The Grey Nato - Ep 77 - Face To Face At The Bremont Townhouse 2019
Published on Thu, 28 Mar 2019 06:00:19 -0400
Synopsis
This episode is a recording from the Bremont Townhouse event in New York City. Jason Heaton and James Stacey discuss the new watch releases from Bremont, including the Armed Forces range with a broadsword field watch, arrow chronograph, and argonaut diver. They also cover updates to the Supermarine 300 and 2000 dive watches, a new edition of the MB3 watch celebrating Bremont's 10th anniversary with Martin Baker, and tweaks to the women's Solo line. They share their overall impressions of Bremont as a brand and specific models they're interested in.
The hosts also discuss some of Bremont's ambassadors like adventurer Nirmal Purja who is attempting to summit all 14 peaks over 8,000 meters in less than 8 months. For final notes, James recommends the film "Arctic" with Mads Mikkelsen playing a pilot stranded in the Arctic, while Jason suggests following the "Strange Planet" comic on Instagram for its clever commentary on human behavior through an alien lens.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nado, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 77 and we thank you for listening. Hey there, we're face to face. Hey, what's going on? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we are on a high floor of a townhouse here in New York City. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, we only get this a couple times a year to do it face to face and I know that recent listeners might remember the one we did with Oris. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | in Colorado and now we're both in New York City like we mentioned on episode 76 for the Bremont Townhouse. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, we just recorded a couple of days ago. I flew out this morning and I will be flying home tomorrow morning. So it's a very quick turnaround for me, but we packed some stuff in. We met for lunch today. I got to pop in at the Hodinkee offices and say hi to a few folks. And now we had a beer in the hotel where I'm staying. And now we wandered over to this beautiful townhouse where actually we were last year as well. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, so there's probably enough new listeners from last year to this year that it's worth explaining. Obviously, I think a lot of TGN listeners would know Bremont, obviously a British brand led by two brothers, the English brothers. And it's sport watches, kind of masculine sport watches, a line of really nice women's watches. And they've been around for quite a while. It's hard and steel. It's, you know, if you don't know Bremont at all, I highly encourage you to swing by their website and check it out. And they, they backed out of Baselworld a couple of years ago. It's not a great position for a British brand and they, you know, you're fighting against all your other possible competitors for anyone's time. And they run their own event, which they call the townhouse. It was originally just in London. Then it was split into two phases, London and New York. So North American Press comes to the New York one. And this is the second year they've done it here at this really impressive townhouse on Lafayette Street in NoHo. And it's lovely. |
| James Stacey | It is. So this space is actually, I don't know who it's owned by per se, but it's actually serves as a demo space for Macintosh high-end, high-fidelity audio gear. You know, I think it's probably, what, five stories high, faces the street here, beautiful, you know, wood floors, coved ceilings, big, giant, you know, meeting space downstairs and a kitchen, etc. And then every room has this exquisite, really expensive-looking audio gear. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, we're sitting in front of what's got to be $100,000 worth of Macintosh gear and then a set of lovely Sonos Faber speakers. It's a treat. I do hope that after this, the little party is actually going to start in about 30 minutes. So it'll be a shorter episode than normal, but we'll pack in plenty. But after this, we'll go down. Hopefully, I can go down one floor, procure maybe a glass of whiskey, if such would exist in these places, and try out. There's a crazy stereo that we listened to last year that I'd love to hear again, especially if if they happen to have the ability. I brought some lossless audio this time. Oh, cool. Just in case I keep it in my bag when we do really good car reviews. Yeah. Uh, so if I could hear some Wolf Peck on a, on a, you know, $200,000 worth of a stereo downstairs, that'd be pretty fun. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So, I mean, you know, James and I have a bit of history with Braymont. I mean, they're kind of a brand that aligns nicely with, with the whole TGN vibe, you know, very outdoorsy kind of a bit of a, you know, military vibe, climbing, diving, that sort of stuff. And their ambassadors are really cool people. They've got, you know, polar explorers and mountaineers and that sort of thing. And the brothers are really, you know, lovely folks, Giles and Nick English. And Giles is here. We chatted with him earlier tonight when we arrived. Nick is off doing kind of a similar event in Australia and then Hong Kong. And so it's always fun to catch up with those guys. And then, of course, there's a lot of the New York watch press is here. Zach from A Blog to Watch is here and Logan from Watch Time and a few other folks. And and then they kind of just throw a big party. So they did a watch presentation, which we'll talk about briefly the new watches but then they kind of open it up and and they have you know music and cocktails and canapes and And in this space, it's just it's just a lot of fun to come up shoulders and chat with folks Yeah, and it's not just it's not just watch folks that come to this. |
| Jason Heaton | It's a lot of like New York There's no fashion elements. There's some influencers. It's that sort of thing but for these sorts of presentations that they do earlier in the day it is kind of our normal circle that you see in, certainly when you're doing the press circuit for watches. And it's nice because it's, you know, it's 20 people maybe and they did two waves today and you get a chance to, you know, grab a watch out of a case and get a picture if that's what you want. You do some social media or whatever. And certainly that's the context in which, you know, Jason and I are here is to actually get a chance to see the new pieces and maybe decide if there's something we'd like to review later on. |
| James Stacey | Right. And just to insert here, if you hear a lot of background noise, it's because the The party is kind of getting ramped up downstairs and more and more people are arriving. |
| Jason Heaton | So I'll do my best with the audio, but there's only so much you could do with these kinds of live scenarios. And we figured it more important to be able to do it face to face than you know, it'd be a normal kind of studio. |
| James Stacey | And I think this is the third year we've done a live recording out of Bramont townhouse. I think we, I believe so. It's kind of become a tradition of ours. And, um, also, um, you know, got to give a shout out to our good friend, Mike Pearson, who was back, he's back. He was with Bramont for years. I think from the beginning he kind of built Bramont to what it is in the U S today. Um, then he left for a year, two years maybe to kind of, uh, wander in the wilderness, so to speak with some other jobs. And now he's back and we're really happy to see him and wish Mike all the best. It just feels right. Picking up with Braymont. It feels right now. The universe is aligned again. So, you know, why don't we, so we can, you know, get on with the partying later on here. Why don't we jump in and talk about some of the new watches? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think that makes sense. So the, I guess the new stuff is broadly broken into sort of four, maybe five categories. The most notable is a new armed forces range with the Her Majesty's Armed Forces. Yeah. So it's essentially their MOD, a modern MOD sort of watch, and it comes in three models, a 40 millimeter kind of field watch with a sub seconds, which is called the broad sword, and then a two register chronograph with a date, which is called the arrow, and that's 42 millimeters. And then finally, a 42 millimeter kind of compressor style, so a re-hut, spinning re-hut diver, called the Argonaut, which is also, like I said, 42 millimeters. Interestingly, they're all the hardened steel, which has worked really well for the Bremont that I've owned, which is an older Solo now. It's a really impressive thing that they just don't scratch that much at all. But in this case, to achieve a lower price point, they've opted away from their Triptych three-piece case. So it's a traditional two-piece steel case, but it's fully hardened. I held it in my hand. It feels great. The 40 millimeter version, I really like the broadsword. It's a handsome watch. And then of course they are actually, uh, you know, finding official military applications for these within the British military. And, uh, and it's the first time I mean, Braymont, if you know your Braymont history has supplied watches to the military for some time, usually customized for air forces and things like that. This'll be the first time that it's the same watch that would be sold to a civilian as is supplied via the, uh, |
| James Stacey | Yeah. According to Giles earlier tonight, he said that, um, you know, because of Bramont's history, making these sort of, uh, bespoke, uh, edition watches for, um, different regiments and squadrons, uh, you know, finally the, the, the ministry of defense in the UK just approached them and said, you know, we, we really kind of would like to do more of a formalized partnership with you guys and with watches that you can sell to civilians. And, and the styling of these is, um, It's a bit of a departure for Bremont. I think you would probably recognize certain elements of this if you're any sort of a military watch buff. They kind of took inspiration from the 12 watches known as the Dirty Dozen from the 12 different brands that supplied the UK military back in the 40s. So they've got kind of those big rounded Arabic numerals, fairly stark white on black dials, and just kind of pretty straight up steel cases, as James mentioned, no Triptych case, that they sort of kept that bit of the Bremont vibe on the sides of the case. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, with those sort of texturing. Those kind of lines, yeah. Milled into the side of the case. You know, I think it's interesting because the chronograph, at one moment, it looks very similar to an Alt-C. Yeah, yeah. But then you realize, oh, it's a monopusher, which is pretty cool. And it's super legible, so it has elements. It's almost like they crossed a C with a Z. Yeah. And, and then leaned a little bit more on the military side. It doesn't have much color. You know, there's a, there's a nice kind of a triangle at the end of the second hand. And beyond that, it's just like balanced and legible. 42 millimeters literally feels to me better than 43. I've gotten so used to Bramonts being 43. My solo is 43 and to see it, to see it at 42 in the mono pusher, I think it's a really cool chronograph. I think it's a, it's kind of a smart design. |
| James Stacey | Well, monopushers are just not common. You just don't see many of them and it just adds this bit of asymmetry to it that I quite like. I think of the three, that would be my pick. I mean, I'm not a huge chronograph guy, but that one, I like the broadsword. I think that the date window detracts a little bit for me on the broadsword. Yeah, it's a three o'clock date window. isn't quite as distinctive as some of their other divers. |
| Jason Heaton | I would say it's the biggest departure from their aesthetic though. Yeah. It has no connection to their other dive watch designs. And then I do have the US pricing. So for anyone who's interested, the broadsword now exists as the entry level to the Bremont range at $34.45. And then the Argonaut, which is the diver at $36.95. And the Arrow, this is again a monopusher chronograph that uses... Chronometer certified, hardened steel. Yeah. That uses a Swiss, uh, like a modified Swiss movement. The entire watch is of course, uh, cased and certified and everything in, uh, England, just outside of London. And that's at 47, 45. So you're under four grand or yeah. So you're under five grand with, uh, with that. And I, you know, I think as always the pricing, the pricing, it's reflexive, right? These, there were days where your entry level Bremont was $4,800 and then they've come down, they've They found new sizes, they're expanding as a brand, and I think that this is an interesting line that I don't even think, you know, one, you can't put an MOD arrow on a watch that's sold publicly. That's for watches that are owned by the government, the British government. So the only thing that would really set this off, aside from the case back, which has the insignias of all three branches of the British military, is the, you know, in a only lightly contrasting text says HMAF, Her Majesty's Armed Forces. Other than that, it's just kind of a nice looking Bremont. They're nicely sized. I think they're well priced. And I think if they want to continue to provide competition for the IWCs and the Breitlings of the world, I think that this is the sort of product and price point where it's not just another chronograph. They want the monopusher angle, and it's not just another version of a field watch that they might already have. It's different than an Airco. Yeah. I think that they're iterating nicely with these. And in person, I really liked the broadsword, which is good, because that's their entry-level spot. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So, you know, obviously, I think this collection, the Armed Forces collection, is the big news this year for them. They had a tweak to, if we want to move on to the next watch, I mean, I think the Supermarine 300, which is a watch that was introduced maybe two years ago? |
| Jason Heaton | Two years. I guess we saw the Supermarines at Was that in the London times? In London. Yeah. Yeah. Three years ago. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So this is their smaller dive watch. They do a Supermarine range and the 500 is a 43 millimeter diver. That was their first. The 2000 is the big boy. That's a 45 millimeters, big 2000 meter water resistant watch. The 300 is their 40 millimeter diver. And that watch has really grown on me. I mean, I wasn't smitten with it when we first saw it, but boy, I really liked that watch. And now this year, white dial, with a beautiful blue ceramic bezel. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah. And they have it in all the photos and then in the sample here on a sort of very chunky blue and cream sort of NATO, which I don't like one bit. I think this watch would just sing on brown leather, simple brown leather. Yeah, you're right. The S300 is a couple of years old now. So this is, again, the line is growing a little bit. It's a nice thin 40 millimeter dive watch, it uses the three piece case, it uses the great crystal, it uses the hardened steel, and it now, you know, they had a quite an iridescent blue model, two versions of the black one, one more vintagey, one more just kind of clean and modern, and then now they have this white dial, and obviously, I mean, I'm long on record as a complete sucker for white dials, and I think this one's really cool, I don't like it on the NATO that they have it on, it's a little bit too much strap for the watch, for a 40 millimeter watch, but I think if you found a tapered, leather strap for this, or a Milanese bracelet might look really cool with the blue and the white. And the blue's a little on the subtle side. It still has a red marker at 12. These are really nice kind of consumer dive watches. And then what you're looking at in terms of the price point for that is 4,100 bucks, $4,095. |
| James Stacey | Solid diver. I think it probably arguably fits a lot of people's sort of wrists and tastes, especially modern tastes. People are going a little smaller these days than than the other Supermarine watches. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and with that one, they've paired with a really interesting ambassador, who I'm not sure if they have in here. Yeah, his name is Nirmal Purja, and he goes by Nims, and he's... Two people have emailed us about him, by the way, to send me the same YouTube video. He's an incredible dude. |
| James Stacey | He is, and so he's Nepalese, and he was part of the Gurkha Regiment in the British Army, but he was also part of the Special Forces, so he was... I believe the only Nepalese member to date of the Special Boat Service of the SBS. And he also happens to have this incredible aptitude for high altitudes. Yeah, and so NIMS is planning to embark on this incredible sort of expedition or long-term project called Project Possible in which he's planning to summit all 14 of the peaks over 8,000 meters in the world in less than |
| Jason Heaton | Eight months. Eight months. Yeah. Whereas it's one season he's doing. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Whereas, um, you know, usually this takes years. I mean many years to do this stuff. Um, so you know, more power to him. He's, he's, he's looking for fundraising at this point cause basically he's quit his day job to travel around the world and get permits and fly everywhere and drum up gear and all that sort of thing. And Braymont is supporting them as best they can. But, um, you know, check this guy out. Um, he's, he's worth watching. Um, if nothing else, I mean, it's just a, it's really a tremendous effort. |
| Jason Heaton | So he's going to be wearing one of these white S three hundreds on his wrist for it. They've got some pretty wild pictures already of him trucking around some pretty high peaks with, uh, with a brain on a wrist, but to have, you know, to go the route with the dive watch is, uh, I think kind of fun. And, and I mean, as far as projects go, that's kind of buck wild. There aren't people keep trying to push, you know, fastest known times on big routes and, and, and to do, to go for. to go for such an insane, he's essentially going to attempt to do, you know, all of the peaks in what would typically be the season where a person would accomplish one of those peaks, or maybe one or two, if you chained two mountains together to stay at altitude. And apparently his ability to recover from these things is beyond anyone else in the game right now. Really exciting and if we can, you know, I think that's something we should probably follow at some length and see how he's doing and certainly if we can, you know, kind of encourage Braymont to connect us with maybe a phone call from him somewhere on route, we'll make that into some sort of a little interview if we can. |
| James Stacey | I mean, just to put it into perspective, you know, Braymont has another ambassador, Jake Meyer, who summited K2 this year after, I think it was his third attempt or maybe second attempt. Pretty good for K2. Third attempt. You know, K2, arguably the hardest mountain in the world to climb. is the second highest in the world. Um, and it, it took him two or three efforts over years. And so to, to, to think that you can do Everest K2, you know, some of these others, uh, Annapurna, maybe Kanchenjunga, you know, some of these other mountains that are over 8,000 meters, um, is that's a tall order. Absolutely. |
| Jason Heaton | Pardon the pun, but yeah, it's a, it's something that we could probably dig into more on another, on another episode when we have more of the literature in front of us. But the, um, It, I mean, it would be one of the, one of the athletic achievements of the, certainly of the decade and in, in mountaineering. Yeah. I mean, I believe, I believe Giles said this and I remember reading it or seeing it in the video that would, that some listeners sent in that the previous, the previous time this was done was something like seven, seven years, several months. Yeah. Yeah. So wild. And then keeping with the divers, the other kind of new offering is an update to the watch that you have on your wrist. And it's quite a big update as far as the aesthetics go. It goes in a different direction. It kind of ties into the S500 changes we saw last year. |
| James Stacey | Right. So this is the Supermarine 2000, the S2000. |
| Jason Heaton | The S2000. So we're holding at a 45 millimeter three-piece hardened case. It's a kind of really lovely... What would you call it? It's almost like a domed... I guess you'd call it domed. So the sapphire ring that covers the bezel, that covers a loomed bezel insert, is domed almost like you'd see on some vintage Blancpain. Yes. Things like that. And the way it catches the light is remarkable. These things are very big. You obviously like it. I put one on and it's too big for my wrist, but man, do I really like this overall aesthetic? I think they've done a good job. Yours is a little bit more classic. And these, they've taken some of the stuff from the new line of the S500s and cleaned up the dial a little bit. You know, it has this kind of funky red tip on the minute hand, and there's a yellow version and a red version as far as the accent colors, and I think it looks pretty sharp. |
| James Stacey | What do you figure? I mean, I love the S2000. You know, it's not a watch for everybody, and I think with trends kind of veering a little smaller these days, again, you know, this is going to be a personal taste kind of thing, and certainly this is a watch you want to try on before you pull the trigger on. In terms of just aesthetics, they really did a nice job. The one that I have, the original one, has this sort of vertical corduroy texture down the middle of the dial. Now they've kind of done away with that and they're doing more of a, what would you call it? It's like a crosshatch? Crosshatch or hobnail or something. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, a hobnail is probably more accurate and it's not surrounded by a railway. It's a little bit more minimal, it's a little bit more punchy. Really a nice update. I think they've done a nice job and that is priced from $5,600. It goes up to $6,000 roughly if you go with a bracelet. And that's a flagship within the brand. It's also a very niche product. They probably don't produce many of them. How many do you figure they even made? I mean, we could ask, we could find out, but they couldn't have made that many of the original S2000. So it was one of these things where they were either gonna update it or stop making it. So I think that if you're gonna update it, what they've done in terms of the style and the way it feels in your hand is great. And if you like a 45 millimeter watch, if you like a great big dive watch, I think that this is a, I mean, roughly as tough as they come. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And then, um, I think, I guess the other significant update, at least in the men's line is the, um, so this is the 10th anniversary of their collaboration with Martin Baker, the ejection seat company. Um, probably their best known watch. I would say so. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| James Stacey | The most iconic, at least I think their most original and I don't know, arguably my favorite actually, it's the, the MB series. So they started out with the MB1, which is only available to purchase if you've ejected from a plane in a Martin Baker ejection seat. Then came the MB2, which is the civilian version of that. And then a few years ago, the MB3, which has a GMT hand and a 24-hour scale on the inner rotating ring. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | So 43 millimeters. It uses a Bremont modified version of Edo's GMT movement. So it's an independent 24-hour hand. It uses a matched 24-hour bezel. So you don't actually use it like a standard GMT, you can run it as an offset, so the 24 hour hand actually becomes pretty functional when it's supported by a 24 hour bezel. 100 meter water resist, it's 43 millimeters, it's the stainless steel, and the coloring for this limited edition is kind of a titanium tan gray color for the center barrel. So the barrel color means something for some of the MBs, the red ones are for people who had purchased them post ejection. Right. And then they've come in several different colors since then, and it's just kind of like you don't see the color with dead on. It's just kind of like for you or... Yeah. |
| James Stacey | It just kind of shows off a bit, and they're kind of fun that way, and... I think the biggest addition to this one that makes this one fairly unique is the case back engraving is of one of Martin Baker's ejection seats, but then on the dial is that triangle danger logo that you always see on the side of fighter jets that indicate that there's an ejection seat case. You're rescuing a pilot and you know, you don't want to rip the canopy off and just yank a yellow and black handle and have the ejection seat explosively discharge in front of you. Yeah, so they're making 310 of these. You know, I'm guessing they'll go fairly quickly. I mean, this is a really popular model of theirs anyway. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm guessing there's kind of enough aviation geeks within the overall Bremont sphere. And then, you know, it's an LE with a small price premium over the normal MB3, so it's $55.95. is the price point for this one. And I would probably just go for a standard white dial MB3. I think that's a killer watch and really fun. And it's also, I like these ones because they wear smaller than 43. Like my Solo is also 43 and it wears every millimeter of it. There's something about the MB3s that, you know, if I was going back when I got my Solo in white, they didn't have a white MB3, they didn't have a white MB2 either. And now to have the option, I think this is one of their best watches. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Really, really cool. Yeah. So that kind of rounds out the men's collection. The only other kind of new watches this year is on the women's side. They always had a Solo 37, which was kind of a unisex watch on a smaller side than your 43 millimeter Solo. Then they introduced just a couple of years ago a 32 millimeter Solo, more of a kind of a full-on ladies' watch. |
| Jason Heaton | And other pearl dials and a lot more polished finishing and things like that. |
| James Stacey | I think they did some with diamonds and white straps and that sort of thing. Tastefully done, you know, very Bremont. Chronometer certified movements, etc. This year they've replaced the 32mm case size with a 34mm case size and they've actually done away with the Solo 32, so it's only going to be 34mm. I guess it's easier to chronometer certify uh, larger movements, um, and manufacture this, this particular watch. So that was kind of the rationale as well as I think, you know, 34 is kind of a nice size. I mean, I, I don't, I'm not going to wear either. So, uh, uh, it doesn't matter to me, but I think that's kind of what they found and that's what they're, they're planning to do for their, uh, their ladies line. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think that's, uh, that the evolution of that line seems to make sense. And I'm sure that they either had, you know, people looking at it and asking for something a little larger or buying it and asking for something a little larger. Yeah. And I think they look, I mean, they're very similar in style to the previous line. So it looks like a strong thing and it's cool that there aren't that many like masculine brands that make a genuine effort to make a real mechanical ladies lineup. And I think that they do a nice job. You know, I'm holding one hand with a microphone and the other I'm kind of flipping through their catalog. They make a lot of watches now. They do. It's been 10 years. They got a lot of SKUs. There's the Airco, there's the, you know... All the kind of original line, and then you have the Boeing line. Yeah, you're right. I always forget about the Boeing line. Yeah. And a lot of... Jaguar line, you know, all that stuff. And it's funny because, like, you can kind of see, like, an aesthetic that's drawn across all of them, but then they all kind of have a distinctive flavor as well. You know, I don't even know. What would you... If you were getting one today, what do you like? Oh, boy. Is it still an MB? |
| James Stacey | So I have an MB2, white, and I have the Supermarine 2000, and I think I would like one of their chronographs. I mean, I'm still really drawn to their first offering, which was the Alt-1C, and they did that in like that cream or that white dial. The cream dial, yeah, for sure. Beautiful. They did one of the, I think it was cream dial with like, or no, they did that British Racing green dial. With the silver sub-dials. Beautiful. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that was great looking. I love those watches. For sure. Yeah, I mean, from what they've got right now, I really like the white Aircos. I mean, there's two. There's the dressier, probably the dressier one would be kind of fun, but either. I think that those are, and they wear really well. They wear like a smaller 40. Otherwise, I mean, like the MBs are good. I still really like my Solo. It's just big. I bought this watch in 2012 and my tastes have just aired closer to high thirties. Certainly into 40, low 40s. And, you know, I put this on another strap today and it looks great. I really do love wearing it, but it just, I look down at it, it's just a big watch. |
| James Stacey | There was a guy, so I, just a shout out in case you happen to be a TGN listener, there was a guy on my flight from Minneapolis to New York today that was in the row ahead of me. And I saw him loading his bag up above and he hopped into his seat. And he was wearing a white dial solo, which you never see. For one thing, I never see, Braemont does not have a retailer to date in Minneapolis. And you just don't see many Braemonts in the wild, much less a white dial solo. Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to accost the guy in the plane or in the airport. He kind of hustled out ahead of me. But if you happen to be a listener and you were on that Minneapolis to LaGuardia flight, good on you for wearing that watch. |
| Jason Heaton | It's pretty cool. The number of times I've ever seen Braemonts in the wild, I think maybe three times ever. And sometimes they're at spots where you kind of expect to see them. It's weird that you would see, yeah, like, unless the guy was coming to this. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that kind of, I mean, that does wrap up the new offerings. And what I like about Bramont is like, they come here with, you know, kind of four updates. I mean, you've got the MB3, you know, the MB 10th anniversary edition, the S2000 updates, um, the white S300, which is just a different dial color, um, the armed forces, and then this lady's watch. And it's, it's a compact offering, but it's, it's very solid this year. It felt like a good, a good, set of updates for them. |
| Jason Heaton | The other fun tidbit, I would fully agree, it does seem like a good offering. The other one that is interesting to me is the watch that I kind of thought was the most niche from last year was their number two best-selling watch this year, the U2 Jet. Oh, right. So that's the all-black U2. It's a massively cool watch. If you like an all-black watch, it's kind of big. It's a U2, so it's based on an MB2 style case, but it has the sort of even more aviation inspired dial, and then they put it in a black case. And I guess it's not that surprising, but the reason, what you would attribute its success to is it was in, Tom Hardy wore it in the new Spider-Man, the Venom movie. Venom, yeah. And apparently, it's not a thing where there's a shot where it's square to frame like in Kingsman or lots of other placements, you know, watch placements. He just has it in the movie. And then it's, you know, Tom Hardy's a big deal. And the trailer was seen something like 65 million times in two days or something. And, uh, apparently that made it, it made it their kind of number two watch. I don't know. I should have asked. I didn't even ask. I didn't even think to ask what their number one was. And when, when you say that you're like this watch, that's like, like, if you imagine a, uh, Bremont display case, like the U2 jet is off on one side, exactly. Right. You know what I mean? Like it's not, it doesn't sit in there court. And then for that to be, So that's cool. Maybe that means they found like kind of a newer, bigger audience via those sorts of connections. But they have this kind of endless list of ambassadors that are oddly keyed into like actual things. So like they don't have that many actors out there wearing their stuff. It's like they're buddies, I guess, with Tom Hardy and he just likes their watches. So that's what he does. He'll occasionally post these insane things on Instagram where he's just like rambling about a watch and holding it up out of focus. He can be kind of an entertaining follow on Instagram for sure. And these Marvel movies are huge. You have to assume a lot of people watching them don't know what a Bramon is versus another watch. I mean, you see these movies that have like Huge brands right involved in my guess is most people watching one don't even think to look at a watch But when they do they don't know what they're looking at when they Google it and then they Google Yeah, what was Tom Hardy wearing and venom and it's like oh, that's a brand and then I want that one. |
| James Stacey | Yeah That's kind of how I got to my planet ocean in Casino Royale back in 2006. |
| Jason Heaton | I was just going to say, I think I kind of wrongly roll my eyes at this kind of stuff. But then you think, there's a lot of people who go, what is James Bond's watch? And they don't realize that Omega, like you, I take it for granted. We know we came at it, maybe even the other, or I guess you came at it that way. I may have come at it the other way around, where I knew Omega, and then made the James Bond connection. But other people come at it from Bond, or come at it from Venom, or come at it from something else, which I think is kind of interesting. I always wonder if any of that's successful, and I guess it is. That's why they keep doing it. |
| James Stacey | I guess it is. And the thing about Braymont, too, is that, okay, so Tom Hardy isn't technically an ambassador, but I love their ambassadors. I mean, they get these special forces guys, this guy Ross Edgley, who'd swam around Great Britain. This is insane. This guy's a monster. I mean, you should see this picture of him. He looks like a bodybuilder, but he's this nice guy. He looks like he could pick up Aquaman and throw him. Yeah, and he swam around Great Britain in 144 days or something like that, and they have him wearing the new S2000 this year. They have, you know, our old chums, you know, Ben Saunders, the polar explorer, and Jake Meyer, the mountaineer. But, you know, then they've got Aldo Kane, who if you watch any of their recent videos on social media, he's this, you know, particularly, you know, one of these classic British special forces hard guys with a big bushy beard and real, you know, ruggedly built. And he's, you know, rappelling down a cliff or diving with a rebreather or something like that. And, you know, these guys are, they're kind of the real deal. I mean, certainly ambassadors are, you know, you can take them or leave them and it's all about um, you know, getting watches on cool people's wrists, but I, I happen to kind of gravitate towards their brand of ambassadors. |
| Jason Heaton | I was also really excited. Uh, I should, I'll, I will put this in the show notes to just cause this isn't going to be a lot of notes in this, uh, in this one, but, uh, our guy Henry catch pool, who we've talked about so many times is one of my absolute favorite, uh, auto reviewers. He is wearing a U-2 jet in a recent video that they did. So it must have been, you know, he's been wearing a Speedy for years in these videos on a NATO and then occasionally a G-Shock or two and then boom, this U-2 jet. And I was like, I don't know if that's, I should ask. I'll ask Giles and we can follow up, you know, if possible. He would be really fun to have on and chat with the show. And I always kind of hoped that we would cross paths while I was doing with all the automotive coverage, but it hasn't happened yet. Maybe sometime in the future, but I just get excited when I can tell that somebody in a similar sphere, he's very much into bicycling. Yeah, he's very much into cycling and that sort of thing. So it was fun. And I guess maybe that's a Tom Hardy thing. Who knows, right? Who knows? Yeah. Just a cool watch. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I mean, I think if our enthusiasm comes through, I mean, we're longtime Bremont fans, and I know that there are a lot of people aren't or don't get it or think they're too expensive or too much marketing hype, et cetera, et cetera. You know, buy what you like, follow the brands you like. We happen to be, you know, Braymont fans for the most part. I mean, no brand is perfect, but it's always fun to kind of see them, that the people are really nice at the brand and we just like the watches. |
| Jason Heaton | Absolutely. Yeah. At a product level, I connected with Braymont as I was just getting into kind of really into writing about watches. And like the way we like AORUS and the way we like Tudor, you like the people behind the brands and you see the way that they operate and you see the product aligns with these sorts of conditions. And you and I both have money in Bremont. I enjoy their product enough to pay for it. So that is what it is. And yeah, I think it's cool to get to experience this brand outside of a Basel world or something like that, where you see them for five minutes and you take as many pictures as you can and then you move on. This is a chance to actually sit down and you can talk to people at length and you can ask all sorts of questions and it's a little bit more personal and this way they can make sure that it's about them, not about having 20 minutes. |
| James Stacey | Right. Yeah. Well, I mean, I think that probably covers Bremont townhouse for 2019. We can jump into final notes and then we can move on to whatever's happening downstairs here. |
| Jason Heaton | For sure. So as I can hear the music getting louder downstairs, I think we're going to go each with, and we did just record an episode that went live. We'll go live tomorrow as we're recording this. So we don't have a lot more final notes, but I think each of us have one. You want to jump in? |
| James Stacey | Sure. Yeah. So mine is, it's a movie. Lately, you might have noticed a theme with me and my final notes and my interests. We've had a proper winter in Minneapolis. I've been in kind of this polar Arctic exploration mode for the past three months. And I promise this is my last one, at least till next winter. The movie Arctic, so maybe you've seen previews. It's a feature film. It's in theaters right now. It's actually really only one actor in the movie. And his name is Mads Mikkelsen. You might remember him from Casino Royale. He played Le Chiffre, the bad guy. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Great actor. He's excellent. I think he played a better Hannibal than Anthony Hopkins in the show from a few years back, Bryan Singer's show. |
| James Stacey | I really enjoy his work. And in this one, it's a very different character for him, but he plays a pilot of a downed aircraft somewhere in the Arctic. |
| Unknown | Oh, wow. |
| James Stacey | Maybe Northern Canada, Alaska, Greenland, wherever. Doesn't say. The movie kind of just drops you in the scene where he has been stranded in the Arctic and he's living out of this shell of a plane. Um, and then it's all about his survival as well as a disastrous rescue effort and, and, and the results of that and then how he attempts to get to safety. And I'm not going to, you know, I don't want to give any spoilers, but it was beautifully shot. Um, I think a movie like this has to be very, very difficult to act and direct and everything because it's, it's literally one guy. There is another character in it, but there's not a speaking role. And he's, um, you know, it's all a lot of closeups. It's a lot of activity. It's a lot of, he's not a Superman. He doesn't know everything, but he, he knows just enough and he's savvy enough and makes the right effort to kind of keep himself alive. And it's, it's just interesting to watch, you know, a couple episodes ago on a final note, I give this story and outside about, you know, what, what happens when you freeze to death. We've talked about, you know, other polar explorations and things like this. And this one is just sort of along those lines, but in a fictionalized version, really, really, um, Well done. It kind of reminded me a little bit of that Robert Redford movie where he was sailing and he was lost at sea. Alone at sea. Yeah. But I think this was better. I mean, I really enjoyed it and beautifully shot. |
| Jason Heaton | Robert Redford is great. Let's not take anything away from Redford. No, of course. But Mads Mikkelsen is one of the best actors working today. Yeah, yeah. |
| James Stacey | He's incredible. So, you know, this is, it's not an obscure film. It's probably still in theaters as you're listening to this or by now maybe on iTunes or Netflix or something, but check it out. Arctic |
| Jason Heaton | Very cool. I'm glad to have something to watch. Certainly, getting used to Toronto means I'm inside a little bit more than I would be. And it's cold. Yeah, that's what I mean. It's chilly. I'm inside a little bit more. Yeah, so Arctic sounds great. So my final notes this week is an Instagram account that is at nearly 640,000 followers. So I'm sure some of you have already got it, but it's become the one that I actually will go and check So like when I get up, instead of scrolling until I find it, I go to the search page and look for it. And it's Nathan W. Pyle, strange planet. My guess is if you type Nathan, N-A-T-H-A-N-W, you'll hit it. It's a little pink avatar with a blue alien, like kind of cartoon alien. And these are these incredible single, like, you know, they're in a square for Instagram comic, a simple kind of comic strip. And it's about aliens deconstructing these weird elements of humanity. So, you know, they're marveling over a cat and how it lives in this huge apartment, but wants to play only in a box. And then the final frame it's zoomed out of the apartment where the people are in the box. It's that sort of thing. Sure. Some of these are a little bit hard to explain, but they joke, they joke about like the absurdity of daily context as a human by removing the part that's human. Yeah. So you read it as, you read it without the context and you have to kind of put together what they're talking about. Yeah. I think it's insanely clever. It's super fun. It's definitely my favorite thing on Instagram currently. So I highly recommend Nathan W. Pyle Strange Planet, the Instagram account. Give it a follow. It's, uh, yeah, they're hilarious. |
| James Stacey | I'm going to follow that. I like when Instagram is used in unique ways rather than just, you know, like we all do posting your activities, your travels, your watches, whatever. Um, but it actually is a really good vehicle for, uh, for comic or for sort of, I don't know what you'd call this, but you know, visual, |
| Jason Heaton | Storytelling comic strip like it's the same way you used to have that be part of your daily routine with a newspaper you go read your haggard the horrible you're Whatever it is you're Calvin I think it's really cool. I'm entirely on board They're super super funny, and I'm hoping that I'm hoping that this is a whole world on Instagram And this guy's just the most famous and I'll start getting recommendations of other kind of comic shows because I you know a die-hard Calvin and Hobbes fan huge yeah What's the Gary Larson one? The Farside. The Farside, thank you. I'm a huge fan of the Farside growing up and that kind of thing. So to have kind of a new one that has it, it's obviously they all have their own aesthetic, this has its own aesthetic, but it's an entirely a frame of mind that like as soon as you see the image, you start thinking outside of the like with the conceit. I love it. They're super funny. Yeah, cool. Okay, I guess that just about does it for the Bremont townhouse episode for 2019. As always, thanks so much for listening and a big thanks for Hodinkee for supporting the show. You can hit the show notes via hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at jasonheaton and at jestacy or you can follow the show at TheGreyNado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com or just drop a comment on the post at hodinkee.com. Please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. And don't forget that the music throat is siesta by Jazza via the free music archive. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from Winston Churchill, who said success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm. |