The Grey NATO - Ep 89 - Our Fav Watch Complications
Published on Thu, 12 Sep 2019 06:00:16 -0400
Synopsis
This is an episode of the GrayNado podcast where the hosts Jason Heaton and James Stacey discuss their favorite watch complications. They cover various complications like GMTs, chronographs, world timers, depth gauges, and more. They analyze the practicality, functionality, and pricing of these complications from the perspective of avid watch enthusiasts. The conversation is interspersed with personal anecdotes and product recommendations related to the topic.
Towards the end, James shares about the recent discovery of the shipwrecks HMS Terror and Erebus from the famous Franklin expedition in the Arctic. Jason then recommends the Anker PowerCore Fusion portable battery pack which can charge devices as well as act as a wall charger, making it a handy travel accessory.
Links
Transcript
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| Jason Heaton | Hello and welcome to another episode of the GrayNado, a Houdinki podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 89 and it's brought to you by Gear Patrol and their upcoming stocked product culture conference. You can stay tuned for more on that, or you can visit stock2019.com for all the details. |
| James Stacey | Hey Jason, how's it going? Great. Yeah, boy, it's been a while since we talked. I did my NIMS interview last time, and I think before that, you know, we both had a lot of travel. And so, yeah, good to be back. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I'm in a recording in Toronto, HQ in Toronto, and this is just recently closed the loop on what would have been, yeah, 14 or so days on the road. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, lots of one-way flights. I remember you were |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, yeah, yeah. So yeah, it was San Francisco where we did this event with Leica and a meetup and Stephen Pulverin, my managing editor at Hodinkee and I did this, this kind of fun day long kind of class on watch photography, the Hodinkee style of watch photography. So that's kind of like fast, run a gun, shoot anywhere. but get what you really need sort of stuff. So we had a handful of guys come out to that. It was great. We had a really good time. Was that filmed or recorded or anything? I'd love to see it. It was not. I mean, it was the first time we've ever done it. And the people who very kindly came along and participated paid a considerable amount of money to be part of the course. So it wasn't something that we put online. I think it could conceivably become something online, but a lot of it was hands-on. We spent about half the day. just working through sample problems. They could put a watch down and we'd kind of show them how we would set it up and how to operate the various lighting, whether it was constant lighting or daytime lighting, or even a flash. And we'd all sorts of awesome Leica gear there. So a lot of it kind of translates more to in the scene sort of thing. But certainly there's some of that would translate okay as far as a video presentation. And maybe that's the future of something like that. And after that, I went from, uh, from there down to LA for a couple of days, uh, to hang out. And then from LA, I was in Virginia working on a project I can't yet speak about. And then from Virginia, I went to Geneva working on another project I can't yet speak about. And then I was back in New York for a few days, taking some meetings and now back in Toronto. And I leave on, uh, I leave in three days for, uh, another few days on the road. |
| James Stacey | Wow. You should have just kept going East and gone around the world. Yeah, I suppose I could have, yeah. Geneva to Shanghai, you could have gone to the AORUS launch in Shanghai. |
| Jason Heaton | Oh, true enough, yeah. So our guy Cole did that in Shanghai, yeah. I wonder if I could have strung that together. Could you imagine the jet lag? Oh man, yeah. But yeah, this is a watch that you and I saw in... Basel, yeah. In a special VR presentation at Basel this past March, and it's kind of a big thing for AORUS. |
| James Stacey | It is, yeah. I mean, I didn't quite... I think the Basel presentation kind of caught me off guard. You know, I was sitting in my meeting at Baselworld and I think, you know, Vijay and Rolf were like, you know, put your stuff down. I mean, we're going to take you downstairs and kind of walk you into this special room and you can't tell anybody about this. And it was very top secret. And they had the VR masks on and they had a watchmaker explaining things. And I left feeling a little bit discombobulated. And then we went back and looked at kind of normal Aorus watches. And I was like, what did I just see? And I remember them saying, you know, this will launch, I think, you know, in the fall, obviously, which it just did. Yeah, really, really big news for Aorus. I mean, you know, it's so cool. That brand is, they've always kind of appealed to me and I know to you as a smaller independent. And then when they do something kind of this big and then keep it at the reasonable price point that everybody's used to with Aorus, it, you know, you, they can't lose with something like this. It's amazing. |
| Jason Heaton | No, it really is an incredible thing. And it's, so it's a, it's a, it's called the Aorus Big Crown ProPILOT-X Caliber 115. And we'll obviously put a link to Cole's really nicely produced piece for Hodinkee.com. And obviously if it's a caliber and then a three-digit, a 110, a 111, this is an in-house, a fully in-house designed and executed movement by Oris. And then the X actually suggests that it's not so much a pilot's watch, but a watch that's inspired by pilots and inspired by aviation. So you can see some of that in the styling, but it really is more of a sort of avant-garde luxury and sort of proposition. And then on top of that, you're looking at this really kind of industrial style finishing and aesthetic that I think is really gorgeous. It has a movement that was designed so it's not skeletonized as much as it was designed to be skeleton. And it has these gorgeous galvanized bridges that it's an entirely titanium execution for the case and the bracelet. And Jason, what did the price come out at for that? |
| James Stacey | It's right around $7,600. So, you know, after you read through all the specs and you see all the photos of the watch, you think, okay, AORUS has gone up market, this is going to be a $18,000 watch or something. And then they come at, come at it with, uh, you know, sub 8,000 and, and, you know, with all of the technology and the, the, the finishing and, and that spectacular bracelet that comes on it, all titanium with the galvanized bridges, uh, you know, you're just expecting a much more expensive watch and, you know, under eight grand is, is definitely territory for people that, that want in-house, they want avant-garde, they want, you know, somebody compared it to, I think like a Zenith Defy, Which certainly is a nice comparison, but Oris has always just been such an appealing brand, and then to see them do this, it's like, okay, they haven't sold out, you know, with this. It still has the big crown pro-pilot kind of feel to it with that sort of engine turned or, you know, sort of radial finished bezel, you know, and that kind of funky cool seat belt inspired clasp on it, you know, so there's these elements from their old watches that I've always kind of found endearing and sort of quaint and And then they do this real beefy, powerful movement. I mean, 10-day power reserve is nothing to sniff at. I mean, you'd be hard-pressed to find many other brands. You know, my Blancpain with the 100 hours is, I consider that pretty cool. But then, you know, 10 days is like, you know, with a hand-wound watch, you know, you can just, you're winding it every, almost every two weeks. |
| Jason Heaton | It's amazing. I guess, like, I guess I kind of get the Zenith connection because a lot of, with the Defy stuff, the new Defy line is also like skeletonized. and still sporty, you know, they're drawing from different aspects of watch design. But I guess what I saw more of it, especially when I saw like the live pictures where it was on people's wrists and that sort of thing is I see a little bit more of the same sort of like cleanly modern, but still industrial sort of styling that we're getting from Bulgari. And I think they're like one of the most like well-positioned brands in the world right now with Bulgari's product. Like they just make an incredible watch. That's not like what anyone else is making. It's really beautifully made. Don't get me wrong. It's very expensive. It's not really the TGN price point. It's certainly not a price point for like you and I to play around with, but it's really, really high end. They make really exciting stuff. That's not vintage inspired. It feels modern and now and considered and like it exemplifies proper, strong watchmaking skills. And I think we see that in something like this from Oris, which is exciting because this is a brand like that we attribute to like functional dive watches and trying to save the ocean and these great pilots watches. And then every now and then they're just kind of like, well, we were, I don't know, were they bored? Were they looking for a new challenge? It is one of these things where like, if you already know a brand for this, this, this, and this, and then they do something else, but they stick to just enough of it where it makes sense. And I really think it's a, it's kind of a successful thing. And, and, and, and, you know, it's kind of fun to, to see more kind of gray scale Auris stuff happening. I only just got home yesterday, and it's the first time I've taken that new Hodinkee LE off my wrist since I got it in early July. I've just been wearing it constantly. And it's really fantastic, but that's a watch that they didn't make that many of, and I get a lot of DMs saying, like, oh, where should I find one? Should I spend 40% more on one from the secondhand market that somebody's trying to flip, et cetera, et cetera? It's an exciting time for Oris. They make a lot of great stuff. We're obviously huge fans of the brand and their watches. And it's exciting because they can really nail all the sides. So it's something like a $7,600 fully titanium in-house 10-day power reserve, sporty but still elegant and kind of boundary pushing for the brand watch at one end and then On the other end, they recently announced, and this is where I've been pointing some people who came to me for questions about the Hodinkee LE, is they just did another 65 limited edition with timeless luxury watches out of Texas. |
| James Stacey | Oh, yeah. Yeah, that's a beauty. |
| Jason Heaton | And it is, isn't it? So it's the same sort of price points, 2,200 bucks on a leather strap. And it's a no date execution, which I think people really like. So this one mixes a few different things that we've seen in other versions of the 65. So you do get a no date execution. It's got this really gorgeous gradient green dial that goes from like a really nice warm green in the center to like a darker tone on, towards the edge of the dial. It's the, unlike the Hodinkee one, it's the applied markers with the sort of gilt styling. And then it has the matching bronze gold tone bezel. Uh, which, which I think all comes together really well between the green and the gold tones and then the steel case and here the, you know, on their website, they have it on a brown leather strap. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, Oris, you know, this watch, this, the, the, the diver 65 is proven to be, you know, when it first came out, everybody was just thrilled with it because it was, it was kind of, I would say not quite the beginning, but sort of the midpoint of the, the, the current, uh, trend, you know, the high point of, of these sort of retro style dive watches. And they just do it so well. And the first one was great, but then it's proven to be this really versatile watch that has taken so many different forms and works so well with different colors and straps and sizes and iterations. I mean, this one, again, no date, but this one's got an automatic movement. It's got the gold tone on the bezel, the applied markers. So it's different than the Hodinkee version. I mean, they can just keep, you know, it's in a way it's kind of like the Black Bay. I mean, people keep saying, oh, you know, another Black Bay, another Black Bay, but why not? You know, people love them. |
| Jason Heaton | I'm strongly in the why not camp for more versions of something like the 65 or the Black Bay. I don't feel like with a great watch, more options doesn't seem to water it down for me. And as much as I like the Black Bay just fine, I definitely would lean more towards something like the 65, not only due to the price point, but also, you know, it's a little bit thinner, a little bit more 60s in terms of its case shape and bezel and all that kind of thing. They really just wear really nicely. They offer a great price point. It's a price point that we get a lot of, you know, questions and DMs and interests in is this, you know, sub $2,500, uh, sort of like what's something really good you can get in that space. And I think like you can go really well with, uh, with something like a 65 and, and with this, uh, timeless, you know, they're limited to, I think they're making a hundred or at least the, uh, case back images would suggest they're making a hundred. Yeah. And that's a pretty, that's a pretty limited watch. I mean, the Houdini one was limited to 250. They've done, you know, versions with red dials. They've done that like honey brown one with revolution. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | Unfortunately for the people that, you know, are kicking themselves for not jumping on the Hodinkee LE or the revolution LE or the red bar LE. Um, yeah, they, they just keep churning them out and it's great. It's, it works for everybody because, you know, as much as people roll their eyes at, Oh, another limited edition. It's like, well, if you missed out on it and for a watch for a little over two grand, um, you know, this, this allows you to jump on board. |
| Jason Heaton | So more power to them. So, I mean, between this at one side and the new ProPILOT-X Caliber 115, I mean, a pretty good few weeks worth of news and product for AORUS. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, I would say so. And that big crown, I mean, that watch isn't even limited, that ProPILOT-X, which, you know, you expect a watch like that, the big splashy introduction to be a limited edition. And according to Cole's article, it's not a limited edition watch, which is pretty amazing. You could buy that watch in five years. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So, awesome. And so aside from various new sorts of watches, I don't think I have anything new in. I actually did just get a box from Garmin, but I'm going to wait until I've had a chance to play around with whatever's in this box. Maybe we'll talk about it for episode 90. What else is new? What else have you been up to with the last few phases of North American summer? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, it's staying dark a lot later in the mornings now. I was up In the UP of Michigan, the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, about two weeks ago, with my good friend Chris, my old dive buddy that I grew up with in Milwaukee, we do sort of an annual Great Lakes dive getaway every summer and kind of work our way around. Last summer it was like Huron, and we've done the Straits of Mackinac, and we've done Lake Michigan a few times. So this time we went up to a place called Whitefish Point, which is the very kind of northern tip of the Upper Peninsula. Uh, there's a lighthouse up there and it's kind of well known as being the, the point, um, closest, at least in the U S to where the, the famous Edmund Fitzgerald sank. And it's an area called the shipwreck coast because they're just, there's so many wrecks up there. And, um, I had never been up there. Chris, my friend is on the, on the board of directors for the shipwreck museum up there, which is worth a visit if anybody makes it up that far. So, you know, we, we chartered a boat, uh, for, for two days and we did a couple of days of diving. We dove four different wrecks. It didn't disappoint. I mean, it never does. The Great Lakes, if you can tolerate some cold water, it's just really clear, especially late summer. It's not too cold. I mean, we saw, I guess on the deep wreck we dove, we saw 41 Fahrenheit. So that's probably only about five degrees centigrade at the bottom. Plenty cold. Yeah, plenty cold. But the shallower wrecks we did were at 65 Fahrenheit. So that's probably, I don't know what you'd say, 18, 17, 18 centigrade, somewhere in there. So, you know, not horrible. The back stories of most of these wrecks are, you know, the kind of stuff you read about, you know, just really interesting stuff from the early 20th and late 19th centuries and really well-preserved stuff with lots of, you know, ship's gear kind of sitting on the bottom and the ribs of the ship and big boilers kind of sitting out in the sand. So it was a really sublime couple of days. kind of camped out in a little motel there and just went out with a woman who's a really great boat captain. She runs a charter out of Milwaukee called Shipwreck Explorers. Her name is Jitka Hanakova, and she's a really accomplished diver as well. So she kind of knows where to go and where to moor up. And so we did these four dives. And I took the Rolex two-tone Sea-Dweller along. So I've got a review forthcoming on that one for Hodinkee. I've got to write it up. We've got some pretty spectacular photos. Chris is a really great photographer and he did some nice topside and underwater photography. And I'll be writing that up probably within the next week. So that should be on Hodinkee and probably in a couple of weeks. |
| Jason Heaton | And that's great. I can't wait to see. I mean, that's a that's a super fun watch. It would be it'll be cool to see. |
| James Stacey | What's been really fun about that watch is You know, I've posted only probably two pictures of it on Instagram and it's so polarizing. I mean, people will just, some people absolutely hate it and will not hold back from commenting on it. And others will be like, you know, put little heart emojis and tell me how much they love it. Uh, I put it on a, uh, kind of a olive drab isoframe strap, a 22 millimeter isoframe strap. Boy, does it look good? You know, I, I'm not a huge fan of two-tone bracelets, but boy, a two-tone watch kind of like the, the steel and gold, Black Bay it kind of has that same vibe and then you put it on a big chunky kind of olive drab rubber strap and it just it was really the business so really a fun watch I actually still have it it's sitting right next to me here I'm getting ready to pack it up and ship it back to Rolex it's not a watch I'm probably gonna ever aspire to owning it's a little out of my price range for one thing but really really fun very capable watch of course to to take diving so stay tuned for that and and then other than that you know I hooked up with the a guy via Instagram who kind of knows of my arcane interests, especially in the fairly obscure Minnesota native polar explorer, Ralph Placedead, who was in 1968 was the first to lead an overland trip. Actually, I guess it's not over land because it's across the Arctic Ocean, but surface crossing to the North Pole. And you know, they did this back in 1968. Not many people know about it. And so, This guy contacted me through Instagram, whose brother recently managed to win an auction on eBay for a pair of boots that were worn on this expedition. And they have the logo, the patch on the side, and it's actually autographed by the team mechanic who maintained the snow machines that they drove to the North Pole. So FedEx tells me the package is going to be here tomorrow, and I just can't wait. |
| Jason Heaton | That's so fun. |
| James Stacey | I don't consider myself a collector of this kind of ephemera, It's going to be fun to have. My wife asked me, what size are they? Are you going to be able to wear them? And I'm like, yeah, I don't know if this is the kind of thing I'm going to be wearing out shoveling the snow this winter. But you'll see some photos on Instagram of these. It's a pretty cool piece of history. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, that's great. Yeah. I mean, the only other new thing to kind of cross my desk is I've got a couple more Leicas. Oh, jeez. They're not mine. They're not mine. I'm still very much a devoted user and abuser of the Q. Yeah. But there was a review loaner unit available for the Q2. So I have that for a few days. I'm going to take it to Vancouver next week. By the time this goes up, I'll be on my way back from Vancouver. But I'll go shoot some there. And then I've also been playing around with an M10P, which is their, uh, kind of standard or not standard. They're like premium, uh, very analog sort of experience, uh, digital camera. So I've, I've shot with a 35 1.4 Summilux for a little while, which is a lot of fun. And I'm now borrowing a 50 millimeter Lux, um, which I I'm really loving. I mean, the experience is, is, is so much slower than using something like the Q or, uh, DSLR, it's very thoughtful. It's a lot more like shooting film, uh, for me, except of course, now I get the chance to see if I miss the focus. It's a range finder, uh, focusing system. Uh, so it takes some practice and, and some kind of deafness of understanding the image and where you're focusing, uh, when you're framing. So it's, it's been really fun to learn and play around with it. And I'm hoping it translates to maybe more success on the film standpoint, which is also of course, like using some sort of a manual focusing system, right? Um, so yeah, that's basically where I am. Uh, the Q2 I've had for a couple of days and I've literally just made sure the battery's nice and charged up. I really, uh, I really haven't dug into that yet, but I'll get to it. And, um, I would say like my five minute impression is like the screen and the viewfinder is a huge step forward from the Q, which you would expect. Um, and then there's just, it seems like there's a little bit more intelligence built into some of the software. Uh, I can see that it's got a little bit more connectivity. It feels very similar in hand. Obviously, this is a very, very new camera, and my cue is a refurbished one, so my cue has some looseness to some of it in terms of the rotating the controls and that sort of thing. So this feels pretty new and pretty tight, and I played around with it very briefly and was blown away by the viewfinder. I have very sensitive eyes. They're very accurate eyes from what I can tell, but they're quite sensitive to areas of out of focusness and you really have to line up your eye dead center on the viewfinder of the cue or you get this sort of shift in the focus on the edges. Interesting. Um, kind of like not having your eye quite centered on the eye cup for like a, a binocular or a monocular. Um, and with this, that seems to have been worked out, which makes a big difference when you're, when you're trying to move quickly and really judge focus and reflections and composition quickly without, uh, you know, really pausing or slowing down. So I think it's, I mean, how could you go wrong with a cue that suddenly has weather ceiling and, uh, um, an M's power switch. And then of course the, uh, the largely the biggest talking point is you go from 24 megapixels to 47. Um, so I'll have to find a memory card that can deal with these giant files, but I'm really excited to shoot a few watches, shoot a few cars, that sort of thing over the next week or so. and dig into those files and see what you get when you when you go to set. I don't think I've ever shot with a camera at such a high resolution. Definitely not with something like that. I could actually practice and get a feel for the files. Yeah. So I'm pretty excited about that. And it'll be a nice thing to take to Vancouver and kind of, you know, shoot the scene out there. This is a nice time of year out there. So yeah, fun. And yeah, so I think that's, you know, new cameras, more cameras always makes for James a happy boy. But other than that, I think that's that's roughly all I've got going on. It's you know, it's been a period like I've been saying for the last few episodes of just a lot of travel and a lot of work and half the work I can't really talk about. I'm excited about it. But it's stuff that you got to keep under wraps until it's ready to go live. So With that in mind, I think it's probably best to move on to our main topic. And before we get there, an ad break, you know, this week we're supported by Gear Patrol, which we're thrilled about. And Gear Patrol is a website and a magazine about discovering and reviewing products designed for life's pursuits. And this year they're holding their first two-day event in New York City on Friday, September 27th and Saturday, the 28th. It's called Stocked, a product culture conference. The whole thing goes down at the amazing classic car club, Manhattan on pier 76, just across from Hudson yards and overlooking the river. |
| James Stacey | And, uh, this conference is a real life distillation of everything gear patrol does across digital and print. So day one on Friday, the 27th is a ticketed event that features some interviews and panels with, uh, a lot of the gear patrol editors and product designers and specialists from participating companies like hill city, Herman Miller and the North face. And Seiko is going to be there and you can see the entire prospects line on display. And the day will include live recording of their video series this week in gear and culminate with a keynote presentation by adventure photographer and documentary director Chris Burkhardt. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, that's awesome. Uh, day two shifts gears and becomes the stocked marketplace where great brands will be showing off their coolest gear and presenting how to classes from the stage. The day we'll start with a guided stretch and recovery class on the car clubs, Riverside Terrace led by Bar Malik, the director of athletic performance for the New York Knicks. Other classes include Principles of Packing by Topo Designs. That sounds like a pretty good one. Pocket Knife Pencil Sharpening by The James Brand. Knife Sharpening with Best Made. That sounds awesome. And Cast Iron Care by Le Creuset, which is absolutely crucial. If you have your cast iron, you should be taking good care of it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And Gear Patrol is offering a 25% discount off of day one tickets for listeners of The Graynado. So be sure to register over at stocked2019.com and use the code TGNSTOCKED at checkout. |
| Jason Heaton | So that's T-G-N-S-T-O-C-K-E-D at checkout. And thanks very much to Gear Patrol for supporting the show. Really kind of you. And this sounds like an absolutely exciting event. I hope a lot of you can go out and check it out and enjoy some of these classes. And I don't know, how cool would a keynote presentation with Chris Burkhardt be? That's going to be rad. |
| James Stacey | Oh, I know. I wish I could be out there for that. That would be really cool. |
| Jason Heaton | Me too. All right. So how about we dip right into the main topic? |
| James Stacey | Let's do it. So today we're talking about, we sort of loosely we're going to title this one, our favorite complications. And I think, you know, you and I aren't the types that, you know, we don't talk about complications a lot other than kind of the, uh, kind of the simpler ones, GMTs and things that they kind of come up with watches that we've tested. But, you know, I think today we're going to try to dip into maybe a slightly longer list and talk about ones that, um, you know, some people would probably expect that we like, and maybe some, maybe some ones that, uh, might, might surprise a few people. So, I think the easiest probably place to start is probably GMT, right? I mean, we, you and I have talked so much about GMT watches. I know it's probably your favorite complication and it's one of mine. And, you know, we've talked about, oh, there should be a Pelagos GMT and we love the Zodiac GMT. And, um, you know, it's just such a useful one for people that travel a lot. |
| Jason Heaton | GMT is absolutely useful. The problem. And it's a problem. It's funny. It's a problem that's now persistent because I think you and I have kind of been on the, like cheering on the GMT train for the last couple of years. Yeah. And a couple years ago, there were significantly fewer GMT watches on the market. And there's a specific reason for that. And it has to do with the fact that there's only so many ways to do a GMT unless you're making the movement. So there's a big problem. Let's say you and I wanted to start a watch brand and we wanted to make a GMT. Well, The big issue is we have to buy a movement from ETA and that limits the functionality to being what we've called in the past a caller GMT or an independent 24-hour GMT, which is a very handy function, but it's more or less designed for watching another time zone rather than traveling to that time zone. And this would be the big difference if we're just talking examples, this would be the big difference between something like the Zodiac GMT, the Aerospace, and something like a Tudor Black Bay GMT. Tudor can make their own movement, which means they're able to make a movement with local jumping hour. So when you land in your new time zone, you can update the watch by just jumping the hour. The second hand doesn't stop. You don't have to worry about actually changing the time or losing its accuracy. If you went three hours forward, you came from LA to New York, you jump three, three clicks forward, put the crown back in, you keep going. And this is the way that my, uh, explore two functions. This is the functionality in many ways established by Rolex. in the early, um, in sort of the mid span of the GMT master's life cycle. When they went to the GMT master two, there was a brief period of time in the early two thousands, late nineties, early two thousands, when Omega was customizing ETA movements with to offer this. So their 1120 series use of the 2892 caliber from ETA included an adjustment that gave it. So they were basically customizing an out-of-the-box edit movement to allow for this jumping local, which is very handy. But basically what it means is like, and you see it all the time is people say like, oh, this should be a GMT with this functionality. And you go like, you don't understand what you're saying. That doesn't exist. So there's no ability for a watch brand that wants to make a watch for one or $2,000 to do so. or even $3,000, you'd pretty much have to be Oris to sit down and specifically design a module, a customized version of a three-hand movement that allows you to offer a GMT functionality where you could jump the hour hand. And it really is the gold standard of GMT, especially once you apply that to a 24-hour bezel, then you're talking about the ability to do three time zones. And when you land update anything without changing the accuracy of the watch, you're really sitting there and fiddling and trying to listen. You know, the pilot says, Oh, it's this time. And you look at your watch, which is set correctly. And you're like, you're off by three minutes, dude. Like every flight, they never get the time, right? I know they never do. Yeah. So you see somebody next to you, like pulling the crown out of their three hand dive watch. And you're like, well, you're, you're already, you're fighting it. Like at least your phone updates automatically now. Yeah. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | But if you go somewhere where you don't have the phone, then this becomes like crucial technology. I can get, I can start a flight and like back my clock up so that I know the flight lands at 1125 in New York. I'm coming from Geneva or whatever. And I can watch the time and know very quickly what's left on my flight just by knowing what time I land. |
| James Stacey | Well, it's handy kind of orients you to the, you know, the time of day when you're landing, you can kind of just jump up and go and kind of be on schedule and have your mind in that space, you know? Absolutely. Yeah, I agree. I mean, I think a couple of things about GMTs. For one thing, I have three. I have an AquaDive Bathysphere 100 GMT, which is a dive chronograph. I also have a Grand Seiko GMT that I got years ago that I hardly ever wear. It's a little dressy for me, but I bought it in Japan and I love the watch. And that has the independent jumping hand, whereas the AquaDive does not. And then I have this Aerospace GMT, the Zodiac, which also has the non jumping the collar style that you mentioned and I posted a picture of the Zodiac the other day and you know somebody DM'd me on Instagram and said you know do you find this style of GMT you know I like this watch but it's kind of the sticking point for me is that it doesn't have the independent jumping hour hand and you know what do you think I should hold out for something else I said you know I get it I mean I understand the advantage of having that jumping hour hand but for the for that price point for what you're getting the extra 30 seconds it takes you on the airplane to fiddle and set both hands. It's not a huge, you know, we're not talking about a really arduous process here. It's certainly more user-friendly and definitely a tick up in terms of watchmaking to have that jumping hour hand and much more useful, but I wouldn't call it a deal breaker as far as keeping it from being a useful travel watch. I think any GMT watch is still going to be a very useful travel watch. It just takes, like I said, an extra half minute to kind of fiddle with both hands and set it. |
| Jason Heaton | I would say the big thing is if you like to travel and you're looking at a GMT that has an independent 24-hour hand movement, so an ETA-based GMT movement, try and get one with a 24-hour rotating bezel because that means you can leave the GMT hand just on UTC time and operate your travel based on turning the bezel. And once you figure out the limited math required to make this happen, it really brings back a lot of that functionality. And then pretty much all you're doing is you can either always have the watch show home time and then always read your local off of the bezel, which is of course perfectly fine, or you invert and do the opposite where you would update the watch the one time preserving the 24 hour hands representation of UTC and then spin the bezel to show you what time it is at home. I think either of those are fine and they offer a lot of functionality, but there are ways to do this without really being too concerned about one versus the other. I think if you're spending more money or you really want that true GMT experience, it's with the local hour jumping. It's my, it's my favorite complication. |
| James Stacey | Well, I think, I think too, that, you know, you bring up a good point because the, the whole point of having a rotating 24 hour bezel is, was originally developed to show the second time zone because the original GMT master from Rolex that kind of introduced this complication, the 24 hour hand was slaved or, or driven along with the main hour hand, just running at half speed. So it was just on a 24 hour cycle. And so you always did set your second time zone with the bezel. When, when it started to be able to be set independently, basically what it allowed you to do is set that second time zone without turning the bezel, which to my mind defeats the purpose of having a rotating 24 hour bezel. Because in reality, unless there's another 24 hour scale printed on the dial, you can't keep track of a third time zone. You are only able to keep track of two time zones. So, you know, you need another 24-hour scale in order to keep track of a third time zone. So, like with my Zodiac, I don't even bother setting the 24-hour hand. I just turn the bezel when I travel. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and I think it's just important, like sometimes I'll see a GMT watch that has the ETA movement and a non-rotating bezel. Yeah. And I'll think like, OK, like that, that that is if you're if you work in one part of the world, like mentally work in one part of the world, but live in a different part and you you need to very easily synchronize for conference calls and that kind of thing. Yeah, this is genuinely still a very handy feature set. But if you're going to travel, just just find one with the 24 hour bezel and and figure out the bezel kind of game. And I think you'll find what you need. And I would agree that like the 24 hour bezel and the local jumping, it's not really three time zones. It's home. and UTC and an away zone. Um, so it, I guess it's helpful. It makes the bezel adjustment easier to have the ability to change them independently, but it doesn't really change the amount of functionality that it offers you unless you really need to know UTC time all the time and very quickly another time zone. Yeah. Which could be a concern for a pilot. I suppose if you're referencing plus minus of UTC all the time. |
| James Stacey | But where would you set that third time zone if you don't have another 24 hour scale printed on the dial? |
| Jason Heaton | I think you just said like, you'd have to run, you'd have to run the one based off of the hour markers. Yeah. But you lose AM PM control that way. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. And, and, and because it's running on a 24 hour scale, if it's pointing at the six o'clock marker, but it doesn't have anything printed, the 12 printed there, you'd have to, in your head, you'd have to, to figure out that between the six and the seven marker is actually the 1300 hour mark. Exactly. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, maybe I'm digging too deep into the manuscript here, but anyway, it's, it's inelegant. I agree that the most elegant solution is the expensive one. Yeah. Um, but I would say that for everybody who can, this is, this is really like starting to fall into the same bucket of complaints that I see on a lot of, uh, pieces on, on online, where if it's a GMT and it's not local, people complain. If it's a watch and it has a date, people complain. if it's um if it's a chronograph and it's more than 14 millimeters thick which is going to be most chronographs you knuckleheads yeah they're complicated thick movements this is like the every chronograph i'll ever review it'll be the bremont arrows 15 the iwc spitfire is like 15.4 including the crystal and all that and people are like it's too thick and you go like okay well you you have two choices like you can you can have the space for this movement and have it at a price that's accessible. These are watches around $5,000 or you can find someone who makes an integrated hand wound chronograph movement and you can pay 30 grand for that if you like. Right. Like you can't, you'd like the, the, you really want your sports car with a V12. It's unless it's a McLaren F1, it's going to be a certain size. It's going to have a giant hood. Right. And, and this is kind of the same thing with the chronograph is like a 15 millimeter automatic, uh, Chronograph is that's not thick. That's just what, that's how big it is. If it's 18, yeah, it's thick because it could be 15, but it's not like they made a decision and they said like, well, you know, we could make this 7750 powered chronograph, um, nine millimeters thick and we just don't feel like it. Yeah. There's limitations. Like I've owned a handful of these. They, they, they take up a certain amount of space and, and, uh, uh, you, it's important to understand what you want, what you need your GMT to do for you. If you travel a lot, it's pretty handy to have the local jumping, or if you're just a GMT nerd, I happen to be both. Otherwise, I would say that the functionality offered by the ETA movement is very useful, especially when combined with a 24-hour bezel, and it also ensures that you can have a watch at a Halios C4 price range, at a Zodiac Aerospace price range, like it makes them much more accessible. And if you really want your cake and you'd like to eat it too, I would say that you can look into the S.U.N. Prospects Divers from Seiko. These are 48 millimeter steel divers that come in a rubber strap. The one that I had was the S.U.N. 023. A really awesome watch that's very big. It doesn't wear like 48 necessarily because it's a nicely curved case. It's kind of their sort of tuna adjacent case shape. And that does offer local jumping in a, um, a quartz movement with, uh, uh, kinetic ability. So that's, that's a pretty good feature set as well. If you want something for when you travel, especially if you kind of travel in tougher or dive related conditions, that could be a pretty good alternative that doesn't cost as much as a GMT master too, or used a Seamaster professional GMT from 15 years ago or something like that. |
| James Stacey | You know, you brought up chronographs and maybe, maybe we dive into that one next. Absolutely. The other thing that you know other than the thickness of a lot of chronographs the more accessible chronographs you can get these days is the use of the 7750 which I've never had a problem with and it's always kind of this well-worn complaint that people trot out whenever a brand introduces a new watch oh that's too expensive for a 7750 or oh another 7750 and it's like it The movement has been around for now 50 years and it's proven itself. I mean, it's been a very versatile movement that's been turned into a perpetual calendar by IWC and it's been split second by Habering when he worked for IWC. It's a very tried and tested movement. It might not be the smoothest thing like you're going to get with a column wheel or a Speedmaster or something like that, but I'm a fan. I've got a few 7750-based chronographs You're not as much of a chronograph guy. I remember you had that Zinn, I think it was a 144 that I liked. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it was a 144STGMT, which is an Etabase thing with a 12-hour GMT display, which is clever. Yeah, yeah. And it also means because it's a 12-hour hand, it's a little bit weird to use as an actual GMT if you're plus minus more than six hours. Yeah. But it does mean you can tuck that hand behind the hour hand. So if you really just wanted it to look like a 144, uh not the scgmt then you could you could tuck that hand in there it kind of looked like a little rocket ship which was great that was a great watch and one that is on a very short list of watches i wish i hadn't sold yeah uh but the gentleman has his name is david in vancouver and he he still has it and the deal is if he doesn't want it he has to at least give me a swing at it uh so maybe i'll get it back someday but that was a really really great watch and it was 15 ish millimeters thick because that's what it is but it had a, you know, a hooded lug. So the lug to lug was very limited. It wore really well. I loved it. It was a great, it was like my go-to car watch. Um, if I was going on like a car press trip, uh, it always kind of felt right. Uh, I, I bought this, that bracelet that I spoke about way back in the day that I don't remember any of the details about, but this kind of Orfina style steel bracelet, which is a really, uh, just a perfect fit for it. That's a fantastic watch. And I think in many ways, if you're wanting a, yeah, 7750 based chronograph, Zen is way up there for me. I think that they make, it's just a really nice overlap of all the kind of elements that you could want from a watch like that. And they offer a handful of different sizes and they're one of the few that will do the 7750 with the GMT. |
| James Stacey | So you can get more complications. I guess you've gone on record as saying you're not a chronograph guy. What is it that, I don't want to say you don't like chronographs, it's just that you don't personally want to own chronographs, is that right? And why don't you love chronographs? |
| Jason Heaton | Is it an aesthetic thing? For me, I find that if I want a chronograph, I'm really very happy to have a digital one. Oh, yeah. So whether that's on a Garmin, I like something I can read very quickly. And I always find these chronographs, the indications are tiny. And then like, you want to tell the difference between 27 and 28 minutes on some of these. And you're like, I couldn't tell that I couldn't tell you. Yeah, that hand on the indicator feels wider than the display itself. So you lose the resolution that you want. And like, if you want to time something, oh, it took 40 seconds. They're very handy, because of course, the central seconds is great. But when you want to time something that's a little bit longer, I just find it easier to either use my phone or pull out a Garmin or in some cases just know that if this is something that I'm going to need, I'll just have like a Casio or something with the digital feature on it, which I like quite a bit. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | And I wouldn't say that's exhaustive. You know, I absolutely adore the look of a Vacheron Constantin Corne de Vache with the two register subdial. They're gorgeous. I really love a fifties Um, kind of dressy chronograph and solid gold. Uh, if I could afford those, I'm sure I would have a handful of them. Those older galets are gorgeous and super legible. So there's lots of great examples. I've just never found one that I really liked. And, uh, and I think a lot of it comes from like, I like a Daytona just fine. I like them when they're a little bit older and they're a fortune now. So that's not going to happen. I've never really been a Speedmaster guy. I've borrowed them. I've, I've borrowed them from the brand. I've borrowed vintage ones from friends. They are beautiful and really fun. They just, I don't care to have one on my wrist. They don't really speak to me in any specific function. And then you go to another classic chronograph design, like a Navitimer, and I find them illegible. Where suddenly the watch is six inches away from my face. I'm trying to say, I think we're at 14 minutes or something like this. Half the time, my use for a chronograph is actually a countdown feature. And in that case, I'll go with my phone. Right. And then the only other one that I found to be really useful is that weird Buran Minstop that I have. Oh, sure. Which is a very strange. It's not really a chronograph, but it's also not not a chronograph. Yeah. And so that watch has a single button and it has a counter that's always running from 60 minutes. So it's just constantly spinning and then all you do is when you, the idea was that back in the day you'd get out of your car, you'd park your car, you'd get out, you'd see how much time you put on the meter and you just tap the button. You don't even look at the watch, you just tap the button and it zeros that when you hit the button and then you have a count. So now like I'll put something in the oven or I'll put some laundry on or whatever and I'll tap the button and In that manner, I find it to be quite handy. And maybe that's what I need is it's so easily read and understood and I don't need second to second accuracy. It's much more important for me to know the minutes. Yeah. So maybe I need one of these La Mania 5100s have a minute, a central minutes hand. Sure. |
| James Stacey | And didn't Zinn just recreate that this past Baselworld? I think they just came out with a, or maybe it was last year. They've always been kind of a well-known brand for using that central minute counter. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, they've done that for some of their EZM stuff, and I could see that really changing my feel for a chronograph, is if I had that minute resolution at a glance. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I had a Tag Heuer Aquagraph. I don't know if you remember those, but... Oh, yeah, for sure. It was a dive chronograph that was so ahead of its time. It had the push-to-turn sort of locking bezel. It had the little yellow marker on the crown to let you know the crown was unscrewed. Then it had the central minute chronograph. I mean, that was a really cool watch, but... I think for me, chronographs are, it's such a tactile visual appeal that the functionality of, you know, as my eyes are getting worse, they do certainly present some challenges to read, but I think just having buttons on one side of the case, that sort of in your face asymmetry, and then kind of that needle central sweep hand sticking up there, just kind of ready to go. It's always, it's always struck me as a very, Instrument feeling, you know, it just it has that tactile, you know, it's the one thing you can do other than Winding a manual wind watch that you can actually or spinning a bezel that you can actually interact with the watch, you know You push a button and something happens and yeah, there aren't a lot of watches that that do anything like that I suppose a minute repeater might might be something like that. But those aren't kind of my cup of tea, but So I think chronographs, you know, I I look around and I've never really considered myself much of a chronograph guy I'm definitely wear dive watches 90% of the time but then I've got you know, a couple of the Doxa T-Graphs, I've got a Speedmaster, I've got a CWC, RAF style, and those are all hand-wound, two-register chronographs. Well, the Speedmaster's three registers, but little kind of vintage-style chronographs. And I don't know, every time I put one on, I'm like, you know, this is, I don't know, there's just something kind of visually bold and appealing about wearing them that I like as sort of a refresher from You know, always wearing kind of the same style with a rotating bezel and a black dial of a dive watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I mean, the funny thing is, is there's long been a couple of watches on my, let's call it a hit list or interest list that are chronographs. Um, and I guess now that I think of it, uh, your position that it's, it has sort of a style and aesthetic standpoint, the chronograph, but that's probably what I like about the Michael. I have a very longstanding appreciation and would probably pick one up if, uh, if the right opportunity came up for the, Tudor Heritage Chrono in blue. Oh, yeah. I think it's a really cool watch. Again, a great watch when you're out with a great car, like just a really cool, beautiful thing with a 12-hour bezel, which is a quote-unquote complication we can get to at some point, a variation of GMT functionality. I would buy that and maybe never fire the chronograph, or at least not in earnest. Yeah, right. But I just, I like, I adore the way it looks, and it wouldn't look anywhere near as cool as a two-hander. Yeah. Or a three hander. It needs that chronograph. It needs that balance. It's like Monaco's I find look really weird when they're just the three hand with the date. Yeah. You need those two registers, even if they're like not necessarily crazy functional. Right. Right. So I get it. I understand the look, uh, certainly. And there's a handful of like Tag Heuer stuff. I think the skippers are really wild and cool. And that single register I think is like very appealing, uh, from a legibility standpoint, from an understanding what they're trying to tell you standpoint. Yeah. But I just haven't found the one that really speaks to me beyond that silly Buran. And I really did love and use the chronograph on that Zen. I just, for whatever reason, it struck me as something I was going to sell and I sold it. |
| James Stacey | You know, speaking of the Buran, I have something that's, I guess you'd say, adjacent to a chronograph as well, which is my Aquastar Regatta timer, which I think it must use some variation of the same movement. The functionality is slightly different. I bet you it's very similar. So with this watch, I'll just describe it. It's a silver dial, tonneau shaped case with a single button. It has five apertures on the dial that turn from silver to all blue to all red and then back to silver. Each one of those accounts for one minute of time elapsing. So the theory was you'd use it to time the countdown start to a sailboat race, and you could time up to 10 minutes, I guess. I think where it differs from the Buran is that while the sweep's second hand is always running, when you press the button, the sweep's second hand goes back to zero, but the apertures, once they get through their, I guess, 15-minute cycle of going from blue to red back to silver, They don't continue to run, so they don't continue to change color. But yeah, it must be a similar kind of La Mania-based chronograph movement. But that's another kind of favorite complication. I've always loved that. I remember Bremont came out with that really cool sort of circular regatta countdown feature when they were doing some America's Cup stuff back a few years ago. And I love that watch. And not enough brands do it. I mean, I'm always telling brands, whoever will listen. I know Rolf Studer from Oris is an avid sailor. And I always say, oh, you guys should do a regatta watch. So we'll see. |
| Jason Heaton | But it is a very cool, very specific movement. I'm not sure where how you would necessarily apply it outside of the the world of regatta timing, but I think aesthetically it looks really cool. Yeah. And and yeah, I agree. It must be a relatively similar function added to the movement between my Buren and your your regatta timer. I would agree. Yeah, they definitely always look really cool. That blue to red phase and you like Hoyer made a really neat regatta timer in like a full black case with a black dial, you know, from the blue to the red and, and just a very cool thing to have on wrist. Like from, again, from an aesthetic standpoint, I'm never going to be in a regatta race, I figure, but, uh, I would definitely enjoy. And I think that one that you've got, I haven't seen it in the metal I've seen on Instagram looks really cool. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. So what should we go to next? I mean, you, you, you talked briefly about your, um, what you call the CMT, which is sort of a, it's not really a watch complication, but it accomplishes what like a second time zone watch would do. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's like an anti-complication. So this is something that, I mean, we've definitely talked about before, so I can be really quick, but you know, it's a 12-hour bezel. So whereas you would normally have a dive scale on a bezel or whatever, in this case, it's just one through 12, and it allows you to rotate the bezel to put the offset between two time zones, your current time zone and another time zone at 12. So if it's a three-hour offset, you'd put three at 12, It depends if it's plus or minus. You might have to put nine if it's behind you. But it's an offset of three hours. And then you'd simply use the hour hand and whichever number it's indicating on the bezel to read a second time zone. It's surprisingly handy. It adds no complication and theoretically no cost to the watch. I like to call it CMT. It's like cheap meantime. It was one of the first and only mods I ever bothered to do with my Seiko SKX007 was to put this like steel 12-hour bezel I got from Yaboki's on it. And then since then, you know, I have a Halios that has it. I have, I got a couple of watches with 12-hour bezels and I find them super handy. And man, if you really want to talk about like, I landed somewhere new and like, I don't even have any intention of updating the main time on the watch to the new place that can stay as home. It really is super easy to read because you're still using that hour hand. Oh, right, right. So like the functionality I think is really compelling. And again, I like, I like that it adds function without adding cost or complications. So you're not worried about, Oh, what if the GMT makes the movement this or that, or I'm constantly unscrewing the crown to change the GMT time. So maybe you're worried about where additional wear and tear on the crown, like all of that is, is preempted by this. And then of course you don't really use, lose the ability to say, um, time a pizza or, uh, even a dive. You can still just put your 12 or the zero marker, whichever the watch has, and then just do a little bit of math. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. So that's a pretty good one. The other one that I have some experience with is the world timer. |
| Unknown | Yeah, you've got that. |
| James Stacey | I don't know if you still have it, that vintage Seiko world timer. |
| Jason Heaton | No, I don't still have the Seiko. |
| James Stacey | The reason I was going to follow up the CMT with that is because that wasn't a true world timer, right? You had to actually manipulate the bezel. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it was a passive world timer. So basically what that did, and it's a clever thing and you see this in the you know, world timers come as a span. A true world timer would show you at least 24 hours, uh, 24 time zones in instantaneous hours. So it would show you the time in all of them. Um, and then what you'll get is some passive world timers, uh, which in this case, this is a Seiko 6114 6700, or it might be a Seiko 6700 6114, one or the other. Um, but it was a Seiko and it used a locked 24 hour hand. uh, not unlike an original GMT master. And then it referenced. So when you spun the crown in its neutral position, it moved the city desk. So then all you did was basically align what you knew to be the time in place of your current existence. And it gave you the other ones. So it changed every hour you would have to update it. But if let's say once or twice a day or once or twice a week, you wanted to see the time in a couple other spots. It was really a functional thing that didn't again, add a lot of complication or cost to watch world timers being typically quite expensive. Yeah. And then finally, you have these kind of UTC offset world timers. So they're not a true world timer, but they also they offer a lot of the functionality they operate kind of as a blend between a GMT and a world timer. And an example of that would be like a world timer that's 7750 based in some manner like the Bremont alt one WT. Oh, sure. So, you know, every, all of these things come in different flavors, different expressions, and that's them trying to balance complexity and cost and functionality. You know, it's a bit of a triangle and you have to pick which two you kind of shoot for. |
| James Stacey | There just aren't a lot of affordable. I think one thing that I've heard lament people lament about, and I see this as well as there aren't a world timer is, is a really handy, uh, watch to have. And if, if they're made more, if someone made a more affordable one, that had some water resistance and some, you know, sort of sportiness to it. It would be perhaps the most useful sort of travel watch. You know, you get like the IWC Time Zoner, which, you know, kind of that big giant pilot-y kind of look with a bezel that you turn and then it manipulates the hour hand, the second hour hand, which is really handy. Alpina made a world-time kind of pilot watch. But there just aren't many other ones out there. I know, you know, Gerard Perregaux makes one, but it's a much dressier watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And it's, uh, you know, Gerard Perregaux has actually, yeah, that's where I was going. That's where I was going with them. But the, uh, yeah, I mean, they have, Gerard Perregaux has a longstanding presence in the world timer space, especially CrossFit sportiness. They used to make a line, their standard www.tc line, uh, would it be a chronograph with a date and a world timer? And it was a clever functionality. Um, these are larger watches, usually between 44 and 47 millimeters and not something that's super popular now. But then they offer a similar, what I would call a Cartier-style world timer named after the gentleman who created the functionality for some very early pocket watches, Vacheron and then later Patek, and then miniaturized that functionality for Patek in, oh man, I'm gonna get this wrong, 51 or 52, maybe 53 for their earliest world timers. And those ones actually required the city disc to be set for where the person lived. So that was done by a watchmaker. And then they moved that to be something that could be rotated by hand, like a metal bezel. There's a lot of history in the world timer space. And all of it is essentially attempting to balance concepts of functionality, complication, and cost. So if you made something that was on the cheaper side, maybe if you moved and lived in a different part of the world, it actually had to be reconfigured by a watchmaker. So that's not so great. And then if you made something that was much more functional, it might've required mechanical changes to the movement, which is increasing in your cost. And then of course, if you really focused on making something cheap, then you would do so by simply doing the matched, the sort of passive world timer. So it comes in as a blend. I would say like, it's really a tough complication for us to talk about because there aren't a lot of tried and true, nicely sized, competitive world timers under $10,000. I'm blanking. I want to say it was like $11,000 or $12,000 for the Azure Arpeggio one. And that's a nice 40 millimeter watch, but it's a dress watch. It's not super TGN-esque. The time zoner is really more of a GMT functionality in terms of updating your local time rather than showing you all the times at once. There certainly are a lot of options. Like you said, Alpena makes one as does Christopher Ward. I don't know if they still go by that name. I believe it is a one similar to the Braemont in terms of it's not a true instantaneous hour world timer or just what I would call a true world timer. Yeah. That doesn't make it less functional. You just have to know what you're expecting from it. I'm not actually saying it better or worse. Yeah. It's like the difference between a local jumping and an independent 24 hour hand and a CMT. Like these are all expressions of trying to give somebody some functionality while managing how much money you take from them. And if you really remove all of the limitations on cost, then you start to hit things like the patrimony from Vacheron Constantin that does 37 time zones, but it costs a fortune. And I'm not saying it's not worth it. They're not having any trouble selling them. I just assume they don't make that many because it's an absurdly complicated watch, right? And now you're into managing 15 minute offsets from UTC times. You have the really impressive, although again, not technically a world timer. It's managing all of the data of a world timer, but it's only showing you two time zones, and that would be the Glashutte Original Cosmopolite, which is a really fascinating watch, and I would absolutely endeavor to someday own a true example from a premier brand, if I could. Um, I think they're very special. I don't think that they're necessarily the best way to do a travel watch. Um, I, I think that in many ways that's been narrowed down to being a traditional GMT that can reliably and easily jump you between two time zones, but just for the fun of like, it's like having 25 watches all in one, right? |
| James Stacey | I've always been really drawn in by the, just the, the, uh, the list of city names around the dial. I mean, it was always such a romantic sort of, thing to look at and see, you know, where's Reunion Island or where, you know, the Falklands or, um, you know, Samoa or something, you know, especially a lot of the older ones, they would put, you know, cities from that have changed names over the years or, um, uh, you know, Myanmar or Burma and, you know, all these sort of different places. And it just, it reminds me of like looking at an old globe. |
| Jason Heaton | I absolutely agree. There's something old world about it and it speaks to a time before we had any option to do this digitally. So you really had to rely on the fact that like, oh, I left New York. It was set when I left New York and wherever I land, it's accurate. And I love it. I love it. It speaks to this kind of like Rockefeller-esque, like the whole world in your hands sort of thing and possibilities. And they're kind of resplendent and fancy. And their Pateks and their Vacherons are these great names. I really do absolutely adore world timers. I've never, you know, I've borrowed a couple, I've owned a couple that weren't really true world timers, but I enjoyed them nonetheless. And then, um, I think that that kind of runs the gamut from a CMT through the various GMTs up to a, up to a world timer. And I mean, I guess if you want to go further, you go into something like a Seiko Astron that just does it for you, right? Right. You land in this hand spin around and you're good. Yeah. Um, I, I like, I like that these things are in some way little computers like travel computers, the same way we think of a dive computer or something like that. But, uh, I, I, I really adore it. I even, you know, I remember the first time I got like a digital watch that had that WT in the, in the menu scroll. And you'd be like, Oh, you could bounce around and see the different, the different times. And you were in Tokyo, you were in these places that were far off, far off realms for me, even in like a digital context, I find that fascinating and fun and childlike. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | So what else? I mean, I guess the last one on my list is a depth gauge. I've, um, you know, clearly that's something that would be of interest to someone who dives like me. And, uh, I've had a chance to try a few out. I've tried, you know, everything from the, the Citizen Aqualand, which is an analog digital piece from the eighties that, that was kind of the first to do that electronically, um, in a digital manner, uh, on up to through something like the Oris Aquus depth gauge, which is a, a remarkably simple piece that just uses the laws of physics to kind of just push, compress air in a small tube that goes around the dial and is indicated on a scale, and then on up to something like the IWC Deep 3, which is just a spectacularly complicated watch. And I've been able to try the Blancpain X-Fathoms, which is, I think, probably the pinnacle of of depth gauge watches mechanically. Just amazingly specific. You talk about a regatta timer being niche. At least you could use it to time steeping your tea in one minute increments, but a depth gauge is... I've always been struck by people that collect watches that might buy a depth gauge, an IWC Deep 1 or Deep 2 or something, one of these older ones, and it's a piece of history, but also You can't see it function. It would drive me crazy if I couldn't take it underwater and see it function. I mean, you know, here's this extra hand and this depth gauge on this watch. And literally, unless you apply some pressure to it, whether it's air pressure or take it diving, I mean, you will never see that thing work, which would just be maddening to me. They're really cool to use in the real world and see function. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. My, my only experience with that, you know, I, I absolutely agree. It was maddening. Uh, this is, I, I owned, uh, one of those ones I've talked about in the past, but it was one of these citizen aqua lands with the overall, like a very much an analog layout, uh, chronograph with a, with a loom dial in that big bump on the side for the depth gauge. And I remember I was two, two, three, four lifetimes ago, something like that. And I was in, um, I was in, um, the Grand Caymans and we went snorkeling. And I remember like the first thing I did, I got a got off the back of the boat, you know, I looked at the watch, I'm like, all right, well, it's not full of water. So we're okay. It was like something I had bought on poor man's watch form. Like I had another guy for 80 bucks or something. Yeah. And, um, and, uh, the dive master, the guy on the boat, um, we weren't actually doing any diving, but the guy on the boat who was there to kind of make sure nobody like got lost or swim so far away from the boat, we couldn't get them back or something like that. He had the one, you remember the one that was like mostly digital and had a big red button on the right. Yeah. Yeah. It was a fully asymmetrical, almost like C shaped case. Yeah. I remember that. Yeah. So he had that. So I was, I was trying to like ingratiate myself, like, look how cool we both are. You've got this cool dive citizen. I've got this one. He couldn't have cared less. Yeah. Like literally couldn't have cared less. But I got it in the water, made sure the water wasn't drowning, and then just immediately, like, swam straight down as hard as I could. Just to see that hand move, like, two clicks, two clicks of the distance that it could if I was diving, you know, I maybe got down to 12 feet, 15 feet, something like that. Yeah, yeah. I was fascinating. What a fun, what an absolutely fun and ultimately very rewarding complication to use. But yeah, not really day to day applicable. They are super fun, though. Yeah. What else? Any others on your list? Yeah, I think for the most part, I think that basically covers it. I have a longstanding interest in alarm complications, but I had an Apolgio alarm, a Russian alarm watch, you know, well over a decade ago. And that's a pretty fun watch. Again, one that would have been cool to keep. I'm sure I bought it for 45 bucks and I sold it for 46. Like it was not worth much money back in the day. And a kind of a rare thing had a nice black dial in this kind of oddly loud alarm function. And these days, I think I would actually find some use for it. Yeah, just because it is kind of a thing where I find I'm managing a half dozen alarms on my phone, and only one or two of them are to wake me up, the rest are to remember certain things for certain phases throughout the day. And especially as a lot of that stuff has moved to your Google Calendar, and you're still getting a notification for it, it'd be kind of fun to try and take some of that offline and Yeah, put it back in the watch, but there just aren't that many companies making it. You have your tutor advisors and your crickets and your, uh, your sort of scenarios like that. It'd be fun to see something like that come out of the micro brand space where maybe it could be under 1500 bucks. And from a brand that you already know, maybe even. I suppose the trouble with that, of course, is like who, who makes that movement and how, and you go back and source of vintage movement. Oh yeah. It's a, it's an interesting function set and it's fun and it kind of captures a little bit of the functionality of a chronograph or a timing feature across with something like a minute repeater. Um, cause you know, you get this audible charm, uh, chime, uh, alarm. And yeah, I think beyond that, that basically exhausts my list. I mean, most, most of my interest is in multiple time zone functionality. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I mean, I think, I think, uh, we've, we've probably covered the ones that appeal to us. And I think looking at our lists, they're very functional complications as opposed to, uh, more arcane ones, uh, you know, certainly a minute repeaters are neat, but you know, they were, they were kind of invented at a time when there was no electricity and people wanted to be able to hear the time when it was too dark to see a clock and, um, things like that. But I think, you know, when you look at what we've talked about, it's, it's very functional, very practical day to day stuff, um, for the lifestyles that we lead. So, um, really, you know, fun list. It was a good episode. I'm actually surprised we hadn't done one like this earlier and you know, hope people hope people like it and. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And if anyone, if anyone listening feels like we really missed, uh, missed the boat on one of the functions we spoke about, or, or if you have a favorite function that we didn't get to, uh, you know, there are a never ending and increasingly arcane list of historical complications. Uh, whether it be an interesting date display or, uh, sit a real time or who knows, like there's, there's just tons and tons of tons of features that they can pack into watches and have over time. Yeah. You can always drop us an email at thegreatnadoatgmail.com. It's always a treat to hear from each and every one of you. And I think it's probably, you know, we're well over an hour at this point. We should probably cut pretty quickly into final notes. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I can just give one actually today. And I think this one's pretty cool. So, you know, a couple of years ago, the Parks Canada and some marine archaeologists set out to find the shipwrecks of HMS Terror and Erebus, HMS Erebus, which were two ships that were part of the Franklin expedition back in the 1840s that set out to chart a way across Arctic Canada and kind of get through from the Atlantic side of the Pacific through the Northwest Passage. And the story is fairly well known, you know, they disappeared, they got wrecked, they resorted to cannibalism, et cetera, et cetera. Really, really quite a tale. But no one had ever found the ships and through interviewing some Native Americans or Inuit people up there, they were able to kind of put together some clues and found some cairns and some log books hidden in rocks and things like this. And by doing this, they narrowed down a general area where the ships were and ultimately through ROVs and sonar and then ultimately scuba diving, they found these ships. And recently, Parks Canada released a video tour diving into the wreck of HMS Terror. And it was kind of in the news in the past couple of weeks because it's really a spectacular view into this really well-preserved 19th century ship where there are still plates, china on the shelves and the galley and the hallways and the cabins where the crew lived and some of the filigree and the woodwork on the bowsprit and the decking. And just really fascinating for anybody that's interested in diving or shipwrecks. Just really neat. It's it's kind of akin to you know, I talked about my trip up to to Whitefish Point and diving in Lake Superior Just a couple of weeks ago and and that experience of diving and really well-preserved cold cold water wrecks This this kind of reminded me of the kind of stuff we see in the Great Lakes and to see it in in saltwater Presumably because it's so cold up there It was really neat to watch that video. So we'll throw a link in the in the show notes. It's been in a lot of news outlets lately too, but definitely worth checking out. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. And on that note, actually a quick thank you to listener Jonathan. Jonathan, you'll know who you are. I'm not going to put your last name in there, but Jonathan sent us this video as well. So when I saw it in your notes, terror, I quickly went back and searched it and it is an incredible video. Yeah. So thanks very much, Jonathan, for sending that along and Jason, a solid pick. I watched the video. It's awesome. Yeah. Cool. So my pick for this week is actually a little gadget tool for travel. It's called the Anker PowerCore Fusion. And, uh, you know, I've talked about Anker devices before. They're very popular, like Amazon, Anker, and Aukey are kind of the two competing big brands for, uh, battery, you know, the, the like power packs, the USB batteries to keep your phone and all that kind of stuff charged. Um, in my case, I'm always trying to limit. I'd like, I don't necessarily need a giant one, but I really just kind of need one. And a lot of it comes down to the fact that you have to carry the battery and then make sure that you have the cord that charges the battery, which these days is probably not the same cord that charges your phone. Yeah. So now you're carrying two cables, the battery pack, a wall charger, and what this does, and I would say it's close to perfect, but it is really good. It's a 5,000 milliamp hour battery. So in my case, it'll charge my note nine roughly one time through, which is great. And it's not too big. but it also has a fold-out plug so you can plug it right into the wall. So it operates as a wall adapter with two USB ports and a USB micro, a micro USB port. So I can charge two devices, whether that be my phone while it's charging the battery and my phone in the wall. So it removes a whole plug from the equation. And then the, the, the old, I really like it. It's not super expensive, but I think I paid about 40 bucks for it, Canadian. So. And they also consistently put Anker and Aukey stuff on sale on Amazon. So we'll put a link in the show notes. It's not like an affiliate link or anything. You don't have to buy it. I'm just putting a link to Anker's website. I've used their battery products for quite a few years. But I really like this. It's not too big. It's maybe a little bit smaller than your traditional MacBook charger in total size, but it has a built-in battery and a built-in wall plug. and two USB outputs, which makes it a pretty flexible thing to charge with. The only thing I would change is obviously if they could make the same thing, maybe they'll make the PowerCore Fusion 2, if we ask enough, with a USB-C plug would be incredible. That way I could charge my headphones, I can use a C to C cable, my phone uses a C to C cable if I want, and it would just mean one less type of cable goes into the bag. So it's not a big deal, but it is pretty handy to have this, and that way you're... You can be walking around and charging your phone off of its internal battery and then get to your hotel and literally just take it out of your bag and plug it into the wall. And it keeps charging your phone, but it's also charging its own battery. It's just kind of a clever use of space. Yeah, that's cool. So I've been using it for the last, you know, like I said, the last two weeks, it was kind of my go-to. It sits in a little kit that I keep at the top of my bag to take out while I'm on a plane. Yeah. And then that way I have a cable, this battery pack. If I want to charge the battery pack, I can click the thing out and throw it into the little plug under the seat. If you're on a plane and you can top it up while you're, while you're flying, it's a, it's a handy little thing. It's not that expensive. And if you travel a lot or you really just like to limit the number of like plugs and cables going on in your general existence, this can cut down a couple of them. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I love it. I might pick one of these up. I I'd like to see one with a. plug adapters for different countries. |
| Jason Heaton | That would be a neat option. That would be really clever too. Yeah, that way if they copied the sort of Apple thing where the plug snapped out. Right, yeah. And you could clip in your, I mean if they made it just like the Apple one then you could use the same kit as the Apple which would be handy. Yeah. But yeah, one with plug adapters would be pretty smart because by the, you use one of those long plugs to get it into a Swiss plug and then it's not It's like unbalanced and it just falls out. Right. Uh, any, uh, yeah, that, that kind of stuff is kind of endless. Those, those little, uh, headaches in some way. And I know the whole world of like USB-C chargers is blowing up. There's four or five really popular Kickstarters going on that are, um, chargers that can do all the way up to a 15 inch MacBook pro, but also have a battery built into them. Those are all tend to be more expensive in excess of a hundred dollars. And it also puts a lot of eggs in one basket to do your laptop charger too. So, I mean, you have to decide how much you want to be in one basket. For my phone, my headphones and those sorts of things, I'm okay, but I like some separation. And carrying, I also trust the Apple hardware to work a little bit better than some of these random brands. I trust Anker quite a bit and Aukey. So if they were to make one, I could see me giving it a try. More like a one solution charger. especially because USB-C does allow that to be possible from a voltage and wattage control concern. But yeah, I think for right now, this with a USB-C plug on it would be incredible. So maybe that's in the future. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, nice one. Yeah, big episode. Fun. Yeah, it's a long one. Yeah. As always, thanks so much for listening and a big thanks to Hodinkee for supporting the show and to Gear Patrol for sponsoring this episode. Be sure to check out stocked2019.com for more information about Gear Patrol's Stocked Product Culture Conference, which is coming up on September 27th and 28th in New York City. Hit the show notes via hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and J.E. Stacey and follow the show at TheGreyNado. If you have any questions for us, please write to TheGreyNado at gmail.com. And please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is siesta by JazzArr via the free music archive. |
| Jason Heaton | And we leave you with this quote from Jared Diamond who wrote, |