The Grey NATO - Ep 82 - Watches, Adventures, And Ambassadors
Published on Thu, 06 Jun 2019 09:04:46 -0400
Synopsis
The podcast discusses watches and their connection to adventure and exploration. Jason and James talk about their upcoming trips, with Jason going hiking in Wales and James attending the Monaco Grand Prix. They discuss various watches worn by explorers and adventurers, such as Reinhold Messner wearing an Oysterquartz on the first oxygen-less ascent of Everest, and the significance of these connections. They also discuss brand ambassadors like Nims for Bremont, and the value these partnerships offer brands. The episode covers topics like the motivations for wearing certain watches on adventures, the changing role of traditional watches with modern technology, and the ability of watches to inspire and connect people to legacies of exploration.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a Hodinkee podcast. A loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 82 and it's proudly brought to you by Garmin. We thank you so much for listening. |
| James | Hey Jason, how's it going? |
| Jason Heaton | Good, I'm doing well. |
| James | I'm glad to hear it. You're not long for this content. |
| Jason Heaton | Correct, yeah, we fly out tomorrow evening as we're recording this on a, on a Friday. Uh, Ghoshani and I take off on Saturday evening and we'll be in, in England on Sunday morning. And then our trip across to Wales to get things started. So I, you know, I feel like I've been talking about this trip for a couple of episodes now. And ever since I first announced it here, uh, I've gotten a lot of really great feedback and advice from listeners who either live there or have visited there or used to live there. And, you know, it's just, it's almost too much. I'm not complaining. Um, because I've got just copious notes of recommendations and even, you know, where the best coffee is and what the best beaches and all this kind of stuff. So I think it'll be, I think it'll be a blast not to kind of rehash too much here, but, um, you know, if anyone has missed the past couple of episodes, I'm headed over to, to the UK for a family event. Um, next week, actually on D day is the event, although it has nothing to do with D day. Um, And my wife and I are going to take a car and drive over to Wales for four days to do some hiking in Snowdonia, which is where the highest peak in England and Wales is Mount Snowdon. And then, you know, we'll, we'll kind of take, take in that area. There's, there's a lot of, you know, beautiful coastline and little towns and castles and, and small mountains to climb and that sort of thing. And then, uh, after a few days, we're going to drive back to London. And our plan at this point, this might change, but is to drive back through South Wales through the Brecon Beacons, which is the other national park over there that is kind of famous for the long trail that the SAS candidates have to complete a long march. I think it's like 40 miles, and they have to do it in 11 hours or something, carrying a 60-pound pack or something crazy like that. But it's supposed to be another beautiful region. So we're hoping to at least drive through there on the way back to London. And then, you know, in between all of that, we've got this family event, brother-in-law's getting an honor at the Maritime Museum there in Greenwich. So that'll be kind of a fun place to be as well. So I'm, we're, we're both really looking forward to the trip and you know, it's been, it's been a lot of work to kind of piece together kind of an itinerary and get a suitable Airbnb and arrange a car and all that sort of thing. But you know, it's, it's no different than, any sort of international trip. The one piece of advice I've gotten from almost everybody is that it's extremely wet in Wales, especially Snowdonia. They just get a lot of rain. And so, you know, I've got a lot of, um, a lot of rain gear. Um, I'm actually going to be wearing my, uh, uh, Fjallraven Keb pants. And, uh, I'm actually packing along my, I've got this, uh, Musto foul weather jacket that I got, uh, from the Volvo Ocean Race a few years ago. That's probably the most waterproof thing I own. So I'm going to pack that. And then for a camera, I thought I would take along my Nikonas underwater camera, the film camera. It works just as well topside. I'm taking a 35mm lens on it with a couple of rolls of film, some Velvia color film, and then a 3200 ISO Ilford black and white. So I think it'll be kind of moody and picturesque there for, for some kind of fun, fun film shooting. |
| James | That's great. And a solid camera for when it's super rainy. So that's always a safe bet. And I'm glad, yeah, I'm glad the, uh, I'm glad everybody listening was able to chip in a few tips here, there. And I think that we can probably correlate all those into a little follow-up, uh, segment for a future episode so that if anyone else is going to Wales, they'd at least have a list of spots they could check out that had been kind of vetted. |
| Unknown | by yourself. |
| James | Yeah, that's a great idea. The other thing to remember with that, with the Ilford Delta at $3,200, it's pretty sweet at $1,600 as well. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm excited. |
| James | I've never actually shot with that film or the Velvia, so it should be... Yeah, I've never shot Velvia, but I have shot the Ilford before and it's great. I like it a lot. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, speaking of cameras and trips, you just got back from a very different sort of place. You were in Monaco. |
| James | Yeah, it would be hard to get a lot more different than say rural Wales. Uh, yeah, with, uh, with Monaco. Uh, yeah. So I, I went to, um, I went to the formula one Grand Prix with Tag Heuer, uh, you know, covering it for Hoding Key. That was the 50th anniversary of the Monaco, which of course is named after the city, uh, the city state in, um, you know, on the French coastline. And, you know, that's, it's one of those events where you, you kind of, it's, it's a bit like stepping into fast moving water. and you just kind of hang on and keep a camera in each hand and try and get in as much as you can. So by the time this piece goes live, the photo kind of recap of the weekend will be live on Hodinkee. So that'll be in the show notes as well. And, you know, it was kind of cool to see Krennertag Heuer in it's kind of their city. You know, they're the official watch of the Monaco Grand Prix. They have a very famous watch called the Monaco and they, they are supporting a very competitive formula one team in the Aston Martin Red Bull racing, uh, team. And it, uh, it was, it was quite a weekend. I mean, you're, you're out there. It's, uh, it's maybe a little bit fast paced for me. It's a weird complaint. It's not even a complaint, really just a statement. It's like even just finding a few minutes to actually pull images from one of my cards to put it on my phone. So I could do some Instagram stories during the day. Like even that ended up just kind of filling the entire day. Right. Uh, but otherwise, you know, super fancy it's, it's Monaco, it's, it's formula one. It's kind of their biggest weekend. There's a lot of like pomp and circumstance that kind of revolves around the GP as far as celebrity. And of course the Royal family and all these sorts of things. The downside to all of that, if there is one, is that it, let's say you are in Monaco and had a free morning. Uh, it's literally impossible to say, get to the oceanographic museum or something like that. So I saw the museum from the coast side. Um, I, I didn't get a chance to go there. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I, you know, I've only been to Monaco once and that was for the, uh, the Monaco yacht show last year. And I was struck by how. You know, densely packed that city is. I mean, there's just not a lot of real estate to begin with. And then you have a lot of people there and then you add a major event and I'm sure the, I'm sure the GP is much, um, a much bigger deal than the Monaco yacht show. And I can't imagine even being able to walk a block without you know, he's bumping into people and, um, but that said, I mean, I'm sure, you know, going to Monaco for the Monaco GP, which is arguably one of the premier, most legendary events in sports. Um, I, it's like Wimbledon, I suppose, or something like that, you know, it's just iconic and, and that you, that, that word is used too, too loosely. But, um, I think in this case it applies. |
| James | Yeah. And I, and I would say it applies with the watch as well. You know, that like tags very proud of the, of the Monaco and they've released it, you know, like a 50th anniversary, uh, limited edition. They're actually doing five limited editions over the span of the year. So this is the first one to come out and it kind of commemorates the first decade of the, um, of the Monaco and just to really, uh, like a kind of a fun watch and sort of a brownish green dial, very distinctive compared to your normal, like the blues and the blacks that you see much more commonly. Uh, this one's a little bit funkier. I don't think it's going to be everybody's cup of tea as far as the colorway goes, but quite bravely on tag stance, they only made 169 of them. Wow. That's very limited. Uh, so, I mean, it's, uh, they're, they're certainly making sure that they made some attempts to make something kind of special for the 50th anniversary of a watch that, you know, depending on, on, you know, if a few small things that changed in its past wouldn't exist anymore. You know, there was a span of time in the eighties when they weren't producing the watch. And then before that, when it came out in 1969, you know, technologically a Marvel with an automatic chronograph, the caliber 11, but really not a, um, not a successful product. Uh, when it came out in 69, you know, they had the career at the time in the Octavia, these were, you know, pinnacle Jack Hoyer gold. And, uh, and to go really kind of odd ball with a square case, it wears pretty large. Um, It took some convincing and that convincing came in 1971 when Steve McQueen wore the watch in Le Mans, the movie. And we spoke about this kind of stuff in the past, but it is one of those scenarios where if TAG had had more stock of something like a Carrera or an Octavian, that's what they sent to the set for Le Mans. We may not ever talk about Monaco. It might be the way that collectors sometimes bring up a Jarama or a Montreal. You know, it was a watch they made for a little while and then it kind of disappeared. Um, but with, uh, but thanks to the, you know, the huge kind of star defining quality of, um, uh, not even a great movie in Lamont, but certainly a, a kind of an iconic film, a film that's kind of bigger in impression than in, in quality. One of McQueen's more famous roles, especially internationally. Uh, so is the right stage to create a sort of ethos around the watch that tied it to someone that people weren't weren't going to let go of for 50 years or more, right? And other than that, yeah, I spoke about some camera gear. So yeah, I shot the Q. And if anybody was following along on a hood and keys, Instagram, I shot a bunch on the queue and I shot a bunch with my Canon 5d, I rented a 70 to 200, which turned out to be just about perfect. It turns out that you can do almost anything with that lens. So like portraits, incredible, these sort of weird like people would be leaning on the edge of like the viewing area that Tag Heuer had. It's like a box basically. Um, and so their wrist was kind of out into negative space in front of the box and you could kind of lean out with the camera, you know, zoom pretty far in, but you're five, six feet away and get these wrist shots that are kind of fun and everything's all kind of blurry other than the watch. And so I had a really good time shooting with that. I had less of a good time carrying all of that gear. Really not, um, not ideal. I'd gone back and forth on what bag to use when I was going, say, from where I was staying to where I'd be shooting. And so I had a tote bag with me that ended up being a complete nightmare because of how heavy everything was once it was all in the bag. So I ended up just carrying the 10 bow, which is fine. Um, but I still like, I just, I do genuinely hate shoulder bags when you're using them for actual work, like transit, the bag's great. You can load it up with so much stuff. You can put it in them, but like to be somewhere where like, you have to have it at your feet. But I was like, I had eight inches of space. to point a camera through a group of people. |
| Unknown | Right. |
| Jason Heaton | It's, uh, it's, it's kind of a struggle and, uh, you're always apologizing to people cause if it's on your back, like slung across, I don't know. |
| James | I always bump into people or somebody wants to move a chair and the bags in the way and then they don't speak English or they think you should speak French and all these sorts of things. So yeah, it's, it's the bag thing is a struggle. And I think that's really the beauty of care of having something really small, like, like the Q or like the Sony that I had before it. Is that you can, you can kind of go like I probably could have done if I didn't need the, the, the kind of more macro work of the cars, uh, macro, if I didn't need the telephoto work of the, of the cars on the track, um, definitely could have shot the whole thing just on the queue. And then maybe just had like a cross carry bag with batteries and, and, and other stuff like that, that never really had to come off of my body. Right. And maybe that would have been certainly when you see people running around the track, the photographers with the vests and everything, they're not carrying a bag as well. That's somewhere back in a paddock somewhere and they're just carrying the exact gear they need to shoot. So it was still, it's always fun to shoot something that's a little bit out of my norm. I've shot formula one before, but you know, at circuit of America is you're a little further from the cars and the scenario is not exactly the same. So it was pretty fun to do it in that setting. And it's very picturesque. Monaco in general, it has a kind of a strange mix of architecture that does seem to have paused somewhere in say the early 80s in terms of its aesthetic. So it's hard when you're, if you take a photo and you don't really know some of the landmarks of Monaco, you could think like, Oh, am I looking at Cape Town? Am I looking at like some other, you know, kind of water side, very vertical sort of city. |
| Jason Heaton | The photos you posted, On Instagram, the ones I saw from the kind of that balcony that you're viewing area was the rich color and that architecture and kind of the bit of blur and the people, it almost lends this timeless quality. Of course, the cars themselves, when you see them place them in a certain time period, but you could almost think you're looking at a photo from, you know, the 1976 GP or something. |
| James | Yeah. And I mean, every, every other year they do the Monaco historic. which is for the race for vintage Formula One cars. And I mean, if you did that and shot in black and white and maybe threw a little bit of digital noise in there, I think you could really make a case, you know, unless someone could pick out a watch or like a piece of clothing, that's very much of a time. But otherwise, a lot of the imagery, if you frame it right, kind of just becomes Monaco. And Monaco has this... Monaco is kind of a weird city because it doesn't... It's obviously very... It's a lot of old and new money packed into one very small space, but like, because it's so small and tight, there's like construction takes a long time. So it's not like you're seeing, it's not like a Vancouver or Miami where you, where you have these huge walls of glass condos. They were, they were, the Monaco kind of got to its really sweet spot before that look came about. So it kind of predates the glass condo. Like there's a couple here, there, but when they were going to make one, it's such a struggle because the city is so tight. And, uh, and, and yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a strange sort of place that feels very nostalgic, even in its most modern sense. Uh, which I think of course it comes out in the visuals. |
| Jason Heaton | So who won the race? |
| James | Uh, Louis Hamilton won. |
| Unknown | Oh, he did. Okay. |
| James | Well, yep. Yeah. Yeah. So it was, um, it was a one, two with Lewis and, uh, Max Verstappen who was, this is good for Tag Heuer. He was, uh, in the race, in the race and fought really well and drove incredibly and then suffered a penalty. Which put him in fourth place. So they didn't get podium. |
| Jason Heaton | Was the, was the racing action easy to follow from where you were sitting? I mean, did you have sort of a TV screen you could watch and then also kind of look out when they passed you? |
| James | Yeah. I mean, there's a huge screen across the track from us and then there are screens in, in the paddock area. And then you could watch the cars kind of screen by, but the thing is in Monaco is like the, because it's such a tight course, there's not generally a lot of like passing. So where the, where the, the mix ups happen is, is in crashes. And, um, and in qualifying. So if you lay down this like really sort of bonkers lap, then you can, you can start the race. Like Hamilton did. He waited until his very last moment to set a lap time and he settled and he set a lap record in qualifying just on demand. His like the last 30 seconds of qualifying, he ripped it. And, uh, and then he started in first and he remained in first for the race. So that's key obviously to qualify well. Qualifying is always key, especially, especially if you're, if you're, if you're going to drive as Hamilton does where he was on the wrong tires. He had a couple of things that didn't work out perfectly for him as far as that running that race. And he still came out very much the leader. Um, you know, very impressive driver certainly, but a great performance by. Really kind of all three of the top teams there, you know, Ferrari had certainly had some trouble of a Vettel did fine. And then, and then it was really fun to see a guy as young as Max Verstappen. driving so, so hard and, and really attempting to like make some passes and, and put his car in position to be competitive throughout that race. It's just a really hard race. It's hard on cars. It's hard on drivers. I can describe just driving a bike around your living room. Lots of breaking, lots of turning. Yeah. Not a lot of space. It's kind of twitchy. You know, you're, you're really, you don't have any room. There were lots of little shunts and rubs against the wall, which caused a lot of damage or can cause a lot of damage to the cars. And a lot of it is about maintaining tire, maintaining heat in the tires, maintaining this kind of gentle padding from the side to side while still making the most of what is a really tiny track. |
| Jason Heaton | What's the longest straightaway there? I mean, it must not be very long straightaways, right? |
| James | Very short. Yeah, it's definitely not a long straightaway. I mean, there is a section where they were approaching 300 kilometers an hour. Oh, wow. But it would be the front straight where they pass under the Rolex banners and then Huh. You know, kind of up, up, uh, you know, the right hander that takes them up towards a casino. So, but yeah, it's a, it's a great track and it's a really exciting track just to see in person, let alone seeing the cars run on it. It's, uh, it was, it was fun. It was a really great experience. It was super fun to shoot it. I, I, it wiped me out entirely. I've spent the last few days like doing laundry and cleaning my house and, and like laying low at editing a lot of photos that for, uh, for the piece for this Sunday and, uh, just, uh, yeah, just, really, really busy. And you know, to go to, to do a six hour time zone jump for a few days in which you don't sleep that much, right. Um, is, uh, it's kind of exhausting. Like it, it could just be that I'm, I'm getting a bit older or, um, maybe I just need a little bit of a vacation at this point. I'm not sure, but, uh, yeah, it was, uh, it was an absolute blast to be there. I can't thank Tag Heuer enough for, uh, you know, making it possible for a member of the Hodinkee team to get over there and shoot it and cover the watches and everything. And hopefully it's not the last time I get to visit Monaco, especially for something like a big race. |
| Jason Heaton | Nice. Cool. Well, I can't wait to see the photo essay this weekend. |
| James | Yeah, I hope. I mean, like I said, it'll be in the show notes. You know, automotive's not really super popular when it's on Hodinkee, but I think on a Sunday and it leans more on the kind of I guess it's about time to drop into the main topic for the show and we thought we'd go with a pretty broad one this time. It's something that Jason and I kind of chat about a lot on our Slack channel and it's just kind of watches and adventure and some of the stories that you kind of call back on when you're writing about watches or thinking about watches and that sort of thing. And it's a super TGN sort of topic. But just before we get to that, I think we could probably drop in our ad break, which this week we're really happy to say that it's another episode sponsored by our friends at Garmin. It's a show about watches and adventure, and I don't think you can do a lot better on a modern scale than Garmin. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think it's very apropos to have Garmin sponsoring this episode in particular, because as you mentioned in our last episode, Garmin really embodies that notion of the modern day tool watch in the way that we used to think of diving watches or pilot's watches. It really is a watch geared specifically for certain activities and expeditions. |
| James | And on the last episode, we spoke kind of briefly about the kind of three levels of their main kind of most TGN sort of watches, which was the Instinct, the Phoenix and the Mark. And I figured it might be interesting just to try like I've been using a Phoenix But for a few years now, so I've had some experience with, uh, with the platform and what it's good at. And what do you think? Where, where, where did, have you been able to find a sweet spot with one of these Garmin watches where it really felt like it gave you the data you needed without really getting in the way? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think, um, you know, I was kind of a later comer to Garmin. You were using the Phoenix before I got into the brand and my first exposure to it was with the Descent Mark 1. Um, last year I got it as a diving watch, diving computer. I mean, it does all of the, The great dive stuff with the depth and decompression stops and underwater heart rate and, you know, everything logging dives, you can connect it to your computer. Um, but what I found really unique about this, uh, watch is that it also works for topside activities, which a lot of others, in fact, in my mind, not a lot of other brands do this at all, which is I I've taken it cross country skiing, cycling, hiking, and it has that full suite of activity based, uh, data capture and presentation. And what I really appreciate about Garmin, what I've noticed is that everything is very intuitive, you know, with a lot of connected watches and just a lot of technology in general, there's a steep learning curve. It takes a while, it's frustrating to kind of get to know how things work and how you read things and access things. And with the Descent and more recently with the Instinct that I've been using, it's just kind of seamless, you know, it's very intuitive. You can sort of access this stuff very easily. |
| James | Yeah, I find the Instinct especially to be like, no harder to use, despite its kind of advanced feature set, no harder to use than any kind of standard like G-Shock. The layer beneath that is the level of customization is really high. So I remember when I was living in Vancouver and I used to spend every single weekend that I possibly could hiking. If I wasn't diving, I was hiking and I was probably hiking more often than diving because I could do it alone. Uh, when I went diving, you had to arrange for another person and all this kind of stuff. And I went hiking, it was less prep. I could just leave at sunrise and, uh, and be back by lunch if I was, you know, if it was a shorter hike. But I remember doing, um, a really, really great hike. One of my most favorites, which is Brunswick mountain. Yeah. And it's the highest peak in the, uh, watershed of the North shore mountains. So it's like 1780 meters, I think right around there. I know that because I wore a Phoenix on that hike. It's a nice big watch with a good screen, doesn't weigh anything, good rubber strap. And it really does slot right between the instinct and what I've found with the new Mark series. And you can customize all the screens. So when you tell it you're going hiking, it grabs the GPS and then it starts showing you like specific data. And you can, if you only want a little bit of data, like how long you've been hiking and you want to hide the rest of the data on other screens, it can all be customized. But the cool thing is you could kind of make like a four way screen that could show you. Um, what time it is, how long you've been hiking, the distance you've hiked and say the altitude that you've changed or, or something like that. And then of course it has so many other features, but well, the one that I actually found quite handy is when I was coming down, uh, from Brunswick. So it was a, you know, it's a real slog that one going up. It's very vertical. It's super fun. You get to the top, it's very exposed. I made a really fast time going up, you know, under three hours. And then, uh, coming down, I kind of got lost. And luckily these watches, the, the instinct, the Mark, the Phoenix, these all have a feature where if you're doing an activity that has GPS tracking, you can, you can put it in track back mode and it kind of works the same way as the Garmin that you might put on your car dashboard, where it knows the route that you took. And, uh, and, and it kind of references that with a little red arrow. So you can be clamoring around in the woods and it'll keep you on track. And when you've been on track for a few steps, it'll buzz. Oh, right. And then that's really handy. But the other thing that I like about it and like that one, arguably saved me quite a bit of time because I got a lot less lost very quickly by using track back. But the other thing that's kind of fun with it is it tells you how much at your current pace, how long until you get back to your car or the end of your hike or whatever. And that's kind of fun. That's something that we're used to with like Google Maps and things is that you could put in a route or a destination that says how long you're gonna how long it will take but also that gives you live updates so if you're driving a little faster in your car it would you know adjust and this kind of does the same thing which I found you know really handy. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah and what I like too about both the descent and the instinct that I've used for a number of sports is so for instance with cycling you know I always used to use a bike computer mounted on the handlebars and you know you'd have to start it when you were get going and all this sort of thing With the instinct, for instance, you know, I strap it on, put it in bike mode, it starts tracking me automatically. And then just with, you know, press a button, you can get into your sort of big display of your current heart rate, the zone you're in. Um, it tracks all of that, including, you know, GPS, it'll time, um, your laps. If you have a distinct lap set up for that route. And then what, what I really love about this is I've never been one to really slice and dice my performance data, but to sync it with my phone and then download all of that information from that ride. uh, you can, it'll just generate graphs of your, your heart rate. Yeah. And then you can overlay that sort of mapped data with, for instance, elevation. So I can look at, okay, I was going up a steep climb. My heart rate is steep. Um, you know, you can overlay it with speed or altitude or, you know, any number of things. And it does it so seamlessly that it actually becomes, you know, downright fun to kind of look into your, your own performance and actually encourages you to then want to improve, which, um, I think is kind of a real advantage of a lot of these, uh, these new devices. |
| James | The, the mark really does a handful of cool things. And like you said, when you're done running it, it instantly, like it says, like when you say like I'm done, that's how long my run is going to be. It just puts it right on your phone. It keeps track of these, um, kind of goal, not only goals, but also like, uh, best times, best distances, longest run, all those sorts of things are available in watch and in menu. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And I think, you know, we've talked about the features of the watch, um, the sort of the technology behind them, but I think the form factor is also really appealing. And the three that I've tried, the Descent, the Instinct and the Mark are all very different watches, but they all are really well designed for what they are and where they kind of slot into Garmin's portfolio. The Instinct is just feather light. It's just incredibly comfortable on the wrist, great strap, great size. The screen is still big enough to see, but it's by no means a super big watch. The Mark on the opposite end of the spectrum is this super high quality, really refined you know, titanium case with mine, mine came with a leather strap. I have the expedition and then, you know, the mark and the descent for instance, have these quick release straps that are just ingenious. You just kind of press a little button and it clicks out and you can swap over to a different one of their straps. Um, so it's just, they really put a lot of thought also into the kind of the design of the watch is not just the technology with the mark. |
| James | I wasn't really sure what to expect. I saw them as a sample when I was in Miami. um, earlier this year. And then I got the athlete, uh, this week it was here when I got back from Monaco and it's, um, I don't, I don't at all miss the form factor of the instinct. Like I understand why the instincts of course, uh, a more attractive price point, uh, for the average buyer. But if you want something that feels pretty special, it's a black bezel on a nice titanium case. You can, like you said, the straps are really easy. It's not too big. The screen's really bright. And then it, you know, it vibrates when you get a notice, it does, uh, it does all the smartwatch features, all the activity tracking stuff. You know, the build quality is kind of where I was the most surprised you you're paying quite a bit more for the mark than you would an instinct or a Phoenix. But I feel like for a certain type of buyer, like a buyer who, who doesn't really want. The, the kind of normal sports watch experience, a digital sports watch experience. This is, this is going to be quite appealing. And if you, if you compare it to something like I've been used to with other Swiss brands sort of connected watches. I would say this is absolutely a competitor in terms of quality. And then, like you said, once you get over a few understanding points in the user interface, it's super easy to use and it's really robust and it works just as well. If you don't want to use the phone features, you can just put it in new do not disturb mode and you can just use it as, as a watch. It's got quick access to things like time zone changes and chronograph and all that kind of stuff. The entire kind of platform for these watches, from the Instinct up to the Mark, I'm really impressed with, and I think that, you know, there's an application for pretty much anyone who leads sort of active lifestyle. |
| Jason Heaton | And I think that that's kind of a good wrap on our own experiences using Garmin watches, and a very apropos sponsor for an episode on watches and adventure, because I think we've both gotten really great use out of Garmin's for a lot of the adventures we've done. |
| James | Yeah, so hit up Garmin.com if you want to see more about these watches. We'll obviously put them all in the show notes. Thank you so, so much to Garmin for sponsoring the show. And if you're listening to this and it's still before mid-June, keep in mind that the Garmin Fenix is $150 off, which makes it a really attractive price point for a watch that's now in its fifth generation and is absolutely packed full of useful features for anyone who likes to get out and move around a little bit. Jason, you want to dig into a different sort of breed of adventure watch? Yeah, let's go for it. So, yeah, for today's episode, we thought it would be fun to just kind of ramble on a little bit about some of our favorite watches and our favorite adventures and where the kind of overlap is for that. And not only do we think it was kind of a fitting sort of concept to tie in with a great Garmin sponsorship, but also these are the sorts of things that we hunt down when we see an ad or when you read a book and the author mentions the watch that they wore to the top of Everest or something like that. And you kind of collect these watches and their adventures. And we have them all kind of filed away in our brain. And we just thought it'd be fun to highlight a few just to just in the case that some of these aren't known to the greater TGN audience. Certainly some of these we've talked about in past shows, but the, you know, the audience is growing. So I thought it might be kind of a fun topic and it's lucky for us because you know, I know a few of these, but Jason's a little bit of an encyclopedia when it comes to this stuff. And I think it could be a pretty fun episode. So Jason, where, where do you stand on this topic? |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, I think, you know, this is such core TGN stuff here. I think, you know, we have come to watches, myself in particular, kind of came to watches from a perspective of watches as a piece of kit or a piece of gear, like a backpack or a pair of boots. And I think, you know, you and I are a little older than you, but, you know, we both are of a generation, maybe once or twice removed from a generation when an analog mechanical watch was absolute essential gear to time a dive, for instance, or whatever. But I still think there's a place in adventuring for watches. And nowadays, you know, you and I have both interviewed, as an example, Jimmy Chin. And when I was interviewing him, it was when Tudor was kind of signing him on as an ambassador. This was in Vail a couple of years ago. And, you know, I remember Jimmy, you know, talking to him and you could tell he was a little bit uncomfortable wearing a luxury watch. He wasn't used to it. You know, for a guy who's always sticking his hand in cracks on rock faces. You know, a big chunky, expensive, uh, metal dive watch is not probably his first choice. Um, I remember helping him kind of size the strap and whatever, and he liked it. But then you interviewed him for the Hodinkee magazine and it was really a great piece because it talked about his, uh, Sunto, his Sunto Vector that he was wearing, um, for a lot of his expeditions. And it kind of shows the, the, the change that we've seen, where, you know, the modern tool watch is equally important. It's just that the form factor has changed. And yet, I think most of us that are into kind of sports watches and diving watches and pilot's watches and motorsports watches, we love to harken back and kind of make that connection with, you know, the days when watches were used, you know, by guys in the field and put in harm's way. And, you know, I think you and I, you know, still try to do those things. You climbed Mount Baker with a Rolex. I climbed Mount Rainier with a Rolex. You know, certainly we wouldn't have had to do that, but, um, I think it creates those memories that, um, that we long for, that you can look at it at your desk, you know, the following week and say, Oh, last week this watch was on top of a mountain with me. Um, yeah. |
| James | And I mean, when, when I did, when I did Mount Baker and I had the, the Explorer two on my left wrist, I had my Phoenix on my right wrist. So Phoenix three, I still have the data from that climb. I can tell what time we left in the morning. I can tell the evolution, uh, the elevation changes and all these sorts of things. I have all that data just in my profile with Garmin. And it's interesting because I think if you look at those, maybe not those two brands like Garmin and Rolex, but if you look at those two things as a concept, we have, we have the idea that there's, there's almost like a line in the sand where there's certain watches that are, that are made adventure watches by ambassadors. And there's certain watches that are made adventure watches because literally everyone is using them in the back country or when diving or Or something like that. And, uh, so there's scenarios where maybe somebody is wearing a watch as, you know, because they're an ambassador or, or in, in my opinion, some cooler scenarios where they're wearing them. As the brand is supporting whatever big endeavor it is, whether you look at something like, like some of the stuff that Braymont's into currently, or you look at, at what Rolex has been up to for so many years between Ed Visters or to like a Reinold Messner doing Everest with no oxygen for the first time. And in that scenario, these are some really fun stories. And in that scenario, they were wearing the new Oysterquartz. So not even an adventure watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, when I dive, I wear, like you on Baker, I always wear a dive computer on my right wrist, in this case, the Descent, and on my left wrist, whatever analog dive watch I have. And certainly I can use the diving watch for various things. You can time a surface interval, a decompression stop, et cetera. But they serve different purposes. I think one is more of an inspiration. You sort of feel tied to a, I guess, a lineage of other explorers that have worn these things. And, um, you know, for those of us that, that love watches, um, for the stories, you know, we're making our own stories with these. And, um, so I I've kind of over the years become a bit of a student of, of the history of watches in use. And, um, you know, there's just this lineage of great names in almost every endeavor that, that wore watches. I recently, uh, was researching, a story about exploration and watches. I should have known about this guy, but I didn't, and so I started digging into him. His name was John Blashford Snell, Colonel Snell. He was in the British Army back in the 60s, and he founded an exploration organization. He did an entire descent of the Blue Nile River with a small team in boats. He most famously, he took a couple of Range Rovers back in the early 70s when they were just brand new vehicles and took them up to Alaska and drove the entire length of North and South America, passing through the Darien Gap in the Colombian jungle. It took months and months. I mean, this is like a 3,000 mile journey. And I guess through all of his adventures, he was wearing, at least his adventures post 1969, he was wearing a Zenith El Primero. Which, you know, is a watch that you just don't think of. You don't imagine that being, you know, it's like a Speedmaster. I'm always surprised when you hear about Speedmasters going to Antarctica or the North Pole. I mean, you just don't think of, you think, okay, that was a space watch or a motorsports watch, but, you know, an El Primero chronograph, you know, in the deep, humid, muddy jungle, it's just not something you think of. But sure enough, that was his watch of choice. You know, you dig into any adventure and there's these great stories. And I think what's encouraging to me about those stories, and I always tell people is, you know, okay, certainly get your watches serviced and pressure tested, et cetera. But, you know, these things are pretty robust. I mean, these watches have endured a lot harder things than most of us will ever put them through. |
| James | So I think what's interesting is, you know, we've obviously spoke a bunch about Garmin and even a couple other sort of modern quote-unquote tool watches, adventure watches. With, with, with the existence of those and with the fact that like, if you go diving, you wear a dive computer, um, for the most part, I'm sure there's people who still only wear an analog watch. Uh, and then if you're in the back country, you probably have, uh, some sort of an ABC watch that, that manages various aspects of, of what you're up to, or, or maybe, maybe it's simply because that's what you have for the rest of your life. And it works fine in the back country. What do you think the. the modern stage is for a Rolex Explorer or a Speedmaster or Submariner. Like, are these totems to something that's mostly gone now and you and I and probably some of our listeners are wearing them because it makes us happy when we're adventuring? Or is there still, you know, do we still find scenarios where that was the right tool for the job? |
| Jason Heaton | I think those watches have been largely superseded for their functionality. I mean, it's, it's just, it's evolution, right? I mean, you look at, um, the unidirectional bezel, um, being adopted as kind of state of the art, um, was a, an improvement over just a friction bezel. And, um, you know, an automatic chronograph was an upgrade over a manually wound chronograph, et cetera. Um, it's the same these days, uh, you wear a, a Garmin or a Sunto or a G-Shock and, and it's just another evolution of, of things. So I think when you and I wear these watches or when a lot of the listeners wear these watches, to me, I always say that the most important thing, the most important function of, you know, my beloved Submariner that I got for my 40th birthday and have climbed Rainier and dived the Hermes wreck with, et cetera, is the inspiration. And maybe that's a personal, I'm sure it's a personal thing. I mean, you get a lot of divers on boats that, you know, they look across and they see you wearing a in old Rolex or something and say, well, why do you even bother? Um, they, those people don't get it. Um, those people are probably not listening to this or, or reading Hodinkee. But for me personally, it's, it's a source of inspiration when I am underwater and I glance at my wrist and I see that watch there or better yet when I'm back on the boat or, or, you know, cleaning my gear and whatever. And I look down and I have that yet another piece of my life, another adventure that I just thoroughly enjoyed and was totally in the moment during. and I'm wearing that and I can continue to wear that for you know till I get old and To me that's the most important function regardless of anything else you do with that watch and I don't think you can discount that I think motivation and Inspiration are very important things and I have not read Ed Vester's book. I know you did and didn't you mention one time that he Said that his Explorer 2 was something of an inspiration to him and that was kind of One of the reasons he wore it |
| James | I think that he said he didn't really like that the watch it was a watch. It was an inspiration to me. And like, I really, you know, no shortcuts to the top Ed Visser's book is is fantastic. And I think that he's he's one of these wonderful sort of ambassadors where I'm not sure that he cares so much about the watch one way or another. Yeah, you know, you see him in a 216570 and 16570 depending on the age and It's mentioned in his book and that would be one of the things that kind of spurred on my interest in that watch was his mention of this kind of white dial. And I like him. I like him for a number of reasons. Some of, you know, many, many of which are because he did things that I'll never do, but that I find endlessly interesting and exciting and heroic. And, uh, and, and so I think it's funny because this is maybe one of the few areas, the other one that we get emails about a lot are watches and movies, but watches and adventures, whether purposeful or not as an ambassador sort of agreement or simply this is the watch the person had, that's kind of, that's probably the sweet space for a quote unquote ambassador sort of effect for guys like you and I. You don't have to go five comments into a Doxa post before somebody mentions Dirk Pitt and those stories and those are fictional and people still love them and they're tied to the sort of ethos of the Doxa. I think it's just kind of an interesting thing because if a race car driver, for example, wears a watch, it's fine, I guess. Sometimes it's pretty cool. But I don't think it would be enough to get me to get a watch or to track one down because it was involved in a certain race. I'm not deep enough into that avenue. But when it comes to stuff that Cousteau wore or watches that Reinald Messner had, he had a gorgeous Explorer, a very early gorgeous Explorer II that pops up in photos. That kind of speaks to me. I guess I'm a sucker for it, if that's the best way to state it. And sure, if I spend all this time reading books about people climbing mountains, and then I get a chance to do my first quote-unquote mountain climb with Baker, that was in some way an impetus to make sure that I had a watch that was going to remain special to me, something I liked, and that it was also likely in some way up to the task. If something went really bad and the batteries on my flashlight and my Garmin died and I couldn't charge them, I'd still know what time of day it was, I guess. Not that it would help me in that scenario. I'm no rescue specialist, but I kind of like the idea that these are these sort of like proven by pure grit little devices. especially when it comes to stuff, you know, stuff like, uh, your example with a, with a Submariner or mine with an Explorer 2, like these are watches that have been beat up all over the world, both by people directly involved with Rolex and the pursuit of making a watch better. And by people who bought the watch, put it on their wrists and never once thought about it again. It was just something that told the time. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think there's a, there's a definite sort of not cutoff, but sort of a change in mentality or change in era when, you know, if you trace the, the entire history of kind of the use of watches going back to, you know, chronometers and pocket watches on polar expeditions up through, you know, Messner in 1980 climbing Everest solo without oxygen wearing, I think it was an oyster quartz. Um, you know, I would say that sort of time period was the period in which traditional watches as we, as we think of them and including an oyster course, even though it's quartz, it's an analog watch were considered just you just wore them. They were part of your gear, whether you were tracking a turnaround time, you know, you want to be off the summit by, you know, two in the afternoon or whatever it is, um, you needed a watch for that. Um, after that point, you know, when you start to creep into the eighties and nineties and into today, you started to see multifunction watches, the ABC one, you know, when we say ABC, we're talking about altitude barometer and compass watches, um, and digital watches and G shocks and, and, and things like this that superseded, those quote unquote traditional watches. And I think there was kind of that turning of the page, probably mid eighties, nineties kind of timeframe. And nowadays we're seeing things like these, you know, incredibly technologically advanced, uh, connected watches and, and sports specific watches. But I think you brought it up briefly earlier here is, is there's no less merit to a watch company or, or an ambassador who's out there doing really cool stuff, wearing a watch, Because his expedition is being sponsored by a brand. And I think what that does is everybody kind of wins because let's say it's a Nirmal Purja, who's a Bremont's ambassador. And he's out there doing this incredible project possible climbing, uh, all 14 of the 8,000 meter peaks in seven months. I mean, just an incredible feat. If he can pull it off, he's already done six of them. Um, yes, you know, he's a Bremont ambassador, but you know, to see him on top of Everest pulling his, glove back to show his Bremont. We can all celebrate that. Those of us that like Bremont, those of us that like mechanical watches, you know, it doesn't justify our purchase of them or our love of them, but I just get a really warm, fuzzy feeling when I see things like that. Now he wins because he gets the exposure and he gets some funding and he gets a cool watch to wear and whatever. So I think there's still value in that. You look at a guy like Mike Horn, the Panerai ambassador who's worn Panerai for many, many years. Very impressive dude. He's possibly the most badass guy. I just read today that he's headed off to climb K2. He's tried it twice before and failed and he's going to head off there again. I mean, the guy's in his like 60s now and, um, you know, he's worn Panerai for years. I think there's this tale that he tells about using one of his watches as like an anchor in a rock face when he had to repel or something and he left it there and somewhere in some remote region. Um, You know, he's an ambassador for Panerai and he's worn their watches. And sure, he probably uses them to kind of glance at the time every now and then. These aren't vital to what he's doing necessarily, but although repelling off a cliff and using one as an anchor, I suppose you could say is essential. But I don't know. I think it's a win-win. Everybody loves it. I don't like necessarily when you see an ambassador wear a watch for photo ops and then you never see them wearing it doing their activity. But, but I love when they're wearing them to actually do stuff with. |
| James | Yeah, I agree. I mean, to be honest, I don't actually mind as I guess, I guess it depends on what, what the overall system is supporting. So it bugs me when you see somebody like, I guess they, they go to the red carpet, a celebrity goes to red carpet and you know that like 20 seconds before they stepped in front of the first camera, someone from a brand strapped a watch to their wrist. and said, Oh, I'll get it back from you in two and a half hours when the red carpet's done. Right. You walk out there and make sure it's above your cuff. That's kind of dumb. And like, I don't really care about anything that that is supporting. Like that's a rich celebrity getting more money, a watch brand with a lot of notoriety, getting more notoriety, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Like it's fine that this is the system in the world in which we live. But like, even if it's a, even if it's somebody, um, it like if they're, if they're getting paid to put the watch on for a photo shoot for a tutor or a, uh, an IWC or something. And then they're getting paid to go back and do work that I'm interested in that I find like meaningful or, um, or, or, you know, further some sort of various goal, human goal. Like, like with, with NIMS, like, I don't know what Braymont read, like Braymont gets some publicity out of it. I get it. But there's only like a sliver of people who will ever know this guy's name compared to, compared to like the number of people who will see the next, um, you know, ad placement from a giant brand. So I mean, it's, it's like, it's Bremont consciously making a decision to put some money into something that they just like. And I'm not saying that they don't get something back out of it or that NIMS doesn't get something back out of it, or that climbing doesn't get something back out of where the Alpine community or all the people who are interested in that community. I think we all benefit, even if the people who maybe benefit the least are the ones paying for it. Because very easily NIMS or any of his compatriots could be using a modern digital multifunction tool that might offer them more functionality. Yeah, true. But the, the kind of ambassador relationship when it's at that hardcore kind of real level is, is kind of an interesting thing to me because I always question as a brand, like, what do you really get? Right. Like there's, there's, there's, there's weird scenarios where like we, somebody might actually know Kobold because James Gandolfini wore it. Yeah. But I wonder how many people will learn about Braemont via NIMS. I think it's fantastic. I don't want to come off the wrong way. I think it's fantastic that they're supporting NIMS in this incredible project that he's doing. And I think that we'll put it in the show notes and I'm sure we will talk about it as he knocks more mountains off his list. I just wonder what the value is sometimes, right? Like if you have a Lewis Hamilton where his glove on his car has an IWC printed on the glove, That's a lot, like a lot of people see that it's one of the biggest sports in the whole world. Right. Right. Or, or if you tie your, if you tie your, if you want to speak to a new audience and you can access our Red Bull athlete as a Tag Heuer often does, that's a, that's a very specific audience that, that is tuned into the style that might go along with surfing or with, um, formula one or with, you know, whatever it may be. And I think there's a specificity to that, that I don't always see when it's a brand throwing money at a mountain expedition or some crazy drive across a continent. And you're like, you know, there might be 10 or 15 other sponsors that help make everything kind of come together. But like, do you think, do you think that Rolex sold one more Oysterquartz for having Reinald Messner wear one to the top of Everest? No, that's like a, that's like a banker's quartz dress watch basically from in 1978. Like they would have wanted to sell that. to a standard dude who was no closer to a mountain than the nearest magazine. And instead, and this is just kind of like the beauty of the way that Rolex sees their watches, they know how it's made. So why not send it up Everest? And I mean, this is 1978. Like let's, let's keep in mind that this is the first time Everest would be climbed without oxygen. And it was something that people said couldn't be done. They flat out said it was not possible. And, and I think it's crazy that that's, that's the one we're like, what if both of them died? That's, that's, that's also a risk that you run. You don't really run that risk with a lot of other ambassadors, but if you're ambassadors, a Mike Horn or a Reinald Messner or a NIMS or any of these dudes, Your ambassador could die and he died like doing something for your brand in some metric. Obviously it's a, it's a partnership. They're doing something for there's money and support happening, but like, it's a different thing. Like these days for a, an F1 driver to die would be very rare. The cars are very safe. I'm not saying it can't happen or that there isn't that risk that people could get hurt, but it, you know, when, when you have you, it's, it's, it's kind of a weird thing. This is the ambassador relationship between a watch brand and an adventurer. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I agree. I'd like to think, you know, to your question, I guess, I'd like to think that these, these brands, uh, take a Bremont with NIMS for instance. Um, and Bremont in general, you know, their ambassadors are kind of a quirky bunch, you know, Ben Saunders, the polar explorer, the, um, Jake Mayer, who's a British climber who, you know, I think he was at one point the youngest Brit to climb Everest. Um, he's done K2, et cetera. You know, these aren't household names and, and these sports are not household sports. I mean, these aren't sports like, tennis with Federer and, you know, wearing a Rolex when he holds the trophy up. Um, these guys are largely unknown, but I'd like to think that that these relationships are done out of a purity of, uh, sort of a similar mindset or a similar, um, set of, uh, uh, values or something where they see people that are passionate, trying hard and really want to go out there and test themselves. And, they like the idea of supporting them because the little bit of publicity that trickles back gives such a high deep level, high and high and deep level of legitimacy. You know, when you have NIMS doing six, you know, 8,000 meter peaks in what was it, two months. And every time he goes up there, he pulls back his sleeve and there's a, there's a Braymont on his wrist. It's like, you know, for those of us that kind of are into those sports that are drawn to watches like that, it's, it's very powerful. Um, So mass market, it's not, but, but for those of us that are kind of dialed into this stuff, uh, it's, it's very meaningful. |
| James | Yeah. The exposure might be fairly mass market. Thanks to things like Instagram. Um, I just wonder if the effect or the true value of it is. And, and, and I think what's fun with a brand, if you use Braymont as an example, I, the problem with, with a Rolex is they're so guarded. Clearly somebody at Rolex loves alphabetism and has, or like, like all of Rolex has it's, it's like woven into their brand DNA now with Hillary. and with Norgay. And to see that continue with projects that are ongoing today, with sponsors that are ongoing today, obviously they're involved in a very wide world of sports and arts. So we're talking about one kind of small sliver that kind of speaks to us. Where I find it interesting with Bramon is that their small brand and like you and I both know the guys that started the brand and I figure there's a certain thing where like the same things that made them want to make a tough kind of masculine sport watch that was modern but also kind of classically British at the same time are all the exact same sort of interests that would have them attach themselves to a Nims or a Ben or a Jake or any of these guys and they really do have kind of a wide swath of esoteric sort of ambassadors. And I think it's something that you kind of have to appreciate where it's not a supermodel, it's not a, an actor in, in, you know, obviously they've, they've, they're, they have a, what appears to be, obviously they've had the, the actor thing happen with Tom Hardy, which I'm sure has been hugely beneficial to the brand. But I don't think that was like a spend this much money, get this much time in the movie, or at least that's, that's not how it was been communicated to be from Bramont. And, you know, I think it's a, I am endlessly fascinated by the ambassador thing because so often I feel myself rolling my eyes. Yeah. But then you hit something like, like we said, with the NIMS or with, uh, with, uh, Reinald Messner climbing Everest with an oyster quartz and I can't roll my eyes. I love it. You know, if, and it makes, and it makes me like the product more. |
| Jason Heaton | It just does. Me too. You know, you talk about Rolex and Rolex certainly does its share of big marketing with the Federer's and the actors and formula one, You know, the little known stuff that they do that I've, you know, discovered over the years, um, some people might be familiar with, uh, a project that's been ongoing. It's been, it was called a Rolex under the pole, or actually I think it was called deep sea under the pole. And they sponsored, it was initially, I don't know, it was probably less than 10 years ago. They sponsored an expedition to, um, it was a small group of, I think, French or Swiss explorers that like, We're diving under, you know, Arctic ice, um, up near the North pole. And, you know, it was hardly publicized. If you, if you search for it on YouTube and if I find the link, we can pop it in the show notes. Cause it's actually, there's kind of a documentary little film that was made about it. And you know, these guys are doing this diving in this extreme environment and it's, it's really well done. And this has been an ongoing project for them. You never read about this anywhere. You don't read about it in dive magazines. You don't see it in ads. Um, it exists on Rolexes. uh, YouTube channel. And you know, those are the types of things that they do that. And they, they do these, uh, sponsorships or these scholarships every year for, um, up and coming divers. I get this alert diver magazine through a divers alert network every month. And, um, they do these scholarships for these young up and coming sort of marine biologists and people like that that are heavy into diving. And these people are wearing these watches. These are sort of unofficial ambassadors, but it's still adventure. It's still adventuring with watches and, Absolutely. I love that stuff. I love when big brands do this stuff kind of off the radar and not many of them do. |
| James | So with that in mind, and I feel like we could go quite a bit longer on this and maybe not hit all the meat that's on that bone, but what are kind of a few of these that have always stood out to you, be it big or small, or maybe an ambassador that you actually met that you felt struck that like nice line of authenticity and value? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So, um, one guy who I wouldn't necessarily call him a friend, but he's an acquaintance. I've met him a few times. He's actually from Minnesota. He's a very well-known, uh, polar explorer who was the, uh, the first to lead an unsupported dog sled trip to the North pole. And then he was the first to cross Antarctica by dog sled from West to East. So it took like almost a year to do, um, Will Steger. Uh, he's, he's quite a guys in his seventies now, but when he did the, The North Pole trip, this was back in the eighties. He wore a GMT Master and Rolex used him in a couple of their magazine ads back then. But then when he did the Transantarctic, he teamed up with a French explorer named Jean-Louis Etienne. And they had this really funky watch called, we know the brand Yema, which has been resurrected recently. Yema made this watch called the Bipole Duopoly, I think it was called. And it was this weird, quartz powered watch that had two dials. You could actually wear it, you know, both directions. So you could, you could flip it upside down and strap it on your wrist. And it would tell, I think it was like sidereal time. It had a compass. Um, wow. And then timekeeping, it came on this big long Velcro strap and it was made by Yema specifically for this expedition. And it's such a weird purpose built watch that is incredibly ugly. I mean, I would never even want to wear one. I'd love to find one that you can, find them on eBay every now and then. I think that was pretty legit. Um, and then my, you know, my time with Sylvia Earl a couple of years ago and she's such a legitimate Marine heroes, you know, diving hero who just wears, has always worn Rolex at least since her tech tight expedition days back in 1970 and you know, when I was diving with her down in Mexico, she was wearing, you know, her gold Datejust and I, I think I talked about it on the show and I wrote an article about it, but so cool, you know, It felt very natural for her. It didn't feel like she was there kind of to hold her wrist out. She just wore it because that's who she's been wearing since the early seventies and she still wears it. |
| James | For me, the ones that kind of stand out is, you know, I got a chance to see this kind of, the whole relationship happened firsthand when I was on the Clipperton expedition in 2017. And so with that, the main money for that whole project, this huge project with a variety of scientific teams and goals. And, um, and, and, you know, just, I wouldn't know, I don't think you could call it pure exploration as people had obviously been to Clipperton before. Even some people on this boat had been there the year before with a similar project, but you know, Oris was directly involved in making sure that product, that project actually happened. And it was a really interesting experience because they didn't put a brand ambassador on the boat. They didn't have somebody from Oris period on the boat. You know, they, they gave a slot for me to go cover it and, uh, and to dive, uh, with, uh, with all the scientists and the, the oceanographers and all these really cool types. And they, they gave up the other seat that probably would have been theirs for, um, a contest winner to come and do the same. And, uh, obviously it's, it's always good to have a journalist on a project like this. If you can attach someone for 16 days at sea. Um, and, and obviously I, I'd got a chance to dive a bunch with a handful of different Oris watches and the boat was packed full of Oris watches as well. So it was a nicely branded sort of experience. But I also think like these are the sorts of things where if they didn't do it and this project didn't happen, it couldn't get enough funding. Very few people would notice. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, Oris is a great example. I mean, that, that, that they do a ton of trip and then the staghorn restoration, the great barrier reef stuff. Um, this, this guy that we learned of. Um, back in the winter, it was doing the swim across Lake Baikal, you know, like a long distance from your stuff, but it's adventuring nonetheless. And I love that they're putting their money into this stuff. |
| James | Yep. Because this is a, this is a small brand that like probably has to be very careful with how they spend advertising money. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | My guess is these sorts of things, whether it's a, uh, an expedition to a far off island, uh, to put a few scientists on the island to learn a little bit about something that's as far away as everything else as you can get. Or a formula one car is everyone has to there's there has to be some sort of a math involved And it feels like it feels like something like formula one is a little bit more about Reflecting yourself towards that sport and that environment and that audience and something like a clipperton or a staghorn is more about Feeling the need to push some good out into the world Providing it's cool enough, right if that makes sense. At least that's how I see it Uh, and so with that, I mean, I, you know, a deep fondness for, uh, for Orison and for my time on the Clipperton expedition. And then the other one that always stands out for me is, is it goes back to Rolex and you very briefly mentioned, uh, kind of a sister project in the deep sea, you know, is go back to the Trieste. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, yeah. |
| James | and going to the bottom of the ocean. I mean, obviously the one that we haven't really touched on directly is the Speedmaster and Apollo. We spoke about it a bunch in the last couple episodes because I was in Florida with Omega. But that's probably the biggest adventure in modern history. I would agree. And the only one that you can really blend is something like Triunst is going to the bottom of the ocean in a metal ball. And just a really crazy thing. And then to see them back it up and do it again with the Deep Sea Project and James Cameron, I think is pretty amazing. And again, I think it's something where you get some notoriety, but how big could that audience be? I mean, how many people on the street could tell you the deepest point in the ocean by name, let alone how many times we've been there. We've put more people on the moon than we've put down there. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's almost like it's padding. It's layers of It's just sliver thin layers to the onion, um, with these brands that, that end up in the end making this, this very robust sort of reputation that when you start to, you know, whenever I talk to people about Rolex, I'm always saying, you know, for those that don't know much about the brand, they always think luxury brand, you know, expensive, it's the best watch in the world kind of thing. But then you tell them, well, it's not fancy, it's not luxury. They actually got their start, you know, with robust waterproof watches and here's all the things they did. And you can just see sort of the, then sort of light up with, with newfound knowledge. And it's like, okay, there's, there's some new respect here. And, uh, um, that's the beauty of Rolex. And I think the beauty of the Apollo, uh, project and, and while the whole NASA thing with Omega is, is just the way it came about, you know, it just came about very organically. And of course, Omega has taken full advantage of that. And then they should, I mean, it's, uh, it truly is, it truly still to this day is the greatest adventure. mankind has ever undertaken. And, uh, so cool. There were watches involved, you know? |
| James | Yeah. And to some of the most remarkable special sort of built-in ambassadors, uh, that you could have. And from a generation that's on, that's on its way out, sadly, you know, you and I have had a chance, the opportunity to meet a couple of these guys over time, Apollo astronauts and Gemini astronauts and that, and, and it's a, it's an absolute treat and, and they all love these watches. They were all very something special to them. And certainly if you get, you get into the guys that had to use the watch to survive in some of those scenarios. And it's, it's hard to fathom, right? It's hard to understand what they were up against because it was just death on all sides. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | Death and failure. You know, it was a, it was a country that needed wins. Right. And a time, a time that required some advancement and some big thoughts and some bravery. And it's interesting to see that packaged up in what we now you walk into a store and anyone can buy and put on their wrist and get to be a little bit of a part of that. And then in that way with, and that's where the weird, I think the weirdest part of it is, is with, with a few watches, with, um, with maybe a Speedmaster with the Submariner is everyone becomes a little ambassador to the legacy of all the crazy things that have been done while wearing those watches, which I think is kind of, kind of endearing, kind of charming. You know, I feel a little bit of that with my Explorer too, even if I'm only sitting on the couch or, you know, going for groceries or something. And in exactly the same way with the docks. Yeah. You know, I could, you look back at the kind of overall sun dappled nostalgia of Cousteau, uh, and that will always kind of speak to me. |
| Jason Heaton | I think that's a good word, a good place to leave it. I mean, I think it's, it's a little, you know, grand, but I think we all can feel like a little bit of ambassadors, uh, for these brands. Um, especially if we're out there doing stuff with the watches. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | Yeah. And maybe that's why it works, uh, as well as it does and why so many brands do, do continue to, you know, operate in that metric. So if you have any questions for us, if you have any feedback on this kind of main topic on the ambassador thing, I know it's been a popular topic of ours in the past, uh, watches adventure and, and kind of how that makes a human, a human kind of overlap, uh, you know, the great NATO gmail.com. And certainly we were, we are in the process of working on having a few people from this world on the show in the future, which we're quite excited about. Um, so yeah, stay tuned for, for some kind of fun adventurous sort of developments for, uh, for future episodes. Um, I think it's probably time to jump into a final notes. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. I have two good ones actually for given today's topic, but I'll start with one related to Everest. Um, this came to me through Instagram from one of my followers, and I'm not sure if he's a listener of the show. His name is John tracks. He's at John's variety on Instagram. And he sent me a little note after I posted something on the anniversary date of the first Everest climb. And he thought I might like this. And I did, so I think everybody else would. It's from Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, CBC. They have a podcast called Front Burner. And there was a guest on there named Alia Saikali, who's a documentary filmmaker who was on Everest this spring doing a climb. I think he's actually been to Everest several times. He experienced this incredibly crowded season on Everest and kind of had some interesting things to say about the state of Everest climbing. It's a lot different than it was when Hillary and Tenzing climbed. It's a lot different than when Reinhold Messner climbed it. Everybody by now has probably seen these photos of these long queues of brightly colored climbers kind of in lockstep on the way up to the summit and the problems that it's created. There've been a lot of deaths this year on Everest because of the traffic jams there and people just being stuck in the death zone. |
| James | Well, that really famous image that we're talking about that's become quite famous in the last little while was shot by NIMS. Yeah, it was. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | And then, and then was quickly stolen by like CNN and a bunch of other places. He's good about calling them out on Instagram, which I rather like. Um, but yeah, the, the, the one where it's where you can very clearly see what's left of the Hillary step and that sort of ridgeline and it's just chalk. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| James | That's, that's, that's from him and it's an incredible. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | So, um, check out the podcast. It's, it's not very long. It's a, it's an interview of about 25 minutes. So, um, just one of many voices that are coming out this year to Kind of comment on the current state of Everest climbing. |
| James | Very cool. I will certainly, I got, I got a few minutes into it and, uh, and paused it for some other work, but I'll definitely get to that this weekend. Um, so my first pick is actually something that is a discontinued and it's simply a toss out that everybody should, if, if it sounds valuable to you, you should be on the lookout for them because apparently they're still in some stores. I've not been able to find one yet. And that's the Google Chromecast audio. Jason, do you use any Chromecast stuff at all? |
| Jason Heaton | I don't. I had to look this up when you posted the little link here. |
| James | It looks interesting. Yeah, so I've now become kind of hooked on it because I have one, which used to be enough in my old home, but I now have a couple of rooms in this home where I have kind of disparate stereos. And the idea is that with Chromecast, you can put them on your televisions and then you basically control everything from another device, but it's not remote control. So, um, the basic premise is either audio or video. So let's say in this case with the Chromecast audio, it's a little wifi disc thing that connects to your speakers. And then when you're in Spotify or you're in iTunes or whatever, it's, it's there as an available output essentially. But then once you, once you, it's not like Bluetooth, it's not actually taking the stream or the data from your phone. It's sending a link. To the service to the Chromecast and then your phone just works as a remote. |
| Unknown | Oh yeah. Right. |
| James | And the really fun thing about it is, is all Chromecast stuff is, is part of the Google home, which is now maybe called like the Google nest scenario. So you can actually have the same song playing on a group of speakers in your home. So all of your Google home devices and anything with the Chromecast audio can all play the same music simultaneously with no weird lag or problems. And, uh, I slept on the fact that they discontinued these around Christmas. I should have bought a couple more. Um, and I'm hunting, I'm hunting down some on, on, um, on eBay currently. And, uh, it's really clever because you can plug it into any speaker that has a headphone jack. So if you have a spare pair of computer speakers, then you now have like a wifi enabled Chromecast stereo. And then if you have like a full fledged stereo, they do toss link for higher quality audio. Um, they're very small and easy to kind of tuck away in, in behind something. And yeah, so I, I have, um, I have a handful of these Google home devices around my house that function as a kind of mesh network for speakers, um, like mesh network for audio. And, uh, I need another one or two, maybe Chromecast audios to, uh, to kind of complete that set, but they're clever. And then you can, you can be, um, you can be in the same room and basically say like, uh, you know, cast to this speaker or cast to this group. You can say it in audio, like you can literally say it out loud and the speaker will pick up Spotify and put it out on all the speakers. I like it. And they were like, when I bought mine, it was about 50 bucks. Oh, okay. Yeah. That's very recent. Not a fortune. And then the video experience is largely the same. You could be on your Netflix app on your phone and there'll be a little icon that shows up if you're on a network that has Chromecast. And then you can pick the show or movie you want to watch and then say which TV you want to send it to. And then it just shows up on the television and you control the play and pause and those features on your phone, but it's not like streaming it from your phone. So there's no lag, there's no battery drain, that sort of thing. It's clever. If you see one or you catch them on Craigslist or something like that, and it sounds of interest, maybe snag one up and give it a try. Nice for the summer. If you're on the back deck, you can have a, like I said, a spare pair of computer speakers or something. And then anyone who's on the wifi has their Spotify going. Nice. Can, can, can kind of be in, be in the mix with the Chromecast. It's a, it's nice tech. I like it. So we got next for us. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So my second one kind of came to me through a connection at Boliva watch company and they're doing kind of a neat thing. There's a, an initiative called the veterans watchmaker initiative that's being done in cooperation with Bulova. So they're actually doing it through GoFundMe and trying to raise money to open a watchmaking school out east. I believe it's in Pennsylvania, if I'm not mistaken, or maybe the D.C. area. And they're trying to raise money to open this watchmaking school that will train disabled veterans, American military veterans, train them in watchmaking. It's just kind of a neat program, kind of a worthy cause. And what's really neat about it is that Bulova is actually, through June, is actually matching funds. So if you contribute a hundred bucks, Bulova will match it equally. And I just think that's kind of a neat thing. You know, we talked earlier about Oris' commitment to a lot of environmental causes, and I think it's just neat to see Bulova jump in on something like this with their, you know, history of being an American brand. Um, and also with the military. And I just think it's a really good fit. And, you know, certainly they're, they'd like to promote this, um, and it helps the brand image, but I think it feels very selfless and, and very worthwhile. And, uh, um, so we'll, we'll put a link in for this go fund me page and, and you can check it out. I think it's, it's a really neat thing for one thing, just to bring more watchmaking back to the U S but also to, to train people in a, in a skill that, you know, is hard to come by in the U S and for, you know, veterans that are Might have a challenging time finding other employment or getting other training. |
| James | So check it out. That's a fantastic initiative. I like this a lot. And my last is, is actually just a pretty simple tip. And, and, you know, there's a chance that I spoke about this last year at this time, or maybe even the year before that. And that's okay. My, my simple tip is learn to make your own cold brew. It's one of my favorite things about summer is that Starbucks starts serving cold brew again and Starbucks gets, gets a lot of heat, their coffee They're very fancy and full of sugar and all that kind of stuff. But like, put all that aside for a moment. If you've never tried a Starbucks cold brew, it's a different thing. So, um, it's not a gimmick. Like it's literally coffee that has been brewed without the use of heat. So it just takes a lot of time, typically 24 to 36 hours. Um, I would say Starbucks is probably the best you can find easily. It's so strong. If you like strong coffee, it's a, it's something else. And then the other tip, if you're really deep into cold brew, um, Starbucks offers a Trenta, which is 30 ounces. And, uh, and it's basically a bathtub of coffee, but if you would like your feet to tap endlessly, um, and to feel that kind of general anxiety of where your heart's a little bit too fast for your body for like a day and a half, like a Trenta is probably the easiest $4 to get you there. Um, but yeah, cold brew is really great. You know, I really love coffee and I love, I especially love coffee when it can be drank black. Yeah. Um, and cold brew, uh, if you make your own, it's, it's not a cheap coffee. It's not as cheap as making like a normal brewed coffee. Um, it requires quite a good deal of beans, but there's tons of how to's online. And you basically need a big jug where you can put the, the beans, these sort of coarsely ground beans into, into some water, leave it in your fridge for a while, and then strain it out. And you can buy like a little kits on Amazon that make the straining phase easier. Uh, I don't, I, you know, the cheesecloth thing isn't that difficult or expensive. So that's typically the road I go. And then you just kind of end up with like a big juice container of this, like really high test coffee. And whether you want it on ice so that when the ice starts to melt, it's kind of like cask strength, whiskey takes ice a little bit better. Um, or, or you like to put a milk and sugar and everything, this will still retain a lot of flavor and it's, it's not acidic or bitter. It's just very rich coffee kind of flavor. Uh, I highly, highly recommend a cold brew and I know most people drink cold brew, but maybe most people don't realize it's really easy to make at home. Like you don't need a machine, um, to do it. It's a, it's pretty straightforward and it's kind of fun and it's a cheaper than doing the, the, the 30 ouncer at Starbucks, uh, five days a week, probably cheaper on your heart too. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, that's, that's, that's a great one. I, uh, I'll have to try that at home. I remember making cold brew many, many years ago and, uh, um, I, I've kind of gotten away from it, but you know, Like overnight, it's turned into summer here and now you've got me craving a cold brew coffee because I think I literally had the heat on in the house last week and I just installed a window air conditioner yesterday. So it's like, uh, it's time. Okay. Cold brew season. |
| Unknown | Yeah, yeah, for sure. |
| James | All right. Well, I think that's the show. So as always, thanks so much for listening to the show and a big thanks for Hoding Key for making the show possible and to our show sponsor Garmin for sponsoring this episode. Be sure to visit Garmin.com. If you're looking for a really exemplary modern tool watch, they make some really great stuff, and Jason and I have messed around with a handful of their products. You can hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | We leave you with this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson, who wrote, Do not go where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. |