sized notebooks. So thank you for all of those. In reply, I would say check out Traveler's Company Japan. The stuff is fascinating. It's really nicely made. It's gorgeous. And, uh, I really liked that they have kind of a whole system.
Unknown	Huh.
James Stacey	Nice. And it's anything that gets people, you know, physically writing again, I think is a, is a good thing these days.
Jason Heaton	I would agree. Yeah. I would love to be able to take a certain part of my existence off of Google keep and maybe write, have some stuff written down, even if it's just like, um, you know, maybe write down quotes or things like that. Just, just as I think of them.
Unknown	Yeah. Cool. Yeah.
James Stacey	Well, um, my second one is, um, might not be new to some people, but, um, it was new to me. It's called a radio garden. It's a website radio dot garden. And, um, it's, it's kind of like a Google earth for radio stations. So when you, when you launch the site, it presents a spinning globe and it'll use your location services to track where you are and identify you could basically stream live radio from pretty much anywhere in the world. So if you're someone who likes to listen to world music or, um, you know, just radio stations from India or Kazakhstan or, or the UK or wherever, um, you can kind of spin the globe and put a pin on it and it'll find the nearest kind of set of radio stations that participate and you can stream, uh, live radio from those locations. So I'm kind of a fan of public radio. I like, uh, I like a lot of the stuff that comes out of the UK. world music you know if you're into reggae you can kind of spin it get down to jamaica or wherever um african music whatever it's it's just uh it's just kind of a fun and really simple interface to just kind of spin the globe and pick a pick a country pick a city and and just stream radio from there um so it's kind of kind of armchair travel so what a clever idea yeah yeah that's very cool definitely check that out and uh my last one is you know
Jason Heaton	You kind of, every now and then you do come across kind of physical things that you want to keep in kind of one place. And in my case these days, that's like film, like undeveloped film and negatives and things like that. Yeah. One of my absolute, probably my favorite store that I've found in New York yet is Best Made. So we've spoken about a Best Made in the past, a fantastic website. They have everything from clothes to axes, to knives, to whatever.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	But one of the things they make are these really kind of charming and rustic, but still industrial things called a strong box. Hmm. And it's kind of like a little toolbox, but it doesn't have any drawers or anything. It's just a cell, a single metal cell. So they make a nine inch strong box. They come in a ton of different colors, black, red, orange, you know, there's even more on the site and they make them in six inch sizes as well. Yeah. But the, uh, the nine inch is kind of nice to have on a shelf and keep a few things in it that you'd like kind of semi protected, but you also might just want quick access to. Yeah. And so this is, you know, it's like $42 comes in a handful of different colors. And, uh, and yeah, you know, picked one up for, um, for kind of storing various mementos from trips and things like that. And then, you know, being able to keep it on a desk or a shelf. So yeah, that's the, uh, the other one that kind of came, came up as far as, uh, you know, a little tip, maybe something to pick up after Christmas or something like that. Yeah.
James Stacey	Oh, cool. Yeah. You know, anything like this that, that encourages more kind of physical contact, whether it's listening to live radio or, um, storing, you know, taking film photography or writing notes, um, all of this kind of thing sort of ties into this, I don't know, it sort of grounds you, I guess, and I like that we talk about this stuff a lot, so.
Jason Heaton	It's something a little bit more tactile than just having the scans on your computer or something like that, so.
James Stacey	Well, I think, you know, we actually do have kind of a last final note, and it's one that we've talked about in past years, fitting for this time of year. It is an audio recording from the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, which is obviously familiar to you, and it was a reading by a gentleman named Alan Maitland of Frederick Forsyth's short story or novella called The Shepherd. And, you know, the best place I've found, I don't know if you've seen elsewhere, but is a YouTube recording that we'll link to. But it's just a great story. It's about an RAF pilot who's trying to make his way home for Christmas Eve across the English Channel. Things get a little strange. He runs into some trouble. But it's just a charming sort of holiday time little story to hear spoken by someone who has a great radio voice. And I don't know, just as a certain sort of nostalgic holiday charm. So I, I love to kind of stream it, you know, sit by the fire and kind of run it and listen to it.
Jason Heaton	I couldn't agree more. At least once a year. Yeah. Yeah. So that's our, it's our annual recommendation to listen to the shepherd. And there's just something, like you said, like it's pure charm.
Unknown	Yeah.
Jason Heaton	in its presentation and its quality and all of that. And I haven't come across a better source than the YouTube one, but if I do, I will link that as well. But everybody listening should give that a spin. It won't take you as much time as an episode. And it's absolutely worth, yeah, worth a few minutes.
James Stacey	Yeah. Well, 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 on our feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music Throughout is siesta by JazzArr via the Free Music Archive. And with that, I guess we both wish everybody a happy holidays and a happy new year and we'll see you here in 2019.
Jason Heaton	Absolutely. And we leave you with this quote from Conrad Anker who said, enlightenment isn't found with a full stomach or on a soft pillow.