The Grey NATO - Ep 83 - Collection Inspection Vol 7
Published on Thu, 20 Jun 2019 05:59:59 -0400
Synopsis
Jason and James discuss Jason's recent trip to the UK, including hiking and exploring in Wales, visiting historical sites, and attending watch events in London. They also do an in-depth "Collection Inspection" segment, where Jason talks about his Tudor Snowflake Submariner and James highlights his Doxa Sub 300T 50th Anniversary watch. In the final notes, James recommends a zippered watch travel case and a Tudor-style fabric NATO strap, while Jason shares about an interesting art photography project documenting lifeboat stations around the UK coast.
Links
Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Gray Nato, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 83 and we thank you so much for listening. I haven't been up to that much in the last couple of weeks. I've been home and just kind of underwater with several different work projects, but Jason, you've been traveling a ton. Let's start with a download from your recent adventure. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I can certainly do that. So my wife and I just got back on Sunday from, I guess it was about nine days over in the UK. And it was really a proper sort of vacation kind of getaway. The excuse for going, and I think I had mentioned this on a couple of previous shows, was a family event that was happening last Thursday in London. And we decided to tag on a few days early and do some exploring out in Wales. And, you know, I got great advice and, uh, from, from a few listeners and, and certainly made good use of that and took a lot of notes and, um, hit a few places that were recommended. Um, but you know, the way the trip kind of shook out as we, we got in on a Sunday morning, uh, on the overnight flight at about nine o'clock, picked up a rental car. And for this trip, I was able to use some. banked credit card points and was able to rent a Jaguar E-Pace. So, I don't know if you've driven one of these, but the E-Pace is... I wasn't familiar with it. I thought the E stood for, you know, electric or something and it was some... No, that's the I-Pace. The I-Pace, okay. |
| James Stacey | It's confusing. So, I think the E is the one that's smaller than the F-Pace, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Yes, yes. So, when we saw it, I thought, oh, F-Pace, like it's an electric F-Pace, but then I noticed it's a diesel, And you're right, it's a smaller version of the F-Pace. And I think it's a nicely proportioned, really sharp car, good size. You know, initially we had hoped to get, you know, I naively thought that a Range Rover would be a really fun vehicle to kind of take to Wales, which is sort of the birthplace of Land Rovers dating back to the 40s. But, you know, having seen the roads now and driven on the roads in Wales, which are extremely narrow, I was happy to have kind of a smaller vehicle, and the E-Pace was really, really fun. You know, you've done a lot of these great car trips over the past couple of years, driving some really cool exotic cars, and I haven't had that many experiences doing that, and so taking the E-Pace across the UK for, you know, I think we had it for four days, was really, really fun. It kind of felt nice to be, you know, driving on the right side of the car, left side of the road, in a British car, It was a fairly high-end vehicle. It wasn't a high-end version of that car, but it was definitely a luxury vehicle. Was it an automatic? It was an automatic, yeah. It had the paddle shifters. Seats were super comfy. Controls were really easy to get around. Nowadays, that can be a bit of a challenge if you're used to an older vehicle. It's got a touchscreen and that sort of thing. you know, I don't want to dwell too much on the car, but it really kind of added to the, to the trip to have a really nice, comfortable kind of luxe vehicle to, to do this trip in. |
| James Stacey | And there were some, and did you, did you do that with, um, like with a special rental company or just like a normal rental house? That's what they offer. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it was through enterprise and I had used these, you know, it was one of the rental companies that, um, my credit card points worked at and, you know, they offered a luxury vehicle. I think it said, Range Rover or equivalent or similar. And so when I got there, they kind of gave me a few choices and that was what we chose. So, you know, some suitably windy roads through Wales, some a little bit kind of scary, you know, you get these really narrow roads that were probably built in the, you know, 1800s for, you know, horse-drawn carriages and they've been paved over and they've got, you know, rock wall that runs right up to the edge of the road on one side and then barely enough space for two vehicles to pass, um, on two way roads. And so, you know, I was constantly sort of almost closing my eyes and just hoping we were going to have a, either a front end collision or scraping a really expensive fender on a, on a rock wall as we were rounding these corners. But, uh, nothing bad happened and it turned out to be a really great vehicle for the trip. And, uh, you know, Wales, it's still, it's still with me, you know, almost a week later, it was, it's one of those sort of magical, really raw places. Uh, very kind of windswept and rainy and kind of brooding, you know, dark kind of gray cloudy skies. And, um, uh, you know, we had kind of a nice mix of seaside towns, um, and, and mountains and small towns. And, uh, um, we, we stayed in a small town called bed Gellert. Um, and, you know, forgive me for all these probably very butchered Welsh name pronunciations, but, um, bed Gellert is, is smack dab in the middle of Snowdonia national park, which is kind of where all the peaks are. Um, and we stayed in a converted church vestry, uh, which was an Airbnb and beautiful place. Um, two doors down was this pub called the Prince Llewellyn pub where we had a dinner a couple of times and, and, you know, some good pints of ale and, uh, So we were able to kind of walk for dinner and there was just plenty of hiking just right outside the door. You know, you just walk across the road, across a little footbridge over this river and you're right in sort of rolling, hilly farmland with peaks all around. And so it just made for a really nice way to kind of acclimate on that first day. And so I think, you know, we, on the second day we were there, we decided that You know, kind of shake off the jet lag. And it was a pretty decent day weather-wise. We drove out to a couple of seaside towns, which are about an hour's drive away because we wanted to see some castles. Wales apparently has more castles per whatever, you know, for its size than any other European or, or UK country. So we wanted to take advantage of that. And we went to a castle at a town called Krikiath. which is on the coast and it's just really dramatic. It sits on this sort of lump of a hill above the town right over the ocean and you buy a ticket for a reasonable amount and just kind of hike up to the top of the hill where the wind was blowing and the castle's kind of crumbling away but you can climb around on the ramparts and kind of peek in all the little doors and things. So that was really fun and that was kind of our coast day. We went to a town called Port Madoc I had breakfast there and took some photos on the beach. The tide was out, so you get that sort of scene with all the boats are kind of sitting up on their keels on the sand as the tide is out. And, you know, just sort of poked around and did, I think we did two castles that day and then kind of saw the coast and sort of did that scene. And then the next day we did a fair bit of hiking. We did a valley called the Coombe Lawn, I think is how it's pronounced. And it's the Coombe, if you're familiar with the Western Coombe from Everest lore is, is, is a Welsh word for, I think it's valley. And the Coombe Lawn is the valley that runs below Mount Snowdon, which is the highest peak in Wales and England. And the one that kind of everybody goes there to climb. And so we decided, you know, it was a little late in the day when we got started, we decided we're not going to try for the top of Snowdon, but we'd hike as far up the valley, kind of up the flanks of the mountain as we could. And, uh, You know, just, just beautiful, wonderful hiking, nothing technical, um, just sort of rocky switchbacky, um, up through, you know, sheep's grazing and cattle and, um, kind of old, uh, rock ruins. There was an old building up there that had been used for commando training during World War II. And there were still shell marks, you know, from, from target practice in the, uh, in the side of the walls and, um, an old quarry that had shut down and sort of remnants of the buildings there. And, um, you know, uh, it was, it was just as you'd imagine, kind of Welsh hiking to be the, the wind was blowing and it was quite rainy. So we were well prepared for that with, with rain gear. And I think, you know, a place like Wales or, you know, Scotland or Iceland or, or any of these places, uh, certainly probably even in British Columbia, um, the weather is sort of part of the, It's part of the place. It's sort of what gives it the, gives it the, uh, part of the allure. Um, so having expected that, you know, we, we didn't go there expecting bright sunny days and hiking in shorts. And so it really kind of added to the whole scene. And, uh, and then that same day we decided to check out a, um, this little, uh, in little hotel called the penny, penny weird. I think it's pronounced. Um, it's the, the little hotel where, um, as, as legend has it, the 1953 Everest team had stayed and kind of based themselves when they were training, doing some winter mountaineering training for Everest. Um, and in subsequent years, the surviving members of that team would then go back there to kind of meet up for a reunion. And when they were there, they would, whoever showed up would sign their name on the ceiling of this little kind of small room with a fireplace and at rustic tables and benches where presumably they'd sit and have pints and food and sort of tell war stories. So it was kind of neat to be there and look up and see Edmund Hillary's signature and Tenzing Norgay's signature and Sir John Hunt's signature just a few feet above my head. So it was kind of an odd little place. The owners have a reputation of being a little, little prickly and a little bit sort of set in their ways, but you know, we weren't staying there. We just stopped in for a beer and, um, really sort of soaked up the, the history of the place. They have old mountaineering gear, including some boots and oxygen gear and, and things like that from, from the Everest to climb in sort of display cases there. So, so cool. Highly recommend, uh, anybody that's, uh, in the area, you know, going to Wales that make that sort of a pilgrimage if you're into kind of the history of mountaineering. And then kind of our last day, our last full day in Wales, we, and we thought, Oh, we really should, should go bag a peak, you know, do, do kind of a proper climb to the top. And one of the mountains that, that we had been considering as a place called Cotter Idris, which is, um, uh, one of the higher peaks in, in Snowdonia. And, um, so we set off, we, we drove very circuitous route, took about an hour and a half to get to the trailhead. we parked and it was just, you know, just pouring down rain and sideways wind. And, you know, we set off in all of our waterproof gear and, um, kind of hiked up a fairly steep, rocky path up through some farmland. And then we got kind of above, um, tree line and, and, uh, kind of switch backed up and you could see the, the, this sort of ominous slab of the mountain kind of where we were headed and the cloud deck was, well below the top of the mountain. So it was clear that the, there'd be almost zero visibility up there. And, and so we got up to the, to the ridgeline where it then kind of becomes more of a straight shot for the summit. And by this time the wind was, you know, I don't, I didn't have any sense of what this wind speed was, but it was just blowing sideways and really, really wet. And we thought, you know, if we kind of keep going up, um, we're just going to be miserable and we're not going to see anything when we get to the top anyway. So we sort of had a, you know, flask of tea there and sort of got our bearings and then decided to kind of make our way down. And I think that was a good decision that day. And that was kind of our experience in Snowdonia. And then the next day was our day to drive back to London. And we decided to take kind of a Southern route down through another national park in Wales called the Brecon Beacons. And, um, we had sort of two goals. We wanted to visit Penny Van, which is the, mountain and the beacons that the SAS qualification training happens. They take kind of new recruits and send them on this really brutal, long march with 65 pounds of gear up and over this peak, you know, there and back in, I think they have four hours to do it. So it's, it's pretty brutal. Um, but it's a beautiful area. The mountains are very different. They're very, they call them glacial troughs. So they're very sort of sloped and grassy with flat tops on them and Um, so we, we were able to kind of get there early enough to, to park and, and kind of set off for the top. And, and that, that peak, we did make it to the top and kind of spend a little bit of time shooting some photos and, and then headed back down. And, um, and our second goal was to visit a distillery there that we'd read about before we went. It's a, a whiskey distillery called Pandaren. And as far as I know, it's the only whiskey distillery in Wales. Um, Wales used to have a whiskey industry way back when, until there were some sort of religious zealots that sort of campaigned against it and almost, you know, threatened them and shut them down back in, I think, the 1920s. So Pandaren revived the industry and they distill a number of whiskeys and some gins. And so we stopped in there and had a little tasting and grabbed a couple of bottles of whiskey and gin to take back with us. Um, and then headed back to London. So, you know, we made it to London by evening that day. And, uh, you know, I think Wales was, was the real highlight of the trip, but, but we sort of were, um, had a little bit of free time in London the next day and I took full advantage. I had set up some time to go meet with, um, Mal and Richard who run Silverman's, which is a military surplus shop in Mile End in London. And back in the nineties, they had bought the Cabot watch company name from Ray Malore, who was the founder of CWC, which had always been a military supply watch company for the Royal Marines, the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force, dating back to 1972. And so I went over there one morning and, you know, just chatted with, with Malcolm and Richard, and they showed me a lot of the vintage watches that they have, the old CWCs that were, you know, Bangladeshi Air Force and the stopwatch that was used in the most recent Mission Impossible film. and you know the old dive watches that they have and you know it's really fun humble little company that's just very focused on making some just really cool military kit and turns out Silverman's has been in their family since my gosh since probably the 1920s or 30s and their main business is military surplus so they go out to auctions and they buy old military surplus clothing and gear sell it either through the store or through uh, eBay. And so just before I left, Malcolm said, you know, I do want to come and take a look at the back room. And he took me back there and it was just mind blowing. I mean, it was just this, this huge warehouse, Florida ceiling shelving of old, you know, army, Navy, whatever surplus stuff. I mean, he dating back to world war one, they have old bayonet pouches and knives and Royal Marines pith helmets from, you know, jungle campaigns and, RAF high altitude flight suits and boots and hot weather clothing and parkas. I could have spent an entire day just in that back room. Ever since I was a little kid I always loved to go to army surplus stores and just kind of poke through some of that stuff. So that was a real thrill. That was really fun. And then I went straight from there. I went to a restaurant in Mayfair called Scott's, which was apparently Ian Fleming's favorite place to eat. And I met Nick English and Natalie from, from Bremont and had a really nice, nice kind of lunch and catch up with those guys popped into their boutique there. And, um, I got a steel bracelet put on my supermarine, which I've kind of been wanting for a while. So that was really fun. And, uh, and then, um, we had this event at the Maritime Museum, the kind of the reason I was, we were in the UK to begin with, um, which was, It was neat. It was a really neat space, although we didn't really have a chance to kind of poke around the museum because it was after hours. But that was a lot of fun. And then finally, we had a free day the day before we flew home to take the train up to Cambridge and kind of do more touristy stuff in Cambridge. We took a little punting tour, you know, those little flat bottom boats. Oh, right. Okay. A lot of the, I think a lot of the college students volunteer, sorry, don't volunteer. They actually work there to kind of, you know, pull people up and down the river there and explain what the historic buildings are. Um, so that was a fun thing to do. And then we, we had lunch at the, um, the Eagle Eagle bar, which is famous for being the place where Crick and Watson announced their discovery of DNA. And they have a beer there called the Eagles DNA kind of named after those guys. And then in the back of that, sort of adjacent to it, there's another bar called the RAF bar where a lot of the U.S. Air Force flyers would hang out during World War II with the RAF guys. There must be a thing in England or in the U.K. about putting your graffiti or your names on the ceiling because that ceiling of that bar was covered with kind of graffiti from the airmen in World War II. So that was a really neat place to have a steak and ale pie and some beer. So that's awesome. And then just, you know, before I left, I had breakfast with Don Cochran from Vertex. So that's kind of, kind of doing the whole, uh, you know, British watch, uh, scene with the CWC and Bremont and Vertex and Don and I had a lovely breakfast and he showed me, uh, the, the DLC cased, uh, MP45 chronograph that, that he's about to release. And that was really fun to see and just got ahead of good catch up. So, um, really, really a full trip with a lot of kind of diverse activities, you know, from mountain climbing to punting in Cambridge and, and some good time in pubs and, um, you know, a little bit of watch stuff in there. So it was, uh, it was, it was a pretty epic trip. I mean, it, it really felt like one of those rejuvenating getaways to kind of do something completely different from, you know, a press trip or diving or, you know, whatever. |
| James Stacey | I'm happy for you. I think that's awesome. Uh, I think we can probably move pretty quickly into the main topic, but I had a couple of kind of more quick questions for you. Yeah. Of all of that, what, what's the, like, if someone goes to Wales, what's the one place they should eat? |
| Jason Heaton | One place they should eat. |
| James Stacey | They're like, what was the best meal you had? |
| Jason Heaton | Um, man, you know, we didn't, I wouldn't say Wales was a real food destination, but I would say that, you know, when we were in Bed Gellert, you know, just walking next door to the, the Prince Llewellyn pub, I think that pub scene, especially after you've done something vigorous out in the cold, um, was just so welcoming to just go and, walk over to the Prince Llewellyn pub there in Bed Gellert and just have a steak and ale pie and a pint of ale. It was just so comforting. |
| James Stacey | And of the spots that you drove around to, which one was kind of the most photogenic? If someone wanted to go and take a nice picture as a memory of their time in Wales. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean, I think mountains are kind of what that area is known for. But, you know, so anywhere that you kind of just pull off to the side, the Coombe Laan Valley was nice, but I think The coastline really rivals it as well, and the town of Port Madoc, we sort of did a coastal walk to the next town of Borthy Guest, and that was just, you know, quaint little sort of coastal towns with lifeboat stations, and then Crickeith with the castle, so yeah. |
| James Stacey | Right, okay. And any local beer that someone should make sure they get in their hands? |
| Jason Heaton | You know, I never even paid attention to the names, I was just like, everything was local, and I think I was just like, pint of ale, and they would you know, just hand it to me. So they have whatever they've got. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Right. Cool. Yeah. Well, that's rad, man. It sounds like an awesome trip. I thought the pictures, like I thought the stuff that you've already put on Instagram was really cool. Um, we'll, we'll link what we can in the show notes. Um, if you have a specific, a more specific question about, uh, itinerary or something like that, then, uh, we can, we can probably field that via email, uh, the graynado at gmail.com. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And if anyone's, if anyone's confused, um, when, if they do look at my Instagram, when, when this episode airs, um, you'll notice that I'm, I'm actually going back to London, uh, next week. So when this episode airs, I'll be there for just a quick overnight, um, for an event with Omega. So a very different sort of trip, but, uh, yeah, that's, uh, that's coming up next week. |
| James Stacey | Very nice. I would go right back a week later. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Right. Yeah. Let's, uh, let's jump into the main topic. I think it's, uh, |
| James Stacey | Okay. So I think this is one that doesn't need a whole lot of introduction. It's our seventh installment of Collection Inspection. These are always one of my favorites. So this is for anyone who's maybe this new to the show, you know, this is a look at a watch that, Jason, I feel is permanent or semi-permanent in our collection, a watch that we like and we wear. And it's just kind of a deep dive on one specific watch and why we like it. So, Jason, do you want to go first with your pick? |
| Jason Heaton | Why don't you go first? I need to catch my breath after sort of blabbing on about the UK. Okay. Yeah. I go first. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So this is a watch I largely blame Jason for. It's a brand I had always been interested in, but had never gone out and purchased simply because a lot of the watches were kind of this mix of old and new aesthetic all applied into kind of one watch. And then, you know, a lot of them, it's hard to know based on their naming structure, what the size of the watch is, but this one, Turns out to have been a bullseye on kind of on my first pick. So this is the, uh, the Doxa sub 300 T 50th anniversary. And I have a sea rambler, uh, version. So this isn't the Aqua Lung edition, which came out a little later. This is the original from 2017 and they made 300 in each dial color. So those of you who don't know Doxa, uh, they typically their, their main dive watches operate on three dial colors. So you have a black is a shark hunter. Orange is the professional. and this sort of sunburst steel color, just white metal is the SeaRambler. I really like the SeaRambler because you get this bright orange minute hand. And I've always kind of been drawn to it. The other one of my favorites that they make is the 750 GMT, which, sorry, they used to make, they don't currently produce them. And those were offered in Diving Star, which is yellow, and Caribbean, which is blue, orange, and the blue, orange Caribbean is a pretty crazy watch. And Jason, you owned a, uh, seven 50 T diving star. |
| Jason Heaton | I did. Yeah. Yeah. They do colors really well. I mean, Doc's color as well. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | And, uh, and yeah, you know, from the moment that I kind of first saw the pictures back when this watch was announced, you know, they were about just, just a hair under $2,500, a little less if you pre-ordered, uh, if my memory serves and, I don't know. I genuinely don't. I've written about the watch before in some length, like in these weird sort of pics that we'll do occasionally on Hodinkee, but I don't think you can buy more charm for the money. The watch is so fun and so distinctive and so unique and so of a time. And this is literally a direct copy, or you can call it a reissue if you'd rather, but it's a direct copy of the dive watch that they made in 1967 in terms of its proportions. And, you know, it comes with a bracelet. It comes in this great packaging that looks like a scuba cylinder. And I, uh, I really liked the whole, the whole sort of vibe. And then with this one, it's actually, it's not, it's kind of, I guess, a middle-sized Doxa, smaller middle size. It's not the smallest. Um, but these are, uh, 42.5 millimeters across and 12.4 millimeters thick. I don't think Jason, you could, you could weigh in if you like, but I don't think it wears either of those dimensions accurately. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's a hard watch to describe the size of. People are always asking, does it wear big? And with those dimensions, you think, boy, that's kind of a big watch. But something about it, I don't know if it's that small dial or how thin it is, but it just really hugs the wrist. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I think it's a mix of that kind of dished case shape, which is why the reason the SRP777 doesn't really feel like 44.5 millimeters. But I would say this wears really closely to the way my Explorer wears, which is a 40 millimeter watch that isn't that thick. Um, if you look at the watch in profile like a good chunk of that 12.4 millimeters is the crystal which you don't notice When it's actually on your wrist and it has this kind of staged case side where? The actual case sits very flush against your wrist and then you have the sort of the bezel kind of sits on top of that form It has a kind of an architectural case. Nothing really looks like it the bezel has this like really amazing grip on it um that feels really nice the case is really nicely finished even even for 2500 bucks it's really nicely finished uh i adore i just literally adore the silver dial and the orange accents and it works really well like if you put it on kind of a leather it kind of it doesn't get dressy but it becomes kind of um i don't know like like an adventure puts on kind of a tweed jacket and goes and talks at the explorer's club about something and then if you throw it on a on a rubber strap it looks like it looks like quintessential dive watch. It has this funky bezel, it has a lot of kind of late 60s early 70s sort of design aesthetic. There's literally no way you could determine this to be anything but a Doxa. You know they have such a unique presence. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah and you know one of the calling cards of Doxa is that beads of rice or grains of rice bracelet and yet I think this watch works better on almost anything but that. I mean it does okay on the bracelet but that bracelet is a slight miss because of the lack of the taper. |
| James Stacey | It has some taper, but yeah. You have one or two of these different dial colors, but the same case, basically. What's your preferred strap for it? |
| Jason Heaton | I do a lot on a NATO, and I do a lot on... I love a NATO. Like a vintage tropic strap works really well. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, something that tapers, something kind of thin. Definitely something vintage-y. I haven't actually tried it on leather, I don't think, but I should do that. I like it. I like the silver. It could be a sea rambler thing. Yeah. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. It could be a sea rambler thing that it works so well with leather. And then the other thing I find that I really love for this watch is I have this I've definitely talked about on the show before. I have one of these eBay shark mesh straps. So it's they're like 50 bucks. I'm sure you can even find them for less if you hunt them around. But it's not like a fine link. It's kind of like a shark mesh. It looks like Like what people would wear to get in the water with a blue shark on shark week or something. And when you put that on and it's, you know, leave it a little bit sort of, give it a micro adjust, maybe two positions too big. So it moves around a bit and that has like, for me, like a perfect, I'm in the Caribbean, I run a dive boat sort of. sort of look to it. Yeah, just summer. Yeah, I mean it's a pure summer watch. It's so much fun on wrist. It's amazing. It's really, they are really good on NATOs. Yeah. And I really like wearing this with the rubber NATO when I go, if I'm going to be swimming or kind of like kicking around the beach for a day because that's very, it feels like dive watch equipment, but the NATO gives me a little bit more faith in my spring bars if I'm, you know, diving off docks and stuff like that. Yeah. uh, with water rushing across my hand. So I, I do like that a lot. And, uh, and then I, yeah, I currently have it on a NATO, which I will talk about in final notes, actually. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, I, I think, you know, docs is one of those watches that it's a bit of a polarizing design, you know, for the first couple of years that I was on the forums and I just did not get it. I thought they were kind of ugly watches and I don't know, there's something about this sub 300 is. And in each of the three colors it wears so differently. I've had a chance to wear all three of them and the black is a very serious kind of, you know, it feels kind of like your typical sort of military inspired, you know, serious dive watch. The orange is, you know, bright and sunny and kind of very doxa, very loud. But I think the silver is arguably the best one with the pop of orange from the hand. And then that silver dials for some reason always make me feel like it's a real vintage sort of watch, you know? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I agree. I like it a lot. I think they're all sold out. Pretty sure. At least that's my understanding. So this is the kind of thing you'd have to if you want the... Now, so they made a total of 900 of these ones. And then do you remember specifically how many of each color were made with a... Aqualung logo. Thank you. With the Aqualung logo on it? |
| Jason Heaton | I think it was 300 of the Sea Rambler and 300 of the Orange, the Professional. And I think they stopped at 50. for the shark hunter for the black dial. Okay. |
| James Stacey | So I mean, then there's maybe, there's maybe something like 1500 in existence. Yeah. The 1200, something like that. Yeah. There's somewhere around 12 to 1500 of these out there. So, and I don't know that there's like the docks of communities, very into the watches, but they're not huge. Um, so I would say if it's something that you want, get on watch recon and, uh, and, and look for these, they, they come in different versions. I don't think there's a bad version. I haven't seen the professional in person, but that's going to be the most DOXA DOXA. And then the only other thing I would ask is, Jason, so this is 42.5 millimeters. If somebody wanted this, but wanted one that was the modern sort of, it wasn't a vintage effect DOXA, what's its closest amalgam of 1500? I think it's the 1200, I think. A 1200, okay. I think it's the 1200. Because you would think as the number goes up, the watch gets bigger, but it doesn't. |
| Jason Heaton | Maybe I'm wrong. |
| James Stacey | I think you're right. The 1200 is the smallest current modern case size. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | You know what? A good resource is Alan Farmello, who writes sometimes for Gear Patrol. He did a piece... Alan's awesome. ...comparing the three... Sorry, not the three, but the case sizes of three different docks. And I think he did the sub 300, the 1200, and the 1500. |
| James Stacey | Oh, okay. We'll just link that. |
| Jason Heaton | His article on Gear Patrol has all the dimensions and it's all there. Oh, super. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. Yeah. Alan's been writing some really good like exhaustive product. Yeah. Explainers for Gear Patrol. Yeah. I met Alan at a Braymont thing earlier, well, I'm sorry, last year, mid last year, and he's just the sweetest guy. And then to have that one he did that was, I think it was all steel Rolex models explained. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, yeah, yeah. Exhaustive is a good word. |
| James Stacey | That must have been a huge amount of work. Yeah. Yeah. No, I think that's some great stuff. So that, yeah, that makes sense. I do, I do recall him doing a Doxa piece. So we'll, we'll link that in there so that people can kind of have an idea of the sizing because it's not like the 750, I think might actually have a bigger case size than the 1200. It's kind of, it's kind of different than you might expect. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. I would say just to close out this bit on the Doxa is, and I think you probably would agree that this is possibly the most comfortably wearing watch that I own. I mean, it definitely is for me. Yeah. I mean, just hands down, like you put this thing on and it just melts into your wrist. |
| James Stacey | Um, and I mean it, it doesn't because it, because of the wider case, it holds on really nicely. So like you would think the smaller, like you'd think typically the smaller the watch, the less noticeable it is. But like my 37 millimeter skin diver, which wears beautifully on a NATO does not sit on my wrist like it, like this does. Yeah. this is the the proportions are just kind of perfect and it just kind of sits it feels comfortable it doesn't weigh that much it's heavy on the bracelet but the bracelet's really nice it's nicely made so it's a heavy bracelet yeah but yeah no i think these are um like literally endless charm i think they're really stylish um i think they're super tgn obviously and uh and then yeah like you said they're really comfortable and they are one of those watches where they could, it would make a perfectly great everyday watch. Um, you know, unless, unless you go into an office where this, where a dive watch would look kind of crazy on your wrist, they're kind of subtle. They're not that big. Uh, I mean the, the sea ramblers kind of bright, but the, and the, so as is the pro, but you know, I think you can wear them on a ton of different straps. You can easily dive and swim and bike and run and all that kind of stuff with them. They're, they're really killer. And a nice, simple edit movement. So when it's time to service it, it's not a huge headache. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think it's a good one. Total TGN stamp of approval. We almost need to have like a TGN approved products. And I think this would be at the top of the list. |
| James Stacey | Oh, absolutely. And I mean, it's the kind of thing we're like, if I think that DOCSIS should use this as the platform for essentially a brand new sub 300. So it doesn't have to have the bubble crystal and everything else. It could be their kind of modern trimmings. But this size, this bezel, I think would be cool. Yeah. Yeah. In short, the Doxa Sub 300T, I absolutely adore it. I can't imagine selling it or not wanting it in my collection. I wear it pretty much all the time. Sometimes I'll wear it for weeks on end because it's just right, especially this time of year. And I genuinely don't have anything more to say about it. It's an absolutely fantastic watch for the money. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, with that, I will, uh, I'll jump into my, my pick. Yeah. So mine is, is my, uh, Tudor Submariner. It's the reference 9401-0, which means it's one of the later no-date versions of the so-called Snowflake Submariner. This one dates from 1976. In one of our past collection inspections, I had talked at length, of course, about my 14060M Rolex Submariner. Essentially, this is the same case watch. It's so similar to kind of the layperson that there's not much different that you can say about a Tudor Submariner versus a Rolex Submariner. But, you know, I think I've gotten enough questions about, you know, what's the backstory of this watch? And I think it is a fairly different watch in the eyes of both collectors and kind of just people that see it that it's worth talking about separately. And I bought it back in, I think, 2014, and it arrived in pretty rough shape. It came with a, uh, the mainspring was broken. So, you know, it didn't hold any power. And then the bezel was, was seized in place. Um, didn't turn. So, you know, it was time certainly. And I, I got a very nice price on it, um, because of the, the condition. Uh, so I took it to a local Rolex watchmaker here, uh, Wicks and Jewelers and Lenny is their longtime Rolex watch guy. And, you know, he's, he's been a great friend to me with, with this watch and my Rolex. And, you know, I decided since he had to do so much work to it anyway, basically overhaul it, I decided, you know, let's bring this up to kind of spec and let's make it diveable again. So he not only, you know, replaced the mainspring and several movement parts, did a full strip down and clean and replacement of everything and adjustment, but he also replaced the crystal, the crown tube and crown, put a new Triplock Rolex crown on it. as well as all the gaskets. And then one problem that a lot of these snowflakes have is that, you know, distinctive hour hand, which it's just a lot of surface area of loom with not much supporting it. So the, you know, if you, if you think about like a Mercedes hand on a Rolex, it has that sort of framework of the Mercedes style symbol that kind of supports that loom. the snowflake hand doesn't have that so they're kind of prone to falling off the back and sort of crumbling away as that tritium loom paint deteriorates and that's what was happening to this one so he was able to sort of mix up some adhesive and tint it correctly to kind of re-secure it to the framework on the back of the hand as well as it was missing the loom pip on the bezel so he He got a new pip, that little pearl on the bezel, and he was able to kind of carve out the loom. And I think what he told me he did is he mixed in, gosh, I want to say he mixed in some sort of yellow wax with whatever material was inside that pip. So it's the only part of that watch that actually glows. But it matches the color of the hands and the dial markers. So I guess to a collector, it's certainly anything but original, you know, it has a different, a new crown, it's got a new crystal. It's had some, some work done on the bezel and the hands. Um, but the upside of it is, you know, it's, it's essentially ready to go like a new, like it would have been in 1976 and I've actually been able to take a diving. I took it, uh, I did a story for revolution magazine shortly after the work was done, um, where I took a diving in the Cayman islands and did several dives with it there. And then I did a press trip with Tudor. I don't know, a couple of years ago we went to Tenerife over in the Canary Islands and they were doing some free diving with their ambassador Morgan Borchess and Christoph, the PR manager at Tudor said, hey, can you bring your snowflake over? And so I did and I did some free diving with it there and it's certainly been on my wrist a lot. I have full faith in it. Rolex, vintage Rolex and Tudor dive watches. Well, let's face it, any kind of vintage Rolex sports watch is probably set up a little bit better to resist kind of the wear and tear and the elements than other watches. I think they're just made really, really well. And so if they have some good gaskets in them, they're kind of ready for almost anything you throw at them. And I definitely feel that about this one. And I've kind of worn it as such. Whereas, you know, I've got a vintage Rolex Submariner that I haven't had looked at or fully serviced, and I'm a little bit less apt to kind of beat it up or get it too wet. But that's not the case with this one. You know, in terms of wear, I mean, it wears like a Rolex sports watch. It wears like your Explorer II or my modern Submariner. Very comfortable. It's that 39 to 40 millimeter case. Super versatile. as any Submariner is. But for some reason, you know, even from a distance, these Snowflake Submariners, they just look a little bit different. The dial, that matte dial with the applied markers, the kind of the blocky markers and those blockier hands, it just has a more kind of casual and sporty look to it, I guess. And the markers seem a little bigger. So, I don't know, just especially if you take it off the Rolex bracelet and put it on like a NATO or a leather strap or something, it just, I almost enjoy wearing it more than a Rolex Submariner because it's a little less obvious and a little more, I don't know, just dials it down a little bit. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think those are super cool watches and I knew, I know back in the day this would have been probably right around the time I started writing about watches. I was at a meetup in Toronto and our friend Al Jensky of Archer watches and you know he rebuilds watches and or was rebuilding watches for some time doing all sorts of service here in Ontario, Canada. He had a Canadian Coast Guard issued one with a black dial. And that's one that I've always thought like if I was going to go the route of going to sub I think like one of those Canadian issued Oh, yeah. Tudor subs would be pretty fun to have. Yeah. Yeah. I just think they're really special. And, you know, I saw yours at the Tudor thing back a while ago, and I think they kind of stand out as being different than a sub. And then, of course, we know guys that have the blue version, which is super fun as well. Oh, yeah. And yeah, I love the style. I like that it looks... I kind of like the snowflake hand over a Mercedes hand anyway. So I think they're just kind of a more interesting thing. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And for some reason, you know, you can show up with a a Red Sub or a 5512 or any kind of Rolex Submariner. And whenever I bring this to a meetup or just wear it, it seems to be really popular. It just gets a lot of attention from, you know, watch enthusiasts when I kind of show up to some event or something wearing this watch. And I guess they're a little more rare and kind of exotic and just fun. They just feel a little more accessible just from a kind of a visual standpoint. They're not quite so cliche and obvious like a Rolex. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, I don't have much more to say about it. It's definitely going to stay in the collection, especially with the work I've had done to it. I've had people offer to buy it and whatever, but it's like, you know, got a good price. The pricing on these has really skyrocketed over the past few years, and so I really feel fortunate to have gotten in on it before that kind of price graph went vertical, so to speak. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, they really have. changed in the last few years, and the tutor stuff as well. People are always talking about the climb of the Submariner, but the tutors have gone in a very similar fashion. They're perhaps not as expensive as the Rolex counterpart, but I would say they've certainly increased in a very dramatic way. But that's a couple of great picks. Two solid dive watches, both of their own era, one more legitimately perhaps than the other, but I think that's great. And any questions, of course, questions, comments, the same, thegrenadoatgmail.com. I say we jump right into some final notes. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. You've got two, I've got one. Why don't you bookend mine, so why don't you go first? |
| James Stacey | Okay, so my first one is a very much actually both of mine this week are extremely watch specific, but mine Uh, my first one is the deluxe zippered watch travel case from vario.sg. Um, you can hear the zipper there. The, um, it's, it's, you remember those like Oakley, I think they're called vaults. Oh yeah. That were these kind of, they were shaped like an Oakley logo, but they were designed to hold a watch and maybe some other little items, um, in this kind of EVA formed hard, hard case. Yeah. It's like a clamshell sort of. Yeah, exactly. So it's not unlike maybe the, if you think of the, the, the case that comes with a decent pair of headphones, you know, it's kind of hard, but not too hard. It has kind of a fabric exterior. Anyways, I always thought those were really nice ways to travel, especially with watches that have a bracelet on them where they don't lie flat in a, in a case, these keep the watch on their side. So they support the actual circle of the watch. If you can think of it that way. And, uh, and so I got served an ad for these. I think that's how I found this. And I clicked on it and they're just like a really simple kind of nicely made. They come in a few different colors, but these kind of hard cases that you put a watch in and there's like an internal spongy part and a little pocket, like a little mesh half pocket. And, uh, so I mean, I suppose you could put maybe, maybe a spare NATO or something up in there. They're 20 bucks and I ordered one. as I kind of do on a whim to try and figure out if we can find interesting stuff to talk about on the show. So I have no affiliation with the company. I believe they're based somewhere in, uh, in Southeast Asia. And, uh, yeah, so vario.sg. And of course we'll have the show notes and it's just a simple one watch watch case. So if you're going on a vacation and you want to kind of not have a whole watch roll or something like that, this goes in a bag. It's very protected. It has a nice kind of like, like full structure and then the zipper really really kind of seals the deal when it's closed. For 20 bucks, I'm absolutely impressed. |
| Jason Heaton | I love this. I'm looking at it. I'm going to order one of these. I had one of those Oakley ones years ago, and I don't know what became of it. |
| James Stacey | I want to say these are slightly bigger than the Oakley one, but I think that actually kind of helps. Yeah. It leaves a little bit more room if you wanted to put a strap or a strap changing tool or something like that in there. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Their website shows like a charging cable or something, which is, you know, I guess they show an Apple watch with a charging cable, but yeah, extra straps, even one of those little stubby strap changing tools plus a strap, that'd be kind of nice. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So I, I, I'm impressed. And, and I, you know, people write us and ask about how we travel with our watches. And, and, you know, I really like, obviously we love the, um, to watch fold from worn and wound is, is, is great. And I've, I've been using for quite a while. And then, uh, other than that, you know, you can get these kinds of one watch pockets that don't always work that well. And they don't offer any legitimate like shock or not protection. And whereas I think this, you could kind of, cram this down under some camera gear or, or, you know, surround it by socks and your watch is in there nice and safe. Yeah. Good one. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I like it. That's a great one. Yeah. Um, mine is a, uh, I was actually turned onto it by, uh, one of my Instagram followers and I'm sorry, I can't remember his name, but he turned, turned me onto it because I had snapped a photo of, um, one of the, uh, Royal national life Saving Institute or Lifeboat Institute. I can't remember what RNLI stands for, um, over the UK, but it's, um, the, the kind of the volunteer lifeboat service that is in various, um, coastal areas of, of the UK. And, um, I posted a photo of one of the stations when we were over in Wales and a guy just sent me a quick message and said, I think this is right up your alley. And it's a guy named Jack Lowe who goes by Lord Lowe on L O W E on Instagram and Jack Lowe um, started this project called the lifeboat station project. And I'm going to link to his, uh, his webpage as opposed to Instagram, but you can certainly go to his Instagram as well. Um, it's an eight year art project that this guy has undertaken to travel around the UK, the coast of the UK to these various lifeboat stations, um, with a Victorian era, um, camera. So it's a large format glass plate, um, photography camera. um, that he's lugging around in a, in like a van that he's converted into a portable, uh, dark room. And he's, he's making this as sort of self-imposed project to take photos of all of these lifeboat stations. And I think there are like 283 or something around the UK. And he, he's taking portraits of the, the people that work there, the boats and kind of their sort of setting, um, on the coast in the UK. And. Um, he's gathering funds for this as he goes. He's, I think he's over halfway now with, with his project. Um, but he's, he's raising money through Patreon. So he's, you know, raising kind of just crowdfunding his, his work. Um, but. You know, for one thing, I love the subject matter of this. I love what he's doing. I love the, it's this, these very vintage looking photos, you know, taken on glass plates. It has that real. late 1800s sort of, um, you know, people's eyes look a little bit different in these and it's, of course it's in black and white, you know, sepia tone, um, photos that, that almost are timeless. Like you look at the photo, you know, these guys are, they might have an old, you know, like a Land Rover defender that they tow the boat down to the beach with, and they might be wearing modern day, um, life-saving gear or, you know, foul weather kit. But in the photos, you look at it and you think, you know, that must be a photo from 1907 or something. Um, uh, which is really cool. And, you know, it sort of brings me back to, to our trip to the UK, but also I think what I like about this is I love anything or anybody that is doing something that is just sort of assigning themselves a project. And I don't gather that he's doing this for, uh, monetary reasons or, you know, out of any sort of high minded, um, aspirations. He, he just decided. I think he sketched out on a piece of paper some goals one year and it was like photography, the sea and the UK or something like that. And he's like, what can I do that combines all of that? And you know, to, to kind of do these self-imposed challenges, whether it's a physical challenge of climbing a mountain or learning a new skill, um, I just really admire people that do this stuff. Um, and as well, he's sort of capturing a part of the history and the lore of his own, of his own country. And, um, It's just really admirable. And his website is really cool because he has galleries showing some of the photos that he's taken. He's got a podcast. He's got some short video clips that he's taken. You can sign up for a newsletter. I mean, it's just really impressive. So whether or not you fund him or you want to follow him, his Instagram is really quite entertaining and quite nice too. But do check out the Lifeboat Station project on his website. |
| James Stacey | Very cool. That's a really neat project. And yeah, I do kind of like it when people just take it upon themselves to be like, well, I'm going to be the one to document this or to complete this challenge just because I feel that's what I should be doing. That's very, very cool. So my last one is very simple. It's a strap from Crown & Buckle, who we've had lots of luck with buying various NATOs and things like that. And after our straps episode, I received a very kind email from a listener named Albert. Albert, thank you so much for a heads up on this strap. He said, you know, that you guys didn't really mention the Tudor strap because it's one that you'd kind of have to buy if you had a Tudor. And when we say the Tudor strap, I mean the Black Bay fabric strap, which is this very intricately made, um, adjustable single piece style NATO. It's kind of their own thing. Um, and they get it made in a very specific manner. I can actually link a really impressive video that, uh, that they have explaining how the Tudor strap is made and, and the length they go to kind of. Not just use some, any old fabric you, you, you could find laying around and with, um, with this crown and buckle strap, it's called the Chevron strap. It's the exact same. style of strap so it's a single piece of kind of woven fabric you would definitely call it like a NATO it has kind of a nicely reinforced tail where you would normally get little frays and then it's it's really nice kind of thin lightweight hardware it's pin kept to the buckle and then it uses this system to wrap around the buckle so that there's actually some internal adjustment So you can really get not only the watch right where you want it on the strap, but the buckle right where you want it on your wrist. And then the tail just as, just as long as you want it. So yeah, they're selling these things for 32 bucks. Uh, it's a little bit more than, than what you'd pay for something like a toxic or even crown and buckles premium NATO, which we really like. But I think if you, if you see the kind of Tudor style strap and that's something that you want to dig out, or, or you want kind of imagine a NATO crossed with a purlon. Hmm. I think that's what you get in something like this. I would say, and this is the first thing that Jason mentioned, is length is going to be an issue. I have seven inch wrists and it's nearly at its maximum. I think that you could maybe fit a seven and a half or maybe a seven and a half plus if you extended it all the way out. But I think you might end up not having enough use of the holes to actually have any keeper to go through or to have any tail to go through the keepers. Oh yeah. So it might just be, it just isn't that long of a strap. So maybe it's something where Crown & Buck will make a longer one in the future. I have absolutely no idea. They didn't pay for this placement. I bought the strap with my own money, all that kind of stuff. And nevertheless, if you have say seven inch wrists or smaller, I think this is safely a very cool, super comfortable strap. They offer it with black hardware in a couple different colors. It's good. |
| Jason Heaton | They should be proud of it. Looks beautiful. I just love this burgeoning field of straps. I mean, You know, I mean, you can go down a rabbit hole of leather straps, but I mean, there's just so many who would have thought that you could come up with so many variations of fabric straps. Um, you know, I mean, it's, uh, yeah, this one looks really great. I'm going to order one too. You've, you've just cost me, uh, so $52 today with your two recommendations. That's great. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, that's the way it goes. That one might end up being more for Ghoshani than for your wrist, we'll see. I'll be interested to see if... Maybe you can follow up when you get it, because maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you're able to find an adjustment that kind of suits a somewhat larger wrist. I know if I adjust mine with very little travel left at the end, I'm just a couple of holes from the last one. Oh, yeah. So we'll see how it fits. But I think, you know, the one thing I would say is their stone, which is the gray color, Is darker than it appears on the website. Oh, good. So it's a, it's a dark gray is how I describe it rather than what looks more like a medium tone gray. Oh yeah. Um, but I think that forest looks really cool and probably look good on just about any watch the green. Yeah. And then they have these ones that have, that are black with a stripe down the center, very similar to the Tudor ones. And yeah, I mean the big differences are the Tudor ones are more expensive, but again, if you're going to question why, maybe watch that video that we'll link. Um, they use like a very specific, uh, proprietary system for making the fabric that goes into those straps. And I think there's something, a cut above what you might be buying from, uh, from a third party, like, like a crown and buckle, but 32 bucks is a great deal. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Well, I think that pretty well wraps it. Um, good, good episode, good collection inspection. Uh, we'll come back with probably another one in, uh, you know, another couple of months, but for now, as always, thanks so much for listening and a big thanks to Hodinkee for supporting the show. Hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or on the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and follow the show at The Graynado. If you have any questions for us, please write to TheGraynado at gmail.com and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music Throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. |
| James Stacey | And we leave you with this quote from Henry Miller who said, one's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things. |