The Grey NATO - Ep 74 - All The SIHH Feels

Published on Thu, 07 Feb 2019 06:00:05 -0500

Synopsis

Jason and James discuss some of their favorite watches and other highlights from the recent SIHH watch show in Geneva. They cover standout pieces from brands like IWC, Audemars Piguet, A. Lange & Söhne, Ressence, and Montblanc. They also touch on Jason's recent photography setup changes, as well as recommendations for a classic film, podcast, and travel accessory.

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nato, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This episode is brought to you by Drive Coffee, a premium coffee inspired by automotive history and its icons. Hey Jason, how's it going?
James Stacey Oh, it's cold. It's getting downright polar here.
Unknown It's cold here too.
James Stacey Yeah. I was thinking about you because, um, You know, you made the move from sort of that subtropical, coastal Pacific Northwest, and now you're kind of in the tundra. Is it cold there?
Jason Heaton It's so cold. I think it's four Fahrenheit. I'm not great with Fahrenheit, especially when you start to get into the negatives, the math becomes a bit different. But I think it's about four. And we had a weekend here where it was, I'm going to have to switch to Celsius to keep it easy. It was like negative 25. Oh, yeah, in Toronto, and that was before you like started to deal with a lot of the wind. Yeah. So I mean, it's nice, because like, I haven't seen any rain, which is different for January, but I'm really, I'm definitely missing the mountains, the ocean, and the fact that like a cold day in Vancouver is like negative two Celsius. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's a it's a whole different thing. Definitely. Definitely, you know, bought a pair of gloves, which I guess is a thing had to buy a new two Yeah. Yeah, so it's nice and definitely getting acclimatized to Toronto. The travel schedule is crazy, so I will dodge a good piece of winter, I think, just being on the road. Yeah, that's true. Looking forward to a lot of that. How have you been?
James Stacey Good, yeah. I mean, it's getting cold. I mean, we're recording this on a Monday and in a couple of days they're predicting You know, like minus 40, which I think is where the centigrade and the Fahrenheit meters meet. Not cool. So, yeah, we're kind of hunkered down with loads of firewood and it snowed last night. So it's feeling like winter. I mean, we didn't really have a proper winter. And, you know, as I talked about on a few shows earlier, I like to kind of, this time of year, pull out the polar bookshelf and start reading through some good books. I'm halfway through a Will Steger book about his trip to the North Pole. You know, you can certainly channel your Mike Horn a little bit up there in Toronto as well. Absolutely. But yeah, no, all's good. And next up, I guess we've got, oh, I guess we'll probably see each other in Basel in about six weeks. But yeah, you've got some travel before then, but I'm kind of hunkered down here.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I mean, I guess we may cross paths in New York. Oh, true. Yeah, that's right. In early March for an event that I would say is yet to be announced. But if it happens, we'll probably do a show from there, which I'm excited about. A quick trip, a quick little blast into New York, but between let's call it the next month, I think I'm in Arizona, New York, Florida twice, getting around.
Unknown Yeah, warm places.
Jason Heaton Nice. Yeah, definitely warmer than what we're dealing with in this little corner of the continent. But yeah, it's been a busy time. I think the year's off to a pretty good run already. And yeah, Although I've been back for a week and a half at this point, we're back from SIHH, we're living in a post-SIHH world, and that's going to be the main tone of the show, is you and I, even when we're not at the show together, in past years you've been there and I wasn't, and this year I was there and you weren't, it's still fun to pick through everything and see what lands in the TGN mind space. And then we were filling out a Google Doc separately, and I was like, half typing things in and then being like, nah, I don't think that'll suit. And then you type it in. I was like, all right, we're on the same page. So there's a couple of interesting watches. I mean, it's SIHH, so it's not all consumer, what I would call consumer product. Yeah. But certainly stay tuned for all of that. We'll dig into some watches in a bit. But what have you been doing? You know, otherwise, I know that there's a project that you can now talk about if I have that correctly.
James Stacey Yeah. So by the time this episode airs, my story about the review I did of the Richard Mille 2501 uh sort of the the quote-unquote Stallone watch uh will be up on Hodinkee and um that was a trip that I had talked about boy way back when we were in New York for H10 I mentioned it on Hodinkee radio and um it was a really exciting project kind of took a while to kind of get things sorted get the the photos uh sifted and the article written but uh um yeah I can kind of talk briefly about it here I um my wife and I went out to uh Aspen, Colorado back in December, I guess it was mid-December, um, and took that crazy million dollar Richard Mille 2501 watch, um, which is entirely not my cup of tea. I mean, let's just be upfront about that, but it was, it was an interesting enough product with kind of a, uh, a strange and interesting enough sort of vibe to it that, that it just lent itself well to doing something in the back country. So, um, you know, Richard Mille was, was kind enough to, to get permission from headquarters to let me review it and ask me, you know, what, what sort of thing do you want to do with this? And I said, um, I think, I think a good way to do this would be to take it into the back country, uh, in Colorado and, and maybe go into one of those back country huts that they have in the mountains. And so that's what we did. If, uh, you know, people might not be familiar with this, but there's a system of, um, sort of high country huts strung between Aspen and Vail out in Colorado, um, that are either run by the, what's called the Alfred A. Braun hut system or the 10th Mountain Division hut system. And these huts are very, I wouldn't call them crude, but they're rustic. There's no, you know, no running water or heat or really much electricity to speak of there. They've got some solar panels to power some sort of weak lighting, but to, to get water, you have to melt snow. The latrine is outside and all the heat comes from a wood stove that you have to split wood and bring it in. And, um, and they're all accessible only by hiking, snowshoeing, or skiing. And, um, particularly the Braun hut system is a winter only. So, um, those shut down, uh, in the summer. Um, so we picked a hut that wasn't too far from Aspen called the Markley hut. And it was, it wasn't too daunting to get to. It was about a three mile hike, but about an 1100 foot elevation gain, which, you know, when, when you're coming from. near sea level as I am here, um, and departing from 10,000 feet, you know, you're, you're, you're breathing hard. And, um, and it was a pretty wicked weather day the day we hiked in, but, uh, you know, it took a couple of hours to get up to the hut and then just spent a good amount of time kind of playing with this incredible watch. The, the, the watch itself, it's, it's big. I mean, it's, it's big and, and, and, you know, some might consider it sort of, uh, an acquired taste visually, but, um, It has so many sort of features to it. The most kind of the biggest wow factor with the watch is that it has this little sort of vial on the side of the case that opens up and holds three water purification tablets. I recall that from the write up. Yeah. Yeah. And then next to that there's a bubble level for a compass. So the bezel of the watch actually has there's a little lock on the side of the case that you flick down with your thumb and you can take off the bezel that comes on the watch and then clip on an actual liquid compass with a flip up cover that has a mirror for sighting and a little aperture through it with a sighting line. And then if you don't, if you aren't using that, that actually comes off and clips onto a little titanium frame that they make and you can wear it around your neck on a rubber lanyard. And you know, all of this, you know, you think about all these kind of gadgets and features that this watch comes with and we haven't even talked about the the watch itself, which is a tourbillon, um, chronograph with a 24 hour display. So, you know, it's pretty crazy watchmaking. It's, it's crazy set of features. Um, you know, so, so, you know, I just, we had a couple of days to kind of play with this watch and take some great photos and just being up in the mountains, um, kind of in the back country was just kind of a refreshing break, um, from, you know, life at sea level and in the city. Um, to kind of get up there and see the stars after dark and, um, just hike through, you know, knee deep snow and do some snowshoeing. And, um, so, you know, I'm not going to review the watch here because people can link to the, to the article on Hodinkee and people can read that. But, uh, yeah, it was, it was just a proper adventure, kind of a great way to kickstart the winter. I think it sort of put me in this sort of cabin mood, which has sort of continued over the, the past few weeks. Um, I think when we spoke a couple of episodes ago, I had gone to this cabin in northern Minnesota, and then you and I met in Vail. So it's been kind of a proper sort of, you know, woodsy, outdoorsy kind of winter, which I'm quite happy about.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well, that's great. I mean, I feel like I'm kind of constantly in a cabin frame of mind. It could be that, you know, I've been watching a few minutes of Alone in the Wilderness occasionally over the last little while. It's especially great on planes. Oh, yeah. When you're feeling a little maxed out. takes you right out of that kind of space. So yeah, good. But yeah, that's I mean, that watch is insane. And I genuinely hope you people are so hard on Richard Mill. Yeah. And I feel like especially with the stuff like I think even Richard Mill knows. Yeah. The joke sometimes like that's with the candy thing. Right, right. And like, they're not making consumer products. They make some more what you could call more or less conventional watches. They'd like they offer that and they sell you see them on people's wrists that watch shows and races and things like that. Like, yes, where that kind of thing kind of fits. But with something like the RM2501 or a lot of the really avant-garde stuff, they're just doing it because they can. And they only have to make a few of them. And there's people that really love this because they can sort of vision to brands. You know, like, I don't think, you know, you think of it, like, imagine these really high-end track cars or personal helicopters or like other rich guy stuff. Yeah. Yeah. It's like a watch. Sure, it's still a watch. There's watchmaking happening, but like they've just attempted to do something a little bit more special that's more or less an insider offering to people who already love the brand.
James Stacey Yeah. And it's kind of a few years ago, I had a chance to check out one of Hublot's dive watches, the Oceanographic. Yeah, yeah. You know, definitely not my cup of tea. I mean, you and I were Seiko, you know, Tudor, Rolex kind of dive guys. And that watch was just kind of big and sort of garish and kind of impractical. You know, when you look at these watches really up close, like, like the RM 25, you know, you, you can't, you can't, but be incredibly impressed by, um, the workmanship. I mean, the, the, the bezel is made of this sort of Damascene finished, uh, TPT carbon. The case is, is a carbon, everything's held together with little splined titanium screws. I mean, this is a, this is a tourbillon chronograph. And, you know, as I wrote in my article, I mean, let's kind of step outside of the. sort of cost-benefit equation and as if any of us are going to be buying this watch and just sort of appreciate it for the absurdity and kind of the... It's creation. The creation of it. You know, I had to laugh. I mean, here I am writing a extremely high-end watch review. This watch is $900-some thousand dollars and, you know, and I'm writing about water purification tablets, which, you know, I used to work at REI and I remember I used to sell these things. I've used them, you know, on backpacking trips and it was, I just, I loved being able to do that in the context of a watch review. It was just, it was just awesome.
Jason Heaton So in some ways, this is the, this is the most extreme, uh, kind of weirdness brought on by something like, like the Breitling emergency. Yeah. Yeah. Cause like the emergency could be used as a watch and it is a watch, of course, a great watch. You've had one. Um, but I mean, it's, it's like pillar features, something where a lot of people are like, I'm never gonna need that or use it. Right. And it's too big because of it and et cetera, et cetera. And I don't know, I will always contend that things like a Richard mill or a Pagani, you know, automotive. Yeah. The fact that it's, they're making it for a tiny niche audience, but it's something that all of us get to appreciate at some level it's existence.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I like, it's part of what I like about watches.
James Stacey I think it's cool. Yeah. Um, speaking of watches, I I'll, I'll just quickly, um, uh, touch on a very opposite end watch that I've got in house here, um, that I also wrote a review of for Hodinkee and I think it'll be live by the time the show goes up as well. It's the, it's the Rado Captain Cook Mark two, which sort of flew under people's radar. Um, because strangely enough, you know, if you remember the, the Rado Captain Cook from two years ago, um, at Basel, it was such a big hit with people and everybody kind of was shocked that Rado released this thing. But, but a lot of people kind of, ended up really loving it, including myself. And I actually bought one. Then just earlier this year, they were sorry in August of 2018, they released the mark three, which was really strange to kind of release the mark three after the first edition. And it was kind of that modernist sort of black, very edgy sort of looking internal bezel piece. Um, and I think Steven wrote it up. Um, but I had seen the mark two at Basel last year and wanted to review it. And it finally just arrived, um, just last week. Um, I still love it. It's, it's, it's very, like late 60s, early 70s. It's tiny. I mean, it's not any bigger than the mark one was, but it comes on this great beads of rice bracelet, um, internal bezel with a lot of kind of color and sort of geometric shapes and blocky hands. Um, just a, a fun, very retro watch. I mean, I would put it, you know, alongside, um, you know, some of the docks as you and I love, um, for kind of that really authentic kind of throwback styling. This, this really hits it, you know, on the nose. I mean, I almost think it's closer to the original than the Mark I Captain Cook was, if you can believe it. It's, you know, the size is the same. Even the clasp has this incredible sort of corduroy texture. It's just a simple fold over clasp. Just a really fun piece. So yeah, we'll put up a link to that one in the show notes as well, because I think, you know, it's definitely a little bit more of a polarizing design. I think a lot of people don't necessarily like this tonneau shape. Sort of very modernist. Hooded lugs. Hooded lugs, sort of 70s look. Roulette style dial design. Yeah. That's cool. I had to go out and find the original. And there are a few on eBay and they're not expensive. So I had to pick one up. I just thought, you know, I'm sending this one back to Rado and I just thought I'd love to pick up one of the old ones. And I got a really kind of a nice example for not a lot of money. Oh, that's great. Kind of retro watch guy. kind of watch, you know, just, uh, just that sort of piece. Absolutely. Which, which kind of brings me to, to, to the watch that, that you wore to SIHH, which, um, which you got from Retro Watch Guy as well. And that was that gold Buran.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I love it. I mean, I still haven't found like, I wore it on this brown lizard that it came on, which is fine. Yeah. And, uh, and it actually matched nicely with the shoes that I, uh, I elected to wear for the, you know, the bulk of the show. Yeah. And I mean, yeah, uh, Jordan hit it out the park finding this one. It's in like gorgeous condition. The dial's absolutely perfect. The functionality is really fun with that kind of constantly running 60 minute chronograph with a sort of digital style display. Yeah. And, uh, and you just, when you want to time something, you just click the button and it zeroes it and then you're timing it. It's really simple. There's no resetting it. There's like, it feels very. Um, it doesn't feel mechanically difficult. Yeah. When you press the pusher, like it's just kind of, it goes, it works. I love the way it looks. I love the size and yeah, I wore it straight for a week. I slept in it.
James Stacey It's great. So what was interesting about that is, is, you know, you showed a couple of pictures and, and you know, Houdinki had that kind of style and watch photo essay from, from SIHH and, and your watch showed up in that. And I was thinking to myself, if, if you saw that watch, from one of the brands at SIHH. Let's say Cartier released one something like that or Mont Blanc with that interesting complication and that look it wouldn't be out of place. I mean that watched all actually you know if you didn't know it was a whatever you know sub-thousand dollar you know vintage internet pickup like you'd think this is the coolest thing at SIHH you know I mean I truly think that it would fit right in with everything else you saw at the show.
Jason Heaton It looked great it fit in you know no matter what I wore it had that kind of like relaxed, but still a little bit dressy sort of vibe. Yeah. It's hard to beat something, you know, that has such a strong footing in the sixties, as far as a, an everyday sort of not too dressy, but not too sporty. And then with the gold, uh, plating being in such a nice condition, uh, you get, I had a lot of people just asking questions about it. You know, what is it? And why, why is it, what is it? What am I looking? Is it a mono pusher? Like what am I holding? What have you got on wrist? And it still has the sticker on the case back and it's, uh, yeah. It's a fun thing. I'm absolutely thrilled. Really, really like it.
James Stacey Yeah, that's awesome. What else is new? How'd your camera situation work out? I remember you had a bit of a crisis before SIHH with a broken lens.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so I switched up to the Sigma 35 F1.4 Art. And to be honest, it's insanely good. Oh, yeah. Like whatever I thought about that lens and then whatever my plan was, it may now have actually changed my entire camera trajectory. Because I so often only use the Mark III, the 5D Mark III to shoot kind of studio style photos. Like if you see one of my watch reviews, that's with a Mark III. Yeah. But anything where I'm out and about and moving around in cars is always the Sony, which is quite a bit smaller and easier to handle. And you can charge the batteries on USB and it's just easier for travel.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton But to kind of kick around and have... I took the 35 and I took the 50 2.5, which is, in my opinion, the perfect lens to shoot a trade show with. Yeah. And those two together are... They're fairly close in terms of their focal length, but two entirely different lenses. And that 35, you stop it down to 1.4, 1.8, or even 2, and it's just razor sharp, really great light. you know, beautiful kind of treatment of, of the bokeh. And it's my I mean, that I may not bother going back to the Sony once the Zeiss is back from repair. I don't know when that's going to be I called recently, and it's been to three repair depots. So apparently, it's either something they couldn't handle, or it's one of their rare lenses, like it's not a lens you see that often. I've never seen another one in the field, for example. Yeah. So it I'm not entirely sure when I'll get that lens back to begin with. But aside from You know, if I drop the 65, not a wrong word, I did drop the 6500. But if I stop using the 6500, I'll lose out on the fun of shooting vintage lenses. Yeah, yeah, because it has. So I'm not entirely sure at this point, which way I'll go. Maybe I'll keep a 6500 as kind of a fun, smaller camera to try other lenses and things like that with. But I think for now, I'm sad. I mean, I'm going to shoot a few days in the snow with Porsche. Yeah, leaving tomorrow, and it'll be the 35 and two batteries. I mean, like, there's a few things that you forget about, or I forgot about walking from the Sony one, like the full frame, the images from the full frame are incredible. Yeah. I mean, just they're super good. I don't necessarily feel like I would have to get to a mark four or the five when it comes out or anything like that. I'm really, really happy with the three that way. Also, I did all of SIHH, which is several thousand photos. Yeah, on one and a half batteries. So I didn't even need to bring the charger to Geneva.
Unknown Oh, sure.
Jason Heaton They just and whereas I would go through on a typical car shoot. Yeah, I would do two batteries a day because of the Wi Fi transfer.
Unknown Oh, yeah, right.
Jason Heaton And then the last thing is, and this is what I wasn't really sure about. But it turns out that like taking the SD card out of the camera, plugging it into a little reader, plugging the reader into my phone and importing a great big JPEG. Yeah, actually doesn't isn't that much more cumbersome than using the Wi Fi? Yeah. which requires you, of course, to turn on the Wi-Fi on your phone and use a bunch of the power in the phone to make that transfer and all these other things. And then, you know, sometimes your phone is on airplane mode because you're traveling and then you have to turn airplane mode off and then it's connecting to other networks. And this way, it's a little bit more passive. It's a little bit more thoughtful. I can see all the photos in high res before I transfer any of them, which is pretty nice instead of trying to see them on the back of the camera. Right. So there's some pluses and minuses. It's a lot bigger and heavier. But the battery life is much better. The files are much better. And I found a pretty reliable way of pulling files from the card using Lightroom Mobile, which then of course, immediately, once you get back to the hotel or whatever, connect to Wi-Fi, it puts the same photo on my Lightroom on my computer, which is a pretty handy feature for, you know, you building out stories or something from an event. Yeah. So I think for now, you know, I'm doing a lot of travel in the next little while, and it's just going to be running the 5D. The 35 and the 50.
James Stacey It's funny with cameras, you know, to kind of look back and see the arc of, of, uh, use and interests and priorities and that sort of thing. I mean, I think we have, our paths have intersected and varied and gone up and down. I mean, uh, you know, for a while it was, uh, I was all about Nikon SLRs. Then it was this, uh, the Sony a seven for underwater use. And now we got the Nikon Z seven. which is Nikon's new mirrorless piece. You and I have dabbled in film cameras and I'm not sure, I think it's kind of a moving target and I think a lot of it has to do with your use at a specific time. But what I always come back to is the feel of an SLR and the battery life are so key to me that even trying to get used to using the A7 on a regular basis, I found that the battery life was lacking and then just the size in my hand, I just always liked the feel of an SLR, which is kind of what led to the Z seven being almost a Goldilocks kind of camera. It has a bit of a bigger feel in the hand and then it takes the same batteries that the, that the, like the D 800, uh, used as well. So it gets, it's a much beefier, uh, battery that holds life, uh, uh, a lot longer. Like that's what we took to the, to the hut. And I think we only used one battery on a cold, you know, cold outdoor shoot, um, over a couple of days. So, Yeah, I'll be curious to see where you land on this after maybe the next month or two.
Jason Heaton You know, arguably, if we discount the existence of the Zeiss, assuming I don't stay with the Sony stuff, my best class is all in Canon.
Unknown Oh, yeah.
Jason Heaton And now there's a good chance that that proprietary adapter for the new system, the EOS R, could adapt to any of them and work really well. So depending on the performance of that adapter, if it works better than a Metabones, which I'm not I've used the four $400 Metabones. I'm not crazy about it. Yeah, it's fine. Like, but you have to shoot kind of slowly. But yeah, I mean, yeah, I kind of agree. Like, one, I also think I'm at a point where like, I could make almost any camera work for what I want. Yeah, give me a fast prime lens, and in the ability to move the file to my phone, and I'll just keep doing Instagram. But when once I realized that the 35 I mean, I might have to get start lifting bigger weights. But once the, once the, once I realized the 35 could shoot a wrist shot, that's, that's kind of what I need is something that can shoot a wrist shot for Instagram and something that can shoot a car for a magazine. And this covers all of that. I'll, I'll, I'll learn a little bit more about traveling with it over the next few days, as I'm going to do, you know, three days on the road with just the little camera bag. So I'll put some clothes in that and then throw the camera in it. and go up to the even more frigid north. And yeah, so I think that it is generally the case of like, I think maybe I've just been very spoiled for cameras, being able to keep a 5D Mark III as just a studio camera and travel with the Sony. Sure. And now I'm flirting with like, well, would it be kind of fun to really simplify and go to Canon for anything that you could consider kind of work? Yeah. And then maybe try my hand at a Leica Q for a bit?
Unknown Oh, sure.
Jason Heaton as a walk around travel sort of solution. I've always kind of liked that camera. I've really enjoyed the few times I've gotten to shoot other people's. They're very expensive, but they also hold their value really well. So there's that mix where you don't really put a lot on the line by picking one up.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton So I'm on the fence about that too. There's some pretty... They have that new one that doesn't even have the Leica dot on it. Oh, right. And I like that. So I may flirt with that once I kind of overall assess my current four or five camera system and minimize some of it. I'll always want a 35 millimeter film with a fast 50, and then a fast 35 millimeter solution, and the Sigma is incredible. And then it'd be nice to have something that was smaller for family trips or maybe trips where I'm packing really tightly and the work is mostly social media. But you look at a guy like Brett Curry, I'll put him in the show notes. If you're not following Brett Curry, I don't even know what you're doing with your time. He's one of my favorites on Instagram. Brett's awesome in person. He's a great dude. But you look at what he can get out of a cue, and it makes me wonder why I own a different camera. I mean, like, obviously, there's a huge amount of talent holding that camera. Yeah. But I like the potential there. It looks like it'd be fun to carry around, too.
James Stacey Well, I think cameras are good, clean fun. And, you know, we don't have to be too Spartan in our camera bags. I mean, I think if you If you want the Sony for a walk-around camera or an occasional use and the Canon becomes your main sort of weapon, then, you know, all's well. I mean, yeah, that could work too.
Jason Heaton And that way, then I get to keep the vintage lenses, which is kind of fun too. Yeah. Yeah. Never know which is too greedy when it comes to camera gear. I think I'm better at not do it at like saying no to watches. Yeah. Or like not thinking about watches, but I feel like, like, I would say like a good 50% of my time on the internet is just reading about camera gear. Camera gear and cars, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's great. It's the best hobby in the world for sure. Yeah. So yeah, with cars and cameras and all that kind of thing still on the mind, it's probably a great time to jump into our ad break for today's show. And we're thrilled to have a new sponsor, Drive Coffee. And they're creators of premium coffee that's inspired by automotive history and icons. And they basically use the iconography of cars and events and places to help tell the specific story of their coffee. So from Monaco to Le Mans and Dakar, these are all races and places, but they're also types of coffee. Drive Coffee offers specific high quality coffee with artful and unique packaging that is not only delicious, but also really fun, regardless of whether or not cars are kind of your thing or not. And, you know, Jason and I had a chance to meet Alex who runs the brand while we were in Colorado, and there's a general enthusiasm that kind of spills out, whether it's watches or cars or coffee. They've done the Monaco Historic Grand Prix. They've raced Walter Rolle's Monte Carlo winning Lancia 037 in Switzerland and in the ice in the Alps. In my opinion, best of all, they rocked up to a Cars and Coffee event with Hodinkee at the UTA project last year in LA, and they showed up in a 959 and served coffee out of that. So that's a legendary Porsche supercar, not something you would typically use to carry coffee around. I think these guys are in really deep and I kind of love it.
James Stacey Yeah, and I love it too. And it was a few months ago that, uh, uh, what drew me to them was, um, their packaging is really unique. They sell the coffee beans in, um, sort of tin packages that look like oil cans. Um, and, and they come in kind of these various themes. And the one that attracted me was the trophy blend packaged in a tin that, that has the colors and, and sort of the general vibe of the old camel trophy, uh, races that, that Land Rover used to compete in. And, uh, so I ordered a couple of cans of the trophy blend and you know started making it kind of in the way that I make my coffee here. I've done some aero press and some pour over coffees with it and even ran some through my espresso machine and it's really a versatile really nice blend. That one uses beans from Indonesia, Sulawesi and Sumatra. I happen to like coffee from that part of the world anyway so regardless of the of the whole Land Rover trophy connection I really enjoyed the kind of the taste of that really good earthy sort of full-bodied coffee you get from that part of the world.
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James Stacey And thanks a lot to DriveCoffee for sponsoring the Graynado. All right, you want to dig into the main topic? So, SIHH, yeah, you know, a few weeks ago, but I think, you know, that the sheer volume of the watches that come out of that show just sort of almost sustain you for weeks afterwards, even up through Basel. You know, this was the first year in, I think, six that I didn't go to the show, didn't go to Geneva, but I sort of watched from a distance and, of course, you got some hands-on time. So, let's maybe jump in and talk about a few of the watches that sort of stood out for each of us at the show. I think, you know, from a kind of a TGN perspective, I think that the sports watch angle is probably the most obvious and appealing to kind of our listeners and to us. And the brand that kind of handles that the best consistently is probably IWC. And this year was a big year for their pilots watches.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so many new models. There's a really good breakdown on Hodinkee, which I will, of course, put in the show notes that covers a lot of them. But strangely enough for me, When I put them on wrist, when I got to the meeting and saw everything, the one that stood out absolutely at the highest level was the new 41mm Spitfire chronograph. Yeah. I'm not typically a chrono guy, although I love a pilot chronograph. I think that's a pretty solid look. And they've got a whole range, so you can get a three-hand. They actually have the new Spitfire UTC, which brings back a kind of radial second time zone display that I love.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton But there's something about the chronograph, especially because they're producing a chronograph, but there's a steel model, which is fantastic, and there's a bronze model with a green dial that also looks crazy. I can't even... I think that watch will look so cool once there's some patina on the metal.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I think that's gonna be an absolute winner. I think that they're really, really great looking watches from the... All the way from the automatic Spitfire, which has more of a Mark 18 look to it, up to something like their standard, the Watch Chronograph Spitfire is what they're calling it. It comes in a couple versions. And I don't think I'm going like, you know, it's 5,700 bucks in steel. It's 6,250 in bronze. You know, you're only really a hair above what you'd expect from a price point for Tudor. And you're also seeing in-house caliber 6,980 chronograph movements. They have a Day-Date display. They look really good. The proportions are kind of locked right in and they have that kind of like classic, but not specifically like they, obviously it's military inspired. It's a Flieger, but it doesn't feel forced in terms of its military connection. It's just kind of a stylish watch that like pilots watches don't even really feel vintage to me until they use the cathedral hands. And with these, they feel like modern and crisp, but also like a little bit referential. And there's, There's a certain... Not unlike a great dive watch, a good pilot's watch, you can wear with almost anything. Yeah, yeah. And I mean, I've always... And I'm sure... I'm gonna assume, Jason, that you do too, but I've always had a soft spot for the big pilot stuff, but they're too big. Yeah, yeah. And I think that these capture a little bit of that, especially in the bronze with the green, it's kind of special. And a really... That was probably my favorite watch of the show.
James Stacey Yeah, so years ago, I had the IWC, just the regular pilot chronograph that had the the 7750 movement in it. This was five years ago or so. Um, and I always loved that watch. And I, I still think IWC kind of does the, that pilot chronograph pilots watches in general. I think they probably do it. I'd have to think about it for a while, but I kind of think they do it better than almost anybody. Um, but my question is, and maybe this came out of some discussions with IWC, but the, the Spitfires this year look very much, especially the chronographs look very much like the regular 717.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So,
James Stacey Is that being replaced? Or is this in addition to that?
Jason Heaton Do you have a sense of that? I think it's addition to that. And I think the idea is that it's a little bit more classically inspired, a little bit less Teutonic. Yeah. But I mean, the steel one. And then the other thing is like they say there's like a red spitfire on the dial. Yeah. Text. That's not going to be there in the actual final production.
James Stacey I'm kind of glad about that, actually. That's the one thing that wasn't I wasn't too keen on.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it kind of stood off a little bit differently. I think this is kind of a rethinking of their Pilots line. You know, a lot of brands, and especially IWC, they may add and then slowly subtract. Yeah. You may see other things go away. You could see things like the standard 37, 17. I'm not sure what the exact model is now, but you know what we're thinking of is their standard Pilots chronograph. Imagine that come out in maybe a new material. Right. Maybe steel and bronze will be for things like the Spitfire, and then you'll go upmarket into a ceramic or a or something like that with some of the other models. They have a lot of models as a brand, so I would say that it's a little bit difficult to kind of predict or even understand where one thing might replace another. But they... Yeah, the bronze with the green, and then they make a Spitfire UTC in bronze and green as well, which is... I love the UTC. I love that watch. 8950, that's a killer watch, and it's a really unobtrusive GMT display. There's not even another hand. Yeah. Yeah, which I think is quite clever. And obviously, that's, that's what the watch that's what this original sort of complication and design was known for. And now they've brought it back. 41 millimeters, the bronze one, they're only making 271. So that's like legitimately limited. Yeah. And in a really, really, really cool watch. I think IWC kind of knocked out of the park with sports watches this year. There was obviously SIHH isn't a huge sport watch category. Right. But But I think IWC did a lovely job. In past years, it's been a lot of Da Vinci stuff. It's been a lot of more higher-end things. And I thought this year they really looked at like, what are people buying? What are they kind of interested in? We saw a return to 41 millimeter, and I'm happy about it.
Unknown I think it's cool.
James Stacey Yeah. And they play to their strength. And I remember a few years ago when they kind of refreshed some of the pilot lineup, they also had the very aviation theme to their booth. And I think This year is probably the third year in the past seven or eight years that they've kind of done that again. And, and I, you know, I actually missed, uh, missed being there to see the Spitfire plane that was in the booth. That must've been just awesome to see. I mean, the Spitfire is such a beautiful plane to begin with.
Jason Heaton Uh, for sure. I think, I think, I mean, a Spitfire, you could argue is one of the most beautiful things ever made. Yeah. And, uh, the one they had in the booth is awesome. The whole booth is really incredible. I mean, IWC always goes pretty buck wild with the booth and, uh, this was, this was definitely no, um, No exception. Great booth. Awesome to see the plane, for sure.
James Stacey Yeah. So what else jumped out? I mean, maybe AP. I mean, AP seemed to kind of... They were sort of hit and miss. I shouldn't say hit and miss. They were polarizing this year. I mean, they had the jumbo, the 15-202, is the one that I think you and I both fell in love with from the show. But then, of course, that code 11-59 was the one that everybody sort of jumped up and down about.
Jason Heaton Yeah, absolutely. I mean, people got really upset about the 1159. I don't really understand, like, I understand not liking the watches. Like, that's fine. Everybody can have their own opinion. Aesthetically, they do almost nothing for me, but I also think that they're going to grow and iterate and learn. And also that, like, it's valuable for AP to be more than just the Royal Oak. So I think that the initial reaction, the kind of almost extreme vitriol is short-sighted. It also, I don't really understand why you get so angry about something. Nobody's forcing you to buy one, right? Like I just don't like, I understand saying like, oh, I don't like it. Yeah. Um, I would say this, the, uh, there's a few things like the, the QP I think is quite lovely and the super sonnery. It's simply the best one I've ever heard ever. Huh? It's remarkably loud and insanely clear. And I think that however many of those they're making, it's not the kind of thing I track closely enough to remember the number. But they'll sell all of those. That's an incredible watch and a very interesting way to kind of span from a three-hander to the kind of top of that $1,159 range. Sure. Yeah. There's so many watches in the world that I don't like. I don't understand the vitriol of people being like, do you have to spend $27,000 on a watch and now you're hurt? I don't understand. Right. Right. Yeah. So that side of it I don't necessarily get. I think that they launched something new. that they have a plan for, and it's gonna take them years to explain that to people who already know AP. Yeah. And I think it's a long play. If their plan is to change their market in a year or two, that might be a harder game. Right. That said, sticking to what I would consider to be their core competency, we find the AP Jumbo. So it's a Royal Oak Jumbo 15202. This is probably my favorite expensive... We'll call it an expensive watch of the show. Yeah. So originally, we'd reported that the 15202 BC is what it's called. This is a white gold 39 millimeter Royal Oak with a yellow, sort of yellowish brown gold dial. Yeah. I think it's gorgeous. Obviously, I'm not even two episodes away from where I said I didn't like two-tone. So it didn't take that long, but it's the best. Yeah, it's the bezel and the links that I don't like for two-tone. I think a gold dial is awesome. Yeah. And I think what they pull off with this one is like, it's perfect. If you're gonna buy a new AP in a precious metal, I might still, for the money, go full gold. They also make one... They make a 15202 in solid yellow with a blue dial. That is pretty incredible. Oh, yeah. But this is limited to 75 pieces. What I did learn previously, like almost a week after I wrote my hands on, is that it's 75 pieces annually. Oh, wow. Okay. So whether it was originally 75 and then the response had them change their mind, I don't know. That's kind of beyond any valuable discussion. There's going to be 75 annually of these, which means you basically, if you want to get one, you're going to have to be the best client at a retail location, at a boutique. They're a boutique-only addition, and AP's moving towards kind of only boutique, so they only have about 50 or so in the world. So that tells you how many each boutique will get in a year. Yeah. So you might either be waiting a very long time in line, buying it secondhand a la Rolex for a big premium or something like that. But that's a $55,000 watch. It's not something I'm ever going to own. Yeah. Super fun to have it on my wrist, though.
James Stacey Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, in a different, in an alternate universe, if I were a rich guy, I think, you know, it's almost a guilty pleasure of mine that both the Patek Nautilus, but I think even more than that, the Royal Oak, just a classic Royal Oak in almost any iteration, I think I would find myself wearing if I were just, you know, a rich guy.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And I mean the inverse, arguably it's not exactly, but what you could call arguably the inverse of this watch, the yellow gold with the gray dial is also mega cool. And the vintage one would definitely be on my list if I, like you were a rich guy. Um, you know, I think that these, these watches for me are more fun than a Nautilus. Yeah. A Nautilus is a little bit more stoic. Right. A little bit more serious about what it is. It says Patek on the dial. Right. And I think that they have a very similar history, a very similar design. I kind of enjoy the look of a Royal Oak more. Yeah. And the kind of... Is it a bravado that comes along with a Royal Oak? Something like that, especially in a yellow gold or in a precious metal. Right. Yeah. It's a cool piece. I mean, I'm sure there's people listening who are rolling their eyes. I put it on Instagram and people did like this watch, but they're rolling their eyes about AP or they're rolling their eyes about another $55,000 watch and me talking about yet another Royal Oak. So fair point. We'll move on. But that one was definitely fun to have on wrist. Yeah.
James Stacey How about the... I mean, Lange never disappoints at SHH. I mean, I don't think there's ever been a year when they almost haven't been the favorite brand overall. Now, they didn't exactly do a wow sort of complication, new complication this year, did they? I mean, it was more sort of iterative, different colors and metals.
Jason Heaton So we have a new Datograph Perpetua Turbion with a quote unquote salmon dial. It's actually a solid rose gold dial. Gorgeous. I mean, next level awesome, super cool, very collectible, an entirely different sort of feel than a standard Dato Perpetua Turbion. Yeah. Which is really great. And then I think the one that like you and I would lean towards because it's arguably kind of their most interesting mix of like high end watchmaking and sportiness is the Richard Longa Jumping Seconds. Yeah, that that's my favorite of the show.
James Stacey That was really cool.
Jason Heaton I mean, that dial is incredible. It has that really awesome low power indicator hidden between the overlaps of the two sub registers. Yeah. You know, it's in white gold with a black dial with red accents. It's arguably sporty. You could almost like You put it on, you almost think it's steel and it's 39.9 millimeters. And I would say it's like one of the most comfortable. It feels like it was made for my wrist, which isn't like valuable information because only, I guess only I have my wrist, but like it's so comfortable and so beautiful. And you get just, just a little bit of animation provided by the jumping seconds to let you know that you're wearing like a, something that is legit and nerdy and you know, about watchmaking.
James Stacey Well, and I think so many of the watches that you see at SIHH are, they're almost jewelry or they're so ornate. But I think the Richard Lange family of watches has always appealed to me most because it kind of comes from the very old history of Lange and Söhne when they were doing observation watches and navigation chronometers. And I think it was either, it was some watch from Glashütte that almost bore a resemblance to this one that I think Amundsen Navigated to the South Pole with and in my mind I can justify my love of Lange being sort of a you know the sort of TGN exploration nerd By saying if I were to have a Lange, it would be a Richard Lange because I could navigate to the South Pole using it You know, it just has that look and then when you have the jumping seconds, it's this very precision You know steady sort of tick of the of the sweep hand and I don't know It just it feels very instrument like which I really love about it
Jason Heaton It does have that marine chronometer vibe to it. Yeah. Where there's like a sensibility to its, its design and dial layout, but there's also, it's still ornate. Yeah. Like class, classically ornate, not fancy, but classically ornate. Right. It's a special thing. And if I say that, I would say this about any long, but if you can, wherever you live, if there's a chance that somebody retails long and near you, or you're on vacation in a bigger city or, or whatever, just stop by and just see a few of them in person. Yeah. I'm not saying buy one. I'm probably never going to have the great fortune of owning a Lange. I absolutely adore the brand. They don't make that many watches annually compared to any of their competitors, and they do things their own way, and they make really, really beautiful things. But if you can see the back of that Richard Lange or the back of the Dato Perpetual Tourbillon, wow. And I mean, it's one thing to see a good photo. I took some okay photos of these watches, but You got to see them in person. You got to see the light. Maybe even let them, see if they'll let you put them on wrist or something like that. Like, I think like a really complicated longa is up there with an F.P. Journe or a Richard Mill. Like, these are things that are, you don't have to buy them. You just have to see them. Right. You want to see them in person. Right. Yeah.
James Stacey It's really cool stuff. Speaking of great movements, another brand that has kind of teetered towards sports watches, not teetered, they've actually kind of jumped in full on, is Montblanc. And one of my favorites that I saw come through this year was that Heritage Spirit Pulsograph, which was... It's a limited piece and fairly expensive for a steel watch, but beautiful movement. It's that Minerva movement.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, that's the sleeper where you're buying for that Minerva. Yeah. And it's an incredible monopusher chronograph. The watch is €28,000. Yeah. So again, this is SIHH. We're doing our best. At least we found you one in steel. Um, but yeah, it's, it's this amazing, uh, 40 millimeter, uh, kind of dressy, but a little bit sporty and sort of a 60s way. Just a really, really cool MB 13.21, uh, movement. And it's a, yeah, monopusher chronograph and it's a hundred piece limited edition. Jack has a write-up on Hodinkee with some lovely photos. I will put that in the, um, I'll put that in the show notes. I mean, the standard is it's yet another salmon adjacent or salmon dial watch. You know, there were several that kind of flirted the line of being salmon. I would say this is about as salmony as I saw. And from the back, it's just incredible. I mean, it's gorgeous. It's a really, really cool movement. I think the dial treatment is really great with the sort of pinkish tone with a light blue coloring for the pulsation scale. Yeah. And I think, I think that this is the sort of watch that Montblanc needs to keep producing and then apply this style downwards. Right. In their price point. Yeah. To really make kind of a statement because I think that these more established watch focus brands, you know, Montblanc being a name that most people attach with two pens. Yeah. But I think it's absolutely killer. And obviously the background, the history of Minerva is huge. You could read for a long time to learn about that manufacturer. And I think that, yeah, I think it's a great piece and we'll put it in the show notes in case it's not one that you came across on Instagram or whatever.
James Stacey Yeah. I mean, I think if Montblanc were to sort of spin off a line and actually put Minerva on the dial. I wonder if they would have more success with this. I, um, several years ago, I've, I've visited a lot of, uh, watch manufacturers from Vacheron to Lange to, to Panerai. And, and the one that sticks out in my head to this day is the most impressive was the old Minerva factory in Villeray, um, which is of course now owned by Montblanc because it's the most old fashioned, uh, watch manufacturer that I've been to it, it's in an old building. Um, they still have, you know, drawers of old dials, Minerva dials. Um, they actually, what, what's interesting is they actually make the, the hairsprings for the, those movements themselves. And they do it in a very old fashioned way. Um, so they have this machine that actually stretches out the, the, the metal, um, and, and, and keeps pulling it until it gets narrower and narrower. And it kind of feeds through these machines and it's all done by, you know, hand cranking or very old machinery. Um, and it's a tiny place. And, and I think, you know, when, when people see Mont Blanc and they hear 28,000 euros, they, they kind of balk and say, oh, that's, that's crazy. And, and yes, it is crazy, but, um, I think to kind of, like you said, delve into the history of Minerva and see, you know, this was a brand that, that was timing the Olympics and stopwatches in the two world wars and just, you know, countless, uh, you know, awards over the years and just an incredible company. I think one of my favorite sort of aesthetic Aspects is kind of hidden, but it's sort of like an easter egg in the movement It's this the end of one of the bridges comes to sort of a almost like a devil's tail like a little arrowhead like a little point and it's It's just this little bit of a flourish that that lets you know that it's a Minerva movement And yeah, I'm not sure I'd spend that kind of money on this watch But I remember actually after visiting that that manufacturer like actually starting to kind of look around and see if I could find an old just even a Minerva stopwatch or something to buy, because they're really special.
Jason Heaton They absolutely are. A totally different direction, but let's also put this next brand in the one that you have to see in person. Recents. Oh, yeah. I mean, you wrote down the Type 2, I wrote down the Type 3 in the new white silver dial. Yeah. Both watches are killer. Yeah. Recents, there's... I mean, you want a word that's watered down in the watch industry as unique. Yeah. Yeah. But like if you say it, I'm thinking Ressence.
James Stacey Yeah. Oh, me too. And I always forget about it until it pops up. I just don't think of them very often. But then every year, they come out with these incredible pieces. And for me, the Type 2, I saw the prototype or the whatever it was at SIHH last year, and it blew me away. I think it was almost my favorite watch of the show. And I think this year they've come out with a production version of it. And, you know, just kind of in a nutshell, I mean, there's a piece on Hodinkee we can link to, so I'm not going to go into all the technical details. But, you know, this is a watch with a hybrid movement that has an electronic component to it that actually checks the accuracy of the movement and whether or not the timekeeping of the mechanical portion of the movement has drifted and will auto-correct that. And that part of the movement, that electronic part of the movement is charged through these little solar panels that are visible through these flaps on the dial that actually open and close mechanically to allow daylight to charge these solar panels. I mean, it sounds crazy. You'd think it would be this strange looking piece, but it's a very sleek, very modernist, very minimalist almost watch. Absolutely. Just an incredible, so inventive.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And it's definitely the type two. And I mean, all of them are something that video helps, but the type two helps a lot because there's an interface, a tapping interface that... Oh, right. ...accesses the watch's ability to change time zones. That's right. And to open these little shutters that charge it and check the time and do all this, and it spins around all on its own.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton I'll find a video. I'll put it in the show notes. Don't roll your eyes until you click on the show notes and find the video. Cause it's like the rest and stuff is amazing. Yeah. It's expensive. Yes, sure. Absolutely. But honestly, at a certain point, if this is what you're making, I don't care what it costs. You'll find a couple, like call it patronage. Yeah. Some, some, but people out there will support things like this. And the type three is a, is a, is a, is there kind of five display movement? Um, It's been around for a while and basically all they've changed and this is how you get to my heart is, you know, go with a white kind of silver dial. Yeah. And the, I love the black one because you can't see how any of the discs operate. There's no even reason to explain recency. Like you need to see it in an image that no, no words are really going to help, but you know, it's this layered approach of having discs inside of discs so that none of the displays of the watch ever overlap. Right. And it has this extremely stark, hyper minimal, very modern, very postmodern sort of way of displaying everything.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And there's like subtle uses of color. But when it's all in black, and then the case is oil filled, so there's no angle to the view, you're looking directly into what looks like a fixed dome.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And it's really hard to explain with words, just if you don't know what I'm talking about, hit the show notes, it's there. But to go to a white dial, it kind of brings back some design. Right. It brings back some room for some expression of how the movement's operating or what's happening inside the watch. Yeah. And of course, the movement is operated via magnetic connection to this display interface. These things are next level. And yeah, so I absolutely adored the 3W. It's definitely the first Recents that I put on and was like, oh, not only would I wear this, I would love to wear this. Yeah. It's super cool. It's a little bit more relaxed, a little bit more casual, a little bit less serious than the black one. Yeah. And I like that the lighter color, like I said, allows it to visually communicate a little bit more about what's going on in terms of the various little discs and how they relate to each other.
James Stacey I think what's cool about Ressence is the fact that all the other watches we mentioned, IWC, the AP, the Lange and the Montblanc, they're all very nostalgic, classic style watches. And Ressence is is a company that's doing things mechanically, but it's entirely forward-looking, which marries these two schools of watchmaking in such a unique way, almost like nobody else. I mean, I suppose you could say MB&F, but MB&F even has more nostalgic kind of aspect to them. They carry some flourishes that are very traditional, but Ressence, there's nothing that looks like a traditional or classic watch, and yet they're doing it mechanically.
Jason Heaton Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's, yeah, they're great. Yeah. That's another one really hard to see in person, but go online and get a real feel for what they're doing. Yeah. If, if, if you haven't, and, and if you've kind of glossed over it or you saw it and you're like, I'm looking at a smartwatch that has to be a screen. Yeah. What is that? It's none of that. It's a mechanical watch. It's magnetically actuated. And then the upper half of the watch is oil filled. Yeah. That's crazy. Yeah. It's crazy stuff. Yeah.
James Stacey Well, speaking of MD&F, I mean, that's, that's kind of the last one on our list here.
Jason Heaton Yeah, so this one's not even a watch, and it's definitely not my first time coming across one of these MB&F LePay clocks. Yeah. So MB&F produces these special limited edition clocks with a company in Switzerland called LePay. And this is the first one that I absolutely fell in love with. All of them are cool, all of them have a distinctive style, and they reference an era of design. This is something else, it's called the Medusa. And it's basically a vertically organized, like large table clock. Yeah. That's then surrounded by a handmade dome of glass that makes it look like a jellyfish.
James Stacey Crazy.
Jason Heaton And you can actually, this is where it gets my favorite part is, is you can set it into this little tripod to sit it on a table and you can see the whole movement. You can wind it from the bottom and it comes in kind of a pinkish purple-y color, a green and a blue. The green is crazy good. And the other thing it has is it has this little chassis towards the bottom that allows you to hang these little glass tentacles. Jeez. So you can actually hang the clock from your ceiling. Yeah. And it kind of floats in space like a lamp.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton And then put these little tentacles on it. And then you could still, of course, wind it because the winding assembly is essentially between those tentacles. Yeah. This thing is so cool. And I love it. Yeah. And it's definitely something I, you know, it's $26,000, something like that. Yeah. So cheaper than the Montblanc. Cheaper than the Montblanc, way cooler. I mean, the thing is just awesome. And it's just something that like, do I think any of anybody listening should buy it? I mean, yes, if you can, you should. It's awesome. But no, I'm not like, there's no consumer advice here. I saw something and I had a legitimate emotional reaction to its design. I think it's gorgeous. I love... Jellyfish are some of the most beautiful things to experience in the water because there's a purposefulness to their design that belies how delicate they are if they weren't in water. Yeah, right. And they're very fun to see in person and to swim with and to dive with and all of those. And with the Medusa, they capture some of that, especially hanging from the ceiling. It's like it's in the water column. And I like that quite a bit.
James Stacey Well, I think if you've got a new place in Toronto, you can save up and that would look really great hanging in a corner.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah, for sure.
James Stacey That's excellent. Actually, now that you mention it, how do you tell the time? Does it chime or can you visually see it?
Jason Heaton It has a visual indicator on the column so that there's two disks, the hour and minutes. Okay. And they kind of pass each other. I see. Yeah. Cool. So yeah, I think that's... I mean, there's a lot... There's certainly other stuff that we could talk about, but I think that this is the stuff that like, Jason and I had a few minutes, we both started typing into a Google document and this kind of, this is the boil down. Yeah, right. Yeah. So I think, uh, I'm pretty happy with that list. That's all stuff that I was pretty excited to see. Um, I think the IWC stuff is, is the most TGN of what was on offer. I think that, you know, they're starting at a price point just over four grand with the three hander. Uh, it's a, it's a millimeter bigger than a Mark 18. So, I mean, super wearable, really good consumer grade, entry-level luxury sort of watches with in-house movements. It's the sort of stuff that we praise Tudor for, and I think we should be praising IWC for it as well. Yeah. Yeah. Cool.
James Stacey All right. So, final notes. I'll jump in. Yeah. You know, going back to kind of my earlier comment about kind of being in a sort of cabin-y, sort of woodsy mood this winter, I stumbled upon an Instagram profile that if you're at all interested in that sort of thing, you should follow. It's at off.grid.architecture on Instagram. And I don't remember how I got turned on to this, but, uh, it's, it's just cabin porn, you know, it's just, it's beautiful, you know, off like the name suggests off grid, uh, really cool architecture. I mean, I remember, I think it was the last episode or something. You mentioned that, uh, Netflix series about, um, the architecture, uh, world's craziest world's most extraordinary home. Yeah. And, and this is, I wouldn't say it's the opposite of that. It's kind of along those lines. It's very much, you know, lots of snow-covered A-frames and backwoods cabins and, you know, sort of mountain huts and that sort of thing. And, you know, I'm not going to belabor it and go into too much detail. I just think it's a good follow on Instagram if you like that sort of, you know, that sort of woodsy sort of cabin vibe. So check it out.
Jason Heaton I just subscribed. Cool. Yeah, definitely on the follow list. So my first one is a movie. I'm going to try and continue occasionally coming up with great movies. And I'm going to give it the smallest amount of explanation because I just want everyone to watch it. If you haven't seen it, it's called The Third Man. Yeah. And it is just, it is just, it is just really, really good. It's from 1949. I would say that if you're You know, I'm in my early 30s. And if you're into movies the same way I'm into movies, give it maybe 15 minutes and you'll get over how old it feels. Yeah. Um, and then you just start paying attention to a literally endless list of amazing performances and top notch cinematography and storytelling. Yeah. This might be one of the best movies ever made.
James Stacey Oh, I think so.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And it's a, it's absolutely incredible. It's about a man traveling to Austria just after the war to Vienna to get it to work with an old friend of his and when he gets there his friend's dead Yeah, and I don't want to give anything else away. It is wall-to-wall Unbelievable, it's super watchable. I'm blown away that nobody's remade it.
James Stacey Yeah, I'm glad I'm actually glad they haven't I think this exists is almost a perfect movie and I think to remake it would be almost sacrilege It'd be like rewriting the Bible or something, you know
Jason Heaton The only the only reason where I sometimes I see the case for a remake is it brings a new audience to the original story. Yeah. Yeah. And it can give the original movie a new life. Yeah. But it would have to be done. It would have to be done by literally the best of everybody in existence right now. Yeah. To come anywhere near what what Carol Reed. Yeah. And and you know his production team achieved just after the war.
James Stacey Oh and even the soundtrack. The soundtrack is fantastic.
Jason Heaton Unbelievable.
James Stacey And this was this is such an early movie. It really kind of sets the stage for that sort of film noir sort of vibe, you know, that's lots of long shadows and Suspenseful music and dark alleys and trench coats and that sort of thing and it's just so good The movie is just incredible.
Jason Heaton Please watch the third man 1949. I'm sure it's on any streaming platform It's super good.
James Stacey Yeah so my second one is Ironically, I think when we first first came on board with Hodinkee with the great NATO someone posted a comment that they can't wait for our first in-depth review of a Dopp kit. Obviously referencing some of our past nerdiness about travel bags and that sort of thing. For sure. I'm going to recommend a Dopp kit. And this is from a company called Fraser Kit Company. Fraser was kind enough to actually send me this Dopp kit. I don't know if they caught that comment on Hodinkee or if they just kind of like what we do. But he sent me one of his Dopp kits to review and I'm kind of a a connoisseur of dop kits I have to say. You know you and I both travel quite a bit and for the past few years I've used a Topo Designs dop kit which works perfectly well. It's you know kind of that classic sort of sporty colorful Topo style. The Fraser Kit Company dop kit is it's definitely bigger and it has this this beautiful sort of oiled leather exterior with kind of a grab handle that's held in place with with almost kind of a almost a Very industrial looking clasp. The zipper has a paracord pull on it. And then when you open it up, it's sort of this heavy canvas interior with this sort of rubberized feel to it. So if you put a wet toothbrush or something opens up and spills inside, you can easily rinse it out. They're handmade in the US. They're certainly not cheap. I think this is $250 plus, $280 bucks. $250, yeah. Yeah. It's really, really top-notch. Um, and, and if you, if you're someone who travels, you, you do use a dop kit a lot. I don't use it much at home, but, uh, you know, um, if, when you get a good dop kit, you know, to carry all of your stuff, whether it's your spare watch, your strap changing tool, your toothbrush, your cologne, your, um, shampoo, whatever you carry in there. Um, it's just a really top-notch product and Fraser kit company is just worth checking out anyway. They're on, They're on Instagram and they have a nice Instagram feed and their website's full of, uh, kind of a handful of products. They don't have a huge product line. It's a small company, but they do, they really focus on sort of travel kit as the name implies. Uh, they make a kind of an aviator style sort of shoulder bag, kind of a carry on bag. Um, and then, uh, the stop kit, which I've had a chance to check out. So, um, really, really well-made, big, durable, very classic. Uh, so yeah, check it out.
Jason Heaton Very cool, yeah. I use one from Tumi that I don't really like. Yeah. It was a gift. Yeah. And it's just barely... It's because it's just not like it's a half a centimeter too short to comfortably get a toothbrush in the little travel case for a toothbrush. Oh, sure, yeah. So you have to force it in past the zipper, which is kind of annoying. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I could see this. This one's very large, so if you have a lot to carry, that's a plus. Right. If you're trying to be very minimal, maybe not. Right, right. But I think that this is probably big enough for most guys, like even at their home kit. Yeah. If you want to, you know, keep things off the counter, put it under, you know, next to the sink or something then. Right. It looks super high quality. Yeah. Really, really pretty. Yeah.
James Stacey Good materials, good craftsmanship. Yeah.
Jason Heaton All the stuff we like. Good pick. And my last one is maybe one I recommend with more aggression than even the third man. And this is a podcast called Dissect. It's from Spotify and A handful of people wrote me in about this, too many people for me to thank everyone. Oh, wow. But on a previous episode of Hodinkee Radio, I referenced my rekindling my love of Frank Ocean's Blonde. Yeah. And what I got was a number of DMs and probably in excess of a dozen emails telling me to listen to Dissect, which is a long form podcast where they break down songs. And they devoted an entire season, it's gotta be 21, 22 episodes in total, to breaking down Channel Orange, the precursor album to Blonde and then to Blonde. And you pretty much get 45 minutes to a song. Oh, wow. Give or take. Wow. And it goes into the musical structure, background interviews with Frank and other people who worked on the album. He goes into time signatures and chord progressions, and then all of the lyrics as well. Yeah. to give you a real idea of what's being said. And man, I thought I liked Blonde before. Whole different level of respect for what Frank Ocean's creating. The first season of Dissect was for Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp a Butterfly, and now they're working on The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, another incredible album. But if you have any interest in something, in any of those three, I guess we'll call it four albums, because there's two albums from Ocean. Yeah. If you have any interest in those, the production level is insane. They're working with masters, so he'll be talking and then he can pull out everything and just leave one of the three drum beats or one of the two pianos. Oh, wow. So I love it. If you remember the Behind the Disc series that used to be out where they would have Roger Waters would be sitting at a mixing panel explaining why breathe sounds the way it sounds, and he would pull a bunch of tracks and mute it and be like, well, this is what we're thinking about. It's all that kind of stuff, but it's done from this guy that runs Dissect. It's an absolutely incredible podcast. And if you're used to listening to a podcast like this, or it's a couple people talking, or a comedy podcast or something, it's an entirely different side of your brain. And I put it on and started what was a fairly long flight back from Geneva, and that flight disappeared.
Unknown Wow.
Jason Heaton I just sat there like totally engrossed, did not get anywhere near as much work done as I should have. I can't recommend this one enough, Dissect Podcast. Very cool.
James Stacey It's in the show notes. Awesome. Well, that was a good long show. I think we covered SIHH pretty thoroughly, at least from a TGN perspective. And boy, before you know it, it'll be Basel.
Jason Heaton Oh, it's going to be Basel so soon. I got to catch up on some sleep before then.
James Stacey Well, as always, thanks so much for listening and a big thanks to Hodinkee for supporting the show and to Drive Coffee for sponsoring this episode. 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 follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write to thegraynado at gmail.com or add them to the comments on the Hodinkee post for this podcast. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout this episode was Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from The Amazing Explorer and Panerai Ambassador Mike Horne who said, If you worry, you die. If you don't worry, you also die. So why worry?