The Grey NATO - Ep 95 - The 2019 Watch (And Watch Things) Gift Guide

Published on Thu, 05 Dec 2019 06:01:03 -0500

Synopsis

The hosts discuss various gift ideas for watch enthusiasts and others, ranging from inexpensive items like spring bars and coasters to watches like the Seiko SKX or SRP diver models under $500. They also recommend some books, travel cases, and the Garmin Fenix 6 outdoor smartwatch around $900. The episode also includes discussions of Oris's ocean conservation efforts, the Ford v Ferrari movie, a new James Bond Omega Seamaster watch, and personal submarine exploration.

Transcript

Speaker
Unknown Hello and welcome to another episode of the Graynado, a Hodinkee podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 95 and it's proudly brought to you by Oris watches and their efforts to support clean ocean conservation all over the world. Hey Jason, how's it going?
Unknown Oh, pretty good. Yeah, it's a full on winter here. We've got snow and cold. It just feels like it came overnight.
Unknown Oh boy. Wow. Yeah. The, uh, the, the weather's been pretty hitter. I've been in New York for the last little while and the weather's been kind of hit or miss here. We did get a bunch of snow last night. Uh, so there was, you know, I came out in the, there was snow on the car, like maybe an inch, maybe not even quite an inch. Yeah.
Unknown Yeah. That's right. You drove to New York.
Unknown I did. Yeah. Yeah. Big long road trip. Kind of put the first road trip on the Jeep. Uh, I was coming down to do sort of Thanksgiving in the area, which I thought would be kind of fun. And I drove down. from Toronto, stopped in Ithaca and at Lucifer Falls and then into Woodstock and then finally drove into Brooklyn, which is where I stay when I'm in the city. And how long did that take? I mean, the Google Maps, if I hadn't bothered stopping, like I think maybe just with a fuel stop somewhere along the way was like nine, nine and a half hours, something like that. Wow. And I think this took more like 13. with a handful of stops and went for a hike, a hike out to Lucifer Falls. And I wasn't in like a specific rush. So, yeah, that would be simple enough.
Unknown And how did the Jeep do on the highway?
Unknown Yeah, I mean, I don't have many hours. I don't think it loves going much over 75 miles an hour, which is, I suppose, fine. There's not many places where you have to. But other than that, it was great. I mean, it's not it's not I wouldn't say it's very good on fuel, but You know, I was getting maybe 21 miles to the gallon on the highway and sixth, uh, which isn't that bad and fairly comfortable, uh, coming back from, uh, coming back from where I did Thanksgiving, it was kind of, uh, a mix of heavy rain and hail. And you quickly learn that like this plastic roof that's above you isn't especially insulative to things hitting it. Yeah. So it was a pretty noisy drive coming back, but, uh, outside of that fine, you know, very charming. And then, you know, there's a handful of great roads. in and out of Lucifer Falls and around Woodstock and New Hope and a few other areas that I got to over the weekend. And these kind of second, third, fourth gear roads, I just have a blast on. So it's super. Huh. Very cool. Yeah. How about you? What have you been up to with any of your free time?
Unknown Yeah. So like I said, we've got full on winter here. So I've been this is I think the earliest winter or season that I've been able to get out on cross-country skis with reliable conditions and I'm just thrilled about that. I was out just yesterday and it's like mid-season conditions on some of the trails. I live between a couple of groomed, you know, about 5k loops, kind of some moderate hills and just sort of sweeping through trees and that sort of thing. And so it's just been really amazing to get out this early and ski. You know, in the past, Often I've had to wait until sometimes almost January to get reliable snow that they're able to groom with any good quality. And hence the rowing machine purchase. I thought I'd be kind of bound to the basement for my exercise for a couple of months, but this is great. I love being able to get out. It's been today again, it's blue sky and sun and twenties, which is perfect, perfect for any sort of outdoor exercise in the winter. And so that's been great. And you know, not living anywhere where we have a lot of, sort of dirt roads or off-road trails. Uh, this is my big opportunity to do quote unquote off-roading with the Land Rover. So, you know, it's fun to throw it in four wheel drive and kind of bash around the unplowed alleys and rescue stranded cars and that sort of thing. The nights, nights we get snowstorms. So yeah, for sure. That's been a lot of fun too. That's great. Oh, and then I got a, I got a, we got a drone, uh, sort of a year-end business write-off that we've been eyeing for for quite a while and you know I've polled a few people on which one to get and we settled on the Mavic 2 Pro. So it's got a Hasselblad, little Hasselblad lens camera on the front and we got the smart controller with it. This is not the the zoom version which does not have the the Hasselblad camera on the front so that we kind of opted for image quality over the ability to zoom for any sort of cinematography purposes. But I haven't had a chance to try it. It just arrived two days ago and we had a bit of a snowstorm and I thought that probably wouldn't be the best time to take it out. So excited to go and have some fun with this thing.
Unknown Yeah, they're super fun. I've flown the Mavics before and actually the first time I ever flew a drone wasn't even that long ago. It was a project that you and I actually worked on and you were underwater at the time and I figured I would fly it out of the boat. And then I didn't quite realize just how stressful that is. You know, somebody else's thousand dollar drone and I was, you know, having it take off out of my hand. It was very, very calm water, of course, but like still you just kind of like, well, it's now in the air. So to get it back, I literally need to drop it on this, I don't know, eight square feet or whatever of deck. Yeah. And, uh, they're, they're amazing, really, really amazing technology. They're super fun to use. And, uh, certainly if you have the excuse, whether it's for, to capture, you know, these giant wide angle stills or some really awesome video, uh, they're a tool that kind of can't be beat for the job.
Unknown Yeah. And Mavic, I bought it, you know, directly from them. They had these late season holiday kind of sales. And so it was, it was, you know, I mean, I I'm amazed at how this technology has trickled down to, into a reasonably affordable product. That is something that is just can do such cool stuff, but I bought the, They offered like $150 package where they'll replace your drone twice in a given year, in the first year, if you damage it while you're using it, as long as you can retrieve it and send it back to them. So I thought, you know, given, given my lack of aptitude with these things, I thought I would, uh, you know, take that extra step.
Unknown Yeah. That makes sense. That doesn't seem unreasonable. That's like, you know, a little bit, maybe a little bit more than 10% of its value or 15% of its value, something like that. Yeah. Right. That's great. Very cool. Otherwise, I mean, for me, over the weekend, I went and saw Ford versus Ferrari, you know, a movie that we've spoken about because I've waxed poetic about my love of the book that covers a similar topic, the same topic largely at a much grander scale, a book called Go Like Hell by A.J. Baim. You know, I don't have a ton great to say about the movie. I know you saw it. I would give it a strong like B, B minus. Uh, for me, it felt like a Disney film. It was kind of shot like, uh, like I felt like I was watching mighty ducks, but with race cars, I, uh, I thought some of the race car stuff bugged me like this, the stuff where the footage was really clearly sped up. Um, and then like weird things like the, the windshield wipers, they didn't slow those down and post. And then the stuff that didn't look like that just looked like computers made it. Um, like I understand that, you know, that it's not like the movie had the most giant of budgets and and there's obviously it's exceedingly difficult to make a movie about racing that's interesting and um maybe it's a scenario where they didn't really make the movie for someone who's read the book a few times and there's a fantastic of netflix documentary called um the 24 hour war uh which i think covers at a much grander scale they basically took what i thought was a very very uh compelling four year five six year story about ford versus ferrari and and they really brought it down to uh Carol Shelby and Ken Miles versus everyone is what I would call the movie. Definitely not bad, just not what I had hoped for.
Unknown I think it's always difficult to present a movie on a very niche subject to anybody who is deeply versed in that subject matter. So if there's a film about diving, I'm always the first to point out that, oh, you know, the gear's wrong, or he's wearing this backwards, or they got that reference wrong or something like that. But I, my understanding of this film was it was from people that saw it that, and I saw it as well, but people that saw it that maybe weren't necessarily racing buffs or even knew anything about the story was that they were really struck by how it was more about the corporate background of Henry Ford and kind of his ego being bruised and kind of wanted to go after Ferrari. And I think the, I was, I was quite keen on the story of Ken Miles. I thought Um, Christian Bale portrayed him really well. Um, you know, certainly the fabricated elements and condensed the story. Um, but, uh, you know, the, the racing scenes or the filming, uh, technology aside, I think it was, uh, I thought it was a pretty solid film. Yeah. I'd say BB plus, uh, would be my review of it. It certainly wasn't on the level of, uh, some of the other good racing films. I mean, I think rush did a nice job. Yeah. But, uh, you know, uh, you look anything, anytime you can introduce these, arcane subjects and interesting historical stories to a wider audience.
Unknown I'm kind of all for it. So I absolutely agree. I would say it was fine. I didn't love it. I wasn't blown away by it, which is maybe what I wanted. And and, you know, for me, it'll always be A.J. Bame's book. And then if you don't want to do the book, I think The 24 Hour War, which is on Netflix or has been on Netflix, is a great kind of stopgap until you can see Ford v Ferrari for yourself. I definitely think it's worth seeing. If you're interested in the topic, we should see these movies and kind of celebrate the fact that they've been made. Maybe it wasn't exactly the tone or the coverage of the story. It is very much focused on Carl Shelby and Ken Miles. And what they did was amazing. And it was an incredible year. And the way that Miles' story went was you know, obviously something that, um, is worth a, you know, it was a story worth telling. Uh, it just felt kind of maybe a bit cheesy at times to make for me.
Unknown Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Good point to bring up the book. I recommend that as well. I happened to read it about a month before the movie came out and, uh, it's incredibly long to friend, but it's a great book. Yeah. Good. Good. And it's, it's nice to see, or it's nice to read after you've seen the movie or before you've seen the movie. I think it's, it's a good sort of companion for sure.
Unknown And yeah, other than that, the, the, the kind of other new thing that I've got is actually, it's only been in my hands for about a, Oh, man, maybe five minutes before we started recording. And that would be the James Bond, the new James Bond Seamaster, which technically launches tomorrow. But when you're listening to this, it launched yesterday and that's in for some photography pre the release of the watch. And really just this is a this is a cool thing. You know, I think they did a really good job with it. I think it's interesting to see them go back to the kind of Seamaster 300 meter with the HEV valve, you know, that that was the first watch that bond, the first Omega watch that bond had back in 1995. And this is a very similar format, but it is very much a, uh, uh, we'll call it Daniel Craigified or maybe modern bondified. You know, it's a full titanium case at 42 millimeters. It's, uh, you know, the, the modern ceramic bezel, not the aluminum insert. It's a matte gray dye or sort of like a matte black matte grayish sort of very flat dial, no waves. Uh, and then Brown loom all around, like the kind of, uh, faux faded, uh, loom. And you also get an M O D marker. And then I think what's maybe the coolest part of the watch is like, I love that they made the 42 millimeter in titanium. That's rad, but they also have a matching titanium mesh bracelet and it's like, it's like insanely high end. It's so nice. It has this killer, really killer push button, single fold clasp, and it's not infinitely adjustable. There's actually like. Heavy set holes with rings in the mesh. that it clips into. It feels crazy sturdy and it does not look like any other Seamaster, which I think is the really the, in my opinion, if you can hit a bond watch that doesn't look like any other Seamaster that you may already own or your friend may own or that you may see at every, every retailer, then I think they've done something really kind of cool. And I think this is going to be just crazy popular.
Unknown Yeah, I think it looks awesome. I mean, you sent me one photo and I can't wait to kind of see the buzz around the launch of it. You know, uh, I remember when Daniel Craig debuted in Casino Royale and he was wearing that 45mm Planet Ocean and I just thought it was such a great departure for, you know, for Omega to kind of move him, who's definitely more rough and tumble sort of casual Bond than Pierce Brosnan was, into the Planet Ocean and I always thought that was such a great watch for him. You know, very matte dial, kind of burly, rubber strap and I feel like over the years now that this is a very logical sort of next piece for him. the wave dial Brosnan era one just wasn't quite the best fit for the character that Craig was playing and I think this being his last film as Bond and kind of his overall vibe, the sort of matte dial without the waves and those faded loom plots just really work well for him.
Unknown So yeah, really awesome. Yeah, I think it's cool. We'll put a link up, obviously you go check it out on the site if somehow you missed it yesterday, but it's one of the bigger releases. These are Huge partnerships for Omega. It's pretty much Bond and the Olympics are a huge way that this brand speaks to people who don't already know their products. So it's, it can be kind of easy to look at like, Oh, it's tan loom. It's it's this, it's that. And like, who did they make this for? This is a, like a genuine mass market connection to a huge film franchise. And the fact that it's still manages to be interesting to enthusiasts, like I say, Jason and myself, and I imagine a lot of you who will see the post. uh before the day before this comes out um I think it really really speaks to how well they kind of not only understand Bond but understand what makes their watches interesting to someone who would enjoy Bond.
Unknown Yeah and you know Omega does you know a lot of people like to give them a hard time for all the limited editions that they do and certainly I'm not the biggest fan of the 007 kind of limited editions the commander's watch and the Her Majesty's Secret Service 50th anniversary watch, you know, they get a little bit heavy-handed with the the branding on the watch itself with the 007 on the sweep hand sometimes or whatever The ones that are actually worn in the movies Tend to be more kind of real-world, you know sort of normal watches And I think those are the ones that I prefer and I think this one kind of hits that I don't You have it in your hands. I'm guessing there's no sort of 007 on the dial or anything like that
Unknown Yeah, nothing like that. It's actually pretty plain dial Seamasters in red. So just as like Omega Seamaster professional and the beneath it, your typical like coaxial master chronometer and then the water resistance and then a broad arrow. So largely like the broad arrow and the lack of a date is what would make this stand out at a high level to an Omega enthusiast to someone who knows their product line pretty well. You still have an HEV The case is otherwise very similar. The sort of matte and tan coloring goes right into the bezel, which I think really sells it. I think if it had just been kind of the tan faux aged loom on the dial, and then they didn't carry that over in the same way to the bezel. I don't think it would have been anywhere near as successful, but I think this feels like super cohesive, really special. It won't cost that much more than a normal 300 meter Seamaster, which is worth, uh, which is worth considering. And I think like from a distance, the mesh bracelet alone means that this is going to stand out. And it just looks really cool. I always really liked the Spectre SM300 that had the 12 hour bezel. That's obviously right up my alley. And it was a very cool watch. And of course it came on a NATO that was, you know, referential to some of Bonds history and a very cool thing. And I think they did just as well with this. And I think a lot of it for me comes down to this mesh bracelet. It feels fantastic. Huh. Cool.
Unknown Well, we haven't talked about what our main topic is today, but last episode, 94, we did a, kind of our annual gift guide where we talked about any number of different products from, you know, paracord to Lego toys, uh, that, that, you know, you might want to buy for, for yourself or, or for someone in your life. And, uh, so this time is as promised, we're going to talk about sort of more watch related gifts for people in your life, whether it's, uh, you know, tool straps, watches themselves, uh, sort of tangential links to watches. So, Um, we're, we're pretty excited about this. I think it'll be a popular episode. Um, kind of get back to our, our core and probably what listeners want to hear as well about, uh, about watches and watch related stuff. So we're pretty excited about that. But before that, we probably should just should do a little bit of an ad break.
Unknown Yeah. So this is a pretty special one. Uh, Oris wanted to support the show, but they didn't really want to support the show by us having talked directly about a watch. Um, I think they, they feel like they are, there's already enough sort of Oris watch stuff happening on the show. You and I are big fans. And what they wanted was a segment where we could talk about their efforts in ocean conservation. And the funny thing is, is this is one of those things that I thought I knew a fair bit about. I've actually been involved directly in some of their ocean conservation efforts. It's like 10X what I expected it to be. You know, they're highly invested in ocean conservation. So that's from research expeditions to, like I had mentioned, regrowing and protecting coral populations, assessing and mitigating the spread of plastics throughout the ocean. And more, it really is a lot. And they've made strides that aren't simply supporting active scientific efforts, but also supporting the general, you know, limiting of our single use plastic. So some of their packaging is now using an algae based material that, that will biodegrade properly and not leave microplastics in water systems. And then even at their HQ, like many companies, they've decided to go plastic free. So there's no plastic water bottles. There's no little single serving cups. All of that stuff has been mitigated by the use of proper water bottles and, and, you know, general water sources and that sort of thing. So it, it really is kind of a, a multi-layered approach to, uh, addressing the fact that the oceans need to be protected because it's what supports everything else on the planet. And it's something that we've ignored for a long time as a, as a society, as a species.
Unknown Yeah. I think what I like about Oris's approach to conservation is that it's, it's not merely lip service. They don't trot out, you know, celebrity ambassadors. And they also really span the spectrum of ocean conservation. They've done watches and programs related to, uh, you know, the Rhine river or this, you know, program that the, the oceans project, you know, spans things from, you know, ocean wildlife, you know, the blue whale watch the, you know, coral reef restoration stuff, as well as the plastic problem that that's facing the oceans. And it feels very holistic. It feels very deeply. Embedded in the oris culture and I really like that it gives you a real sense that they're they're in this for the long haul and it's not merely a Sort of a you know a marketing scheme I think it's kind of an interesting thing and certainly when it comes to the plastics thing that that's something that I witnessed Personally like at a very personal level.
Unknown I was involved many of you who listen to the show will know that several years ago in 2016 I went on a scientific expedition and a kind of joint scientific and uh, ecotourism expedition to, uh, the most remote coral atoll in the world. It's called Clipperton. And part of the attached research group on this vessel was a team that was going to do research into how much garbage was on the shore. And that includes, you know, they make these kinds of grids on the shore and then they pick up everything in the grids and then it's all assessed just to give an idea of, you know, a cross section of how much trash is in one of the most remote places in the world. Something like 870 miles due South of Cabo. uh, San Lucas. So really, I guess, off Western Nicaragua, just in the middle of nowhere, you'd think, well, this is pristine. How could we touch it? And, and I mean, the stuff that they pulled off, I'll even see if I can go back and dig up a couple of photos of back on the boat while we were going from, um, Clipperton to Socorro, it's like a 60 hour motor. Um, they actually started breaking down these bags of garbage into kind of lay flats for photography. And it would be like 60 lighters and that they only did a little tiny piece of the beach. Like, like cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, water bottles, sandals, bottle caps, like stuff that just never really ever breaks down. And the stuff that does break down is even scarier. Cause that's your microplastic that gets into all of the ecology of the system. They find animals that are giving birth to animals that have microplastic in their system. So it becomes part of the living tissue. of that world. And that's where you really start to realize. So like we do have a population, humans have a population large enough and we create so much trash that it does have an effect on the entire world. It's not just the dump down the street or, or, or the fact that your garbage didn't get picked up, but that eventually does go somewhere even when you can't see it. And, and it's a longstanding, a longstanding problem, which, which, you know, kind of brings us to what I think is one of the most interesting stages of this, um, Ocean's project, which is the PGS or the Pacific Garbage Screening. This was founded by a woman named Marcella. Sorry. This was founded by a woman named Marcella Hansch. And it's this incredible architectural platform that can be left in the ocean that actually collects garbage without interfering with other wildlife. And the goal is to essentially filter. through the motion of the ocean itself, filter a lot of the microplastics out of various areas and collect them where they can be treated or at least removed from the water system at large. And it really is a fascinating and exciting project. And we'll put some links in the show notes, please go and check these out. And then for Orissa's side of this, they created this clean oceans limited edition, which is a watch and something that I thought was worth pointing out because it came out back in March and I'm not sure how many people knew about it. but it's a, it's a, uh, an Aqua's that actually has, uh, a medallion of PET plastic. So it's these plastics that can't be recycled correctly used in the case back. You have this, this kind of inlay of these plastics and, uh, you know, this project would help support the oceans project at large.
Unknown Yeah. It's, it's really encouraging to see, uh, efforts like the Pacific garbage screening project and, and the, uh, sort of the ingenuity and innovation that really smart people are putting into this problem. I think plastic is one of those things that everybody can relate to. It's a very visceral thing when you see photos on Oris' website on the page for the Clean Ocean Limited Edition. There's an image of one of these garbage patches in the Pacific and it's just mind-boggling to see just the sheer amount of this plastic that's just floating around in the ocean. You know, a lot of times you'll, you'll take a vacation, a tropical vacation or go to the beach and you'll see the amount of plastic that washes up on beaches. And this is just a tiny fraction of what's out there. And it's just a problem that nobody can deny. Nobody gets, it's very uncontroversial, but it's such a massive problem to deal with. And so it's, it's great to see Pacific garbage screening, you know, take this on and, and or us to support them. And I think it's really, it's really cool that, uh, that the watch has that case back. It really hits home that it has this almost, it's strangely beautiful, the sort of colorful inlay of PET plastic that they've put on there. It's sort of a collage. Um, and then that watch is also part of a, uh, sort of a trilogy of watches that they've released, um, that, uh, you can buy as a set that includes the, the blue whale edition that that's a chronograph and the, uh, great barrier reef three edition. And they all have that beautiful blue dial, but they come packaged in a, entire box that's made of that PET plastic. So, you know, whatever route you go, if you're, if you're going to buy one of these or all three, um, it's supporting a great cause and, and it's just, they're all just really neat, very relevant products.
Unknown And I think, I think to wrap it up, it's, it's, it's one thing to focus on the various projects, and this is literally just a sliver of what Oris has gotten into in terms of conservation for the oceans. The other side of it is their goal to raise awareness. And that's where a podcast like the Graynado comes in. And I'm thrilled that Oris went this direction versus having us just read some ad copy about a watch. I hope this is something that we could continue and maybe turn an ad into a segment about ocean conservation or an interview with somebody working on one of these projects or that sort of thing. I think that would be not only interesting, but could all kind of bring us up to speed on some of the problems that now are starting to be measured. You know, the oceans project is saying that there's 22 tons of plastic dumped into the oceans each day. That's every day. And I mean, we're not, we're not taking 22 out. So the problem is only getting worse. At a certain point, you can only do so much damage to the water sources before you, it requires a very drastic rethinking of the concept of where our water comes from and, and, and the, in these sorts of Kind of things that we, at least I take for granted. I turn a tap on and the water's clean and I drink it. And I know it's not like that everywhere in the world, but also we're all making steps right now that are probably going in the wrong direction. So it's something to consider. Uh, we really are very thankful for us, not only for supporting the show, but also for supporting the oceans and, uh, and hopefully together we can make a little bit of an impact in, in the right direction. And maybe this is something we can continue in the future. So. Thank you very much for listening to this conservation message from Oris. And Oris, thank you very much for supporting the show.
Unknown All right. Let's jump into our main topic. As we mentioned today, we are discussing holiday watches and watch related products for potential gifts, whether you're buying this for a brother, girlfriend, wife, son, nephew, or yourself. So we've assembled kind of a fairly large list of you know, random products ranging from, you know, just to probably less than a dollar up to, you know, close to a thousand. So, uh, you know, some will, we'll kind of blitz through some of these are stocking stuffers. Some of them are obviously bigger gifts. So I don't know, where do you want to start?
Unknown Well, I think it's important to start by saying like, if you're listening to this, hoping that we're going to help you buy a watch for somebody else in your life, we can obviously help steer you in a certain direction, but in many ways, the actual watch that core unit, not the strap or the, Maybe a tool to work with it or something else in the enthusiastic space around watches. But the watch itself is a fairly personal thing. And with some people, they work really well as gifts where it's about who they came from. If you're buying for like a deep watch enthusiast, who's also a collector, unless you're very much in tune with the list that they have in their mind or on their phone or whatever of the watches that they really want, it might be safer to support their fascination with this hobby. but with tangential items than it is actually investing in a watch proper. If you know that the person's waiting for something or they said like, this is the watch I want for Christmas, then so be it. You probably don't need our help at all. I would say, you know, if somebody outside of my closest circle elected to buy me a watch, you can be pretty safe. It's not one that I want. You know what I mean? Like it sounds kind of catty or whatever, but I think it's one of those things where just like we don't love telling people what watches they should buy. It's just a personal decision and something that It requires a lot of time and effort and fascination to pick these sorts of things. And I think we can suggest lots of great watches and a lot of great other things that would be much lower stakes as a gift. Um, so maybe, maybe we start with, um, maybe we just blitz through the list and we cut through all the stuff that we've either talked about a ton before, which some of you might've missed. Some of you might not have, or you might've forgotten about. I think these are items that would be on the less expensive side of your typical Christmas gift spending range. But also things that, yeah, like I said, we've either talked to them about them a bunch or, uh, or they're, they're so insignificant in their costs that it's just an ad, like a plus one to maybe another order or something like that.
Unknown Yeah. So I'll jump in with the first one. Um, you know, one of them that I mentioned that it sort of reminded me because I dug this thing out of a drawer and I've had it for many years, uh, it's a Braun travel clock. So they call it their reflex control travel alarm clock. And, uh, it's, it's a, it's a, Little, very German, as you might expect coming from Braun, a tiny little plastic travel clock that you can tuck in your dop kit and travel with or keep on your bedside table at home. And it just feels very, you know, it's both modern and retro at the same time because it's an analog ticking clock that you actually, you know, have buttons to press to turn a little light on or to snooze or whatever, as opposed to, just using your iPhone or something like that. But, um, I have one of these and it just has a really nostalgic feel to it in the same way that, you know, wearing a world timer or, uh, you know, a GMT watch. It just, it's almost an inspiration more than it is a tool, but it also is a, it's very, um, it's very useful at the same time. And I was given one of these as a gift, uh, many years ago, I used to work for a language translation company. And one of the sales guys had one of these and he passed it on to me and I still use it and just really fun. So yeah, it's about $50 makes a, makes just a fun gift for, for someone who's maybe a casual horological enthusiast, but also a traveler.
Unknown Absolutely. I like, I like that quite a bit. I can jump in with a few like really easy ones. The first one would be the Horafix spring bar pliers. We've talked about these several times. They were on, I'm sure a previous gift list, but they are. Worth mentioning if you are buying for someone or buying for yourself and you have a watch that has a tight tolerance bracelet. I mean, these are specifically, um, they have tips for Rolex and Tudor, which work with a lot of stuff, but typically these can be quite a bit more expensive. The Horafix one is the one that I've had for a while. You can get them from Esslinger. That's not a sponsorship. They have no idea who we are. That's just where I bought it. It's a 90 bucks. So it's a little bit on the more expensive side, but it is a very handy tool that has saved the lug backs of several of my watches. And if I'm removing or installing a bracelet, I'm doing it with this tool. So I find that to be really, really handy. Um, another one that we can, we can get off the list really quickly would just be, uh, spring bars. So if you're buying a couple other things from Esslinger, it doesn't cost anything much more to add on some spring bars with 20s, 22s, whatever might suit, but it's a nice thing to have a little Ziploc bag around that you didn't think about for when you, you, you know, you've got a really, you've got a perfect grip on that spring bar and then it's gone. sailed across the room, hardwood floor rolled in between a slide. You'll never see that spring bar again. So that one's always nice to have and could be something nice if you're already placing an order for some of these tools. I think a decent set of the screwdrivers, and this is where I didn't pick one specifically, but it's these Watchmaker ones with a little carousel. I've seen them for $30. I've seen them for $400. It depends, I guess, on whether or not you make your living doing this or if it's more of just a hobby. But A decent set of those tiny jeweler screwdrivers are a really nice gift. Very thoughtful. They look really cool on your desk and super useful.
Unknown Yeah, I would agree with that. And I would also put in a plug for our friend Terry at Toxic Natos. He sells spring bars and he's been very helpful to me regarding the purchase of spring bars because he has them sort of labeled specifically for certain watches. So if Esslinger is not as, I guess, Specific? Specific about the watches for which these spring bars are made. You know, he's like, this is this will fit a Rolex Datejust. This is for a Submariner. These are, you know, fat Seiko spring bars, etc. So he's also a good guy to go to for that.
Unknown That's great. And if you're if you're buying that, if you're picking up an order from Terry, do not skip on the Toxic NATO's nylon strap. It's absolutely my favorite NATO in the entire world. I own probably 30 or more of them. I really like them. We've talked about them for several years now. So this is not a new one. We don't have to talk about it for too long. But Terry is a great guy. He has a fantastic selection of straps on his site and also spring bars and other things like that. So give Terry a check out if you, if you want to maybe get a little, a little package together, a NATO. He does leather NATOs. He does them all in different, different sort of sizes and styles. I really like his basic nylon strap. I've been wearing one for years. We even did, obviously for those of you who've been listening for a while, we did a sponsorship bundle for the show a couple of years back and that included Straps from Toxic Nados. Terry's great. His straps are great. So that would make a solid crew. I'd be thrilled to get one in my stocking. So why not?
Unknown Yeah. And I'll, I'll mention to an item that you put on the list. That's also NATO related. And that is the crown and buckle Chevron strap.
Unknown Also a great strap.
Unknown I recently got one of those from a friend. And while I would say if I have one gripe, it's that it's a little bit short for my seven and a half inch wrist. The quality of this strap is just tremendous. It's very, close to, I guess, the Nados that Tudor provides on the, um, some of its, you know, black bays and, uh, that nice woven feel and the sliding adjustable buckle.
Unknown Exactly. So it's infinitely adjustable to the extent that there's still material left in your case, it's a little short and, and that would be nice if you like the idea of a Nado, but hate the idea of where it folds over. So in this case, you're kind of wearing a fabric strap. It is a fabric strap. It has lovely hardware. The pricing is excellent. And, uh, and I have a couple of these as well. And Crown & Buckle does a great business. They're a solid option. And the Chevron is essentially a, uh, a copy of the Tudor fabric strap. I wouldn't say it's necessarily the same level. Tudor goes to an insane level with the fabric and the way that it's made. And, um, we can link a video to that, but the, uh, the, the Chevron is a great price point. It works really well. And it's nice to have an infinitely adjustable strap, especially if you're, if you're, if you don't love the way that a NATO has that fold over at the top.
Unknown Yeah. I've got a couple of fun ones. These are definitely not on the useful side, although I guess one of them is more on the fun side. One is the company Haviston, who also makes really nice NATO and NATO style straps. They've released this, you can buy a set of three silicone coasters. So, you know, put your drink on, your coffee or your whiskey or whatever it is. They're made of silicone. You get a set of three. They're basically a view of like a hand-wound movement with the, you know, the plates and the engraving and the mainspring barrel and the balance and that whole bit. And they're just fun. I mean, these are $16 for a set of three. Just I think they would make a really unique, fun gift for a watch enthusiast who also likes a good drink or a cup of coffee. And then the second kind of fun one that I was going to mention is the It's a book called 60 Minutes and it's a collection of quirky watch illustrations by Toyn von Herrebeck, who some of you might know from Instagram as Watches and Pencils. So Toyn does occasional columns or sort of cartoonish sort of posts on Fratello Watches, the blog, and he's collected a series of these kind of whimsical drawings in which he incorporates Kind of watches in sort of comical sketches that illustrate what the watch is all about. So he just launched this book. It's on his website for 70 euros, which is about 75 or $77 US.
Unknown That's great. I would add in another NATO strap. This is from Watch Gecko. This is another one we've talked a bunch about, but it is a rubber NATO. It's called the Zubu Diver 328. It is 42 pounds. So it's a little bit on the more expensive side for a NATO. Really cool if you wanted. If you wanted a NATO but you don't like the fabric or you want a NATO for uses where the fabric's less useful, like maybe wearing on the outside of your jacket during adventuring or in the water or things like that, I think these are killer. It's a great price point. They come in a ton of colors and I've had one for a few years and I really, really like it.
Unknown Nice. One more book. This is a bit of a shameless plug from both of us since we both contributed to it, but it's the new book that was just released earlier this week by Hodinkee. in a partnership with Asselin. It's called Watches, a Guide by Hodinke. So I actually haven't seen the book because I'm in Minneapolis. I think mine is in the mail. But it's a beautiful big sort of coffee table style hardcover book with chapters written by pretty much the entire editorial staff at Hodinke covering a variety of topics and some just beautiful photography. You've handled the book and seen it in person.
Unknown Yeah, it's incredible. I'm super, super proud of it. It's $85. I expected it to cost more. And I'm buying a couple for other people in my life for Christmas. So I think that price is super fair for what you get. I've spent more on watch books, certainly. And this one's written by the entire editorial team. The photography is crazy. The layout's super nice. And then if you've ever held a book by Asselin, one, not only are their books typically several hundreds of dollars, uh, their other watch books have been five and $600 books that come in giant boxes and everything. We went a little bit more accessible with this at 85 bucks. And it is just a big, awesome coffee table book. that covers, let's call it nine different flavors of watches. Jason wrote about divers. I wrote about travel watches, your GMTs, your world timers, and everybody else went kind of wild with an area of, you know, watch manufacturing that they love. So I'm really proud of this. And I know Jason is too. Jason, yours is in the mail. I took care of that. And yeah, I think this would make a killer gift. It is brand new. There's certainly lots to go around and it's being sold through the Hodinkee shop or at, you know, find bookstores that might carry acetylene as well. You'd probably be able to source it there. I think that's a good one. I think that would make a killer, or I'm hoping it makes a killer gift as I've bought it for a couple people. I'll throw in another one that we spoke a bunch about. This is the Vario SG single watch travel case. It's a zippered case. If you remember the Oakley Vaults, it's a zippered case that kind of comes, it's a circle, loosely a circle. It gets wider on one end, which is where the watch head the case of the watch fits. And it holds your watch on its size so it can be a watch with a bracelet that can't lay flat. It can't be really compressed. It holds it nice and tight. There's a piece of foam in there that makes sure that there's not a lot of wiggle room for the watch. And I really like mine. It's become my go-to case. I like to bring my Phoenix anywhere I go and just kind of always have that as an option. Vario sells these in a couple of different colors. You could use them for lots of stuff. It certainly doesn't have to be just for watches and their price from 20 us dollars. So they come in four different colors. They have also traditional like leather watch roll cases. I like these quite a bit more. It depends on how many watches you have to carry. I don't think these are super handy for say storing a watch at home, but they're incredible for having a second watch and just kind of dropping it in your bag. So, uh, definitely a good option there.
Unknown Nice. And then one more watch case. I mean, I think travel cases, you can never have enough of them. At least that's been my experience. And you would also put on the list the Worn and Wound 2 watch case. This is the, it's sort of a stretchy material, bit of, maybe it's like neoprene, folds over, holds a watch on each side. They lay flat and then you use like a cinching cord around it to kind of hold it shut. I would say I use this case more than anything else that I have because Inevitably, I have a watch on my wrist and then maybe, like you said, the Garmin Fenix and maybe one other watch that I travel with or just kind of keep in my desk drawer. So yeah, that's another good one. If a single watch travel case isn't enough, you can bump up to the worn and wound two watch case.
Unknown Yeah, the official name of that is the EDC Watch Fold, but I'd like if you go on their page, you'll see they have tons of different cases. I'm sure they're all lovely. I also adore this case. It's simple, it's rugged, it holds your watches really well, and you could use it to store other things in your bag if you want. You could have a watch in one side and a couple of these tools in the other. That sort of thing. And those are around $70 and they come in a variety of different ones. We'll link for their whole page for travel and storage because they have a ton of nice stuff and we like those guys quite a bit.
Unknown Well, that kind of does it for the non-watch watch gifts. I think we'll blitz through kind of a list of sub-thousand dollar watches that you and I are pretty keen on. In many respects as I think about this, maybe they're not gift ideas as much as they are just kind of, you know, if you get a, let's call it a gift for yourself. Like if you are, you know, you get a bonus at the end of the year from your company, you know, a $500 watch, a $400 watch, even a $900 watch sometimes is not an unreasonable thing to kind of splurge on. if you've had a good year and maybe you're a sales guy and you've gotten a little commissioned or something. Yeah. So these are watches that we're just sort of keen on overall. Maybe we should start with the least expensive, which I think is yours.
Unknown Yeah, I can, I've got a bunch of, so there's a Seiko here that I'll get to in a moment, but I mean, if you're, I will say that if you're buying a watch for another person, like let's say specifically, if you think it'd be fun to buy a watch for a niece, a nephew, a son, a daughter, something like that, consider the really simple stuff. Go look at Swatch, buy something from Swatch in their color. It's going to cost you $50 or maybe $60 or $70. They're killer. You can spend a little bit more if you want to get them into mechanical watchmaking with the System 51, both Hodinkee editions or otherwise. There's tons and tons and tons of those, and they are all really cool. And that's a neat way to introduce someone to watches. If you want to introduce someone to the idea of wearing a watch, and this could even be an adult that just doesn't care that often or hasn't really warmed up to it. Maybe look at something like a Casio. A500 which is I wrote one about the gold tone, which is what I'm kind of partial to but they come in stainless steel At least at one time the stainless steel finish. I found for as little as 17 Canadian So we're not talking about a ton of money, but there's a ton of value there. It's a nice digital watch It would look perfectly fine on anyone's wrist in a modern context It has a nice sliding bracelet. So they're very adjustable. They're very comfortable. They weigh nothing because the case is plastic and they have a backlight, they have an alarm, they have world time, they have a chronograph, they have all the stuff that you would need if you wanted to kind of introduce someone into that. And they can, the, the slider can actually go small enough to fit like a child's wrist, which could be helpful to, uh, uh, to mention, uh, moving up from there. If you, if let's say you're into the two or $300, grandparents gave you some money or, or you kind of pulled up, uh, some gift money. And I think that, uh, I was trying to pick a watch that had what I felt was essentially universal appeal, would look cool now, then, man, woman, it doesn't make any difference who would buy it. And I really love these Seiko SUS Nano Universe watches. So these are JDM-only watches at 36 millimeters. They have kind of a field watch structure. And I want to say they came in seven or eight different varieties, but they have one with a lume dial, which I love. That's super kind of 90s feel. And they did one with a, you know, a plated gold case and or a PVD gold case. And there's a bunch of different ones there. You have to buy them from like Rakuten or a similar retailer out of Japan. But, you know, you're looking at maybe $210 to $280, $290, depending on the version. So I'll link to a story that kind of explains these at a higher level and then maybe even to a source for one of them. I didn't buy from them. I haven't bought one of these before. But these are certainly reputable retailers to my knowledge. And I think these are really cool watch that comes in at even less than the price of say an SKX and certainly are way more simple. They're going to suit smaller wrists, people who don't want to dive watch, things like that. This is very much like a wide avenue play.
Unknown Yeah, nice. Moving up from there, I guess you go to the The classic Seiko diver that we've talked about many, many times in the show. And you have an SKX with a 12-hour bezel mod. I've got an SRP 777 and you've had one of those. Yep. Just a, you know, middle of the road, great. Go anywhere, do anything watch. You can dress it up on maybe a leather strap. You can obviously wear it on the rubber that comes with it. Nados obviously work well on these watches. Just kind of the bone stock, you know, standard diver's watch that everybody knows. Yeah. It's kind of the default.
Unknown Yeah. I think if you can, if you can get your way to what the current street price is for an SRP, although it feels like by numbers, it's a larger watch. I don't think the SRP wears any bigger than an SKX. Maybe it feels like one more millimeter. And yeah, if you can get your way to $300, which is roughly the starting point for a lot of these SRPs, maybe you can find them as low as say $250. That's a killer, killer watch for the money.
Unknown It might be the best deal in watches. I mean, they're just such superior watches. They feel really high quality. They've got some good weight to them. The bezels click nicely. The crown screw in well. They look good. Yep. Yeah. Tremendous. Just tremendous.
Unknown On the rubber, they look like a classic Seiko diver. I would say that anyone you buy these for, it's a great gateway drug. Yeah. So even if it's for yourself, if you've been kind of on the fence, you want a nice TGN sort of watch, but you don't want to spend a crazy amount of money. This is, these are, you know, 300 bucks before you dig up any sales. I'm looking at a few different versions. You know, the 779 is the red blue bezel. The SRPC44 is the gold plated. They come in probably 20 plus SKUs now. Some are limited, some aren't, some are for different markets. So you can have kind of a fun time digging into it, but I really don't imagine that you could buy an SRP777, even if you, even if you feel that sizing, that 43 and a half millimeters, just simply too big for your wrist. That cushion case wears so well. It's one of the few watches that has the sort of similar, um, charm to a Doxa, but we're talking like significantly less money. The loom is incredible. The crown's really nice. The bezel is good. It's a real dive watch. You get day and date. It's these ones, like it's, it's one that we talked about so much when it first came out. And I know that we don't bring it up that often, but it is when someone comes and asks me, I'll still point them to, I'll send them to an SKX 007, whoever still has one. And I'll, and I'll show them an SRP 777 and say like, you know, is this like an aesthetic? Is it roughly where you want to land? And, uh, and yeah, and then, I mean, you have options obviously from Seiko, where if you want the smaller version of the, uh, SKX, you can look at the, uh, the 37 millimeter version, which I can throw a link to. Uh, we, uh, Steven wrote up a great piece about that, uh, not too, too long ago. That of course has been one of the most popular pieces of content on, on Hodinkee. Uh, these are killer watches. They're de facto choices. So yeah, if you want to get into the dive watch world and you want to try something out that it will literally never let you down and could probably go well into your watch appreciating life without service or any trouble, then yeah, look for an SKX or an SRP. I think you'd be thrilled.
Unknown Yeah. The next choice kind of going up the price ladder is from a brand that we both like, and both of the founders of the brand came to our TGN meetup in New York a year ago. It's from Laurier. and it's their new Gemini or Gemini however you want to pronounce that. Technically this doesn't hit holiday time perfectly because the watch is not actually going to be released until January of 2020 but you know you could certainly do an IOU or if it's for yourself no big deal just wait a few extra weeks. I just think this is a beautifully designed watch. It's a hand-wound chronograph with a 12-hour bezel in either a blue or black panda dial. Sorry I guess technically that's a reverse panda because the sub dials are white or a True Panda, which is a white dial with black sub-registers. Just a beautiful watch on a bracelet for $499. I've handled a Laurier in the past, I know you've tried them out, and they're just really well-made watches for the price. This one uses the Seagull ST hand-wound movement, which some people have had their quibbles about that movement. I've had a watch that has that and no issues with it, but just a really sharp, very classic-looking chronograph without being Too much of a sort of an homage piece really nicely nicely done.
Unknown I agree gorgeous design Definitely a solid choice at that price point and if you're if you're into into kind of watches at an enthusiast level It's always fun to support one of these homegrown micro brands and and Laurier's would be Absolutely on the list of contenders.
Unknown I Guess moving up, you know Substantially almost twice the value of that one we jump up to Doxa's sort of slightly less traditional release. Like, well, I shouldn't say less traditional. It's a little bit outside of what you're used to from Doxa. This is the Sub 200. So this was released at Baselworld or shown at Baselworld back in March. It is actually based on their very first watch from the sixties, their first diving watch before the kind of the Doxa watch you everyone knows and loves with the Nodico bezel. This is the Sub 200. And I think what's really appealing about this watch is If you like the slightly more traditional or plain, I guess you'd call it, aesthetic, it's the price. I mean, this is a $990 watch with an ETA 2824 movement, the beads of rice bracelet that we've seen on doxes in the past, and almost a Seamaster 300 kind of look to it. The case has this sort of beautifully swooping sort of lyre-shaped lugs and just kind of a more traditional dial and bezel in a number of colors.
Unknown Yeah, the thing that gets me excited about these is when you and I saw this watch at Basel, you know, the better part of a year ago, it, um, we only saw the black one. And I think the black one is, while it's probably the most popular option, it's also, it just doesn't say that much about itself. It's, it's a perfectly great watch. Um, and at the time I don't think they had locked in on the thousand dollar price point. I think that there was an LE version that was a little bit more and, and, and there was more details to it at the time. And I remember I was photographing the, um, the solid gold T graph. And I'll admit I was more interested at that at a coverage level than I was the sub 200. And then since then, I bet you we've received 20 to 30 messages, emails, DMs saying like, Hey, why didn't you guys talk about the sub 200? Like this is a sub thousand. This is a DOCSIS, DOCSIS on the dial. It now comes in all these other DOCSIS sort of colors, which I'm quite excited about. And sure enough, you go and check it. It's a 42 millimeter stainless steel dive watch with a date. It's really balanced. It looks great. And then if you want a diving star, you can get one yellow and black, right? You want the aquamarine. They've got that Caribbean. They've got that. I think the Caribbean should have more orange on it, but it looks really great. Yeah. Sea Rambler looks incredible. I bet you that one would absolutely, absolutely sing on wrist. And then I got to tell you, I've been like loosely tempted to, to snap up a professional. I don't have an orange dial watch. I've been talking to you about that for a while. And, you know, my general interest in having one, and maybe this is the direction to go. I love that it's a Doxa. I love that they're in their traditional colors. And I love that it's under a grand. I mean, I don't really know what there is to complain about that. Definitely. There'll be people who don't want to buy a very few of you are going to go, Oh, I would love to buy a thousand dollar watch for someone else for Christmas. That's just a ton of money to spend for somebody else.
Unknown Yeah.
Unknown But if you were going to get a gift or, or if we're talking about kind of great watches as, as we round out the end of the year, I think the sub 200 deserves a spot on that list. And it looks incredible. I'm hoping to get one in either for review or, or, or, you know, under the pressure of my own money.
Unknown Cool. Well, I think we'll probably finish with a really maybe unconventional choice, especially for an episode like this. This is the Garmin Fenix 6, a watch that you and I have both had opportunity to use, and we both love it for the past several months. I adore this watch. $900. I wear it every time I'm doing anything active, whether that's kayaking, cross-country skiing, biking, rowing down in the basement. I know you wear it running and cycling.
Unknown I mean, when I'm, when I'm home in Toronto, it's like, I'm at the point now where this is all I wear. Yeah. Uh, I love it. I think it's great. I can do, you know, chronographs timers. Like it's, it's just a UI that I've now gotten really in tune with. It does my notifications. So if I want to kind of not have the phone on me the whole time, I don't have to miss a phone call that I needed or, or an email that I was, you know, actively waiting for, or maybe taking a break as I waited for something like that. And then when you add in the feature tracking, the great battery life, all these sorts of things, I think it's incredible. And I would actually say you could go a little bit wider than the Fenix 6, which is one of their most premium products. The two things I'd mention is they make a ton of other watches.
Unknown They sure do.
Unknown And a lot of them have like, if you can be just like the Fenix is the generalist, you can do almost anything with it that has the newest software. It's constantly getting updates. It does all the back country stuff. It integrates with other systems really well. But if you have a rough idea, even just a rough idea of what activities it is that you would like, there's probably a more focused and less expensive garment for you. And whether that's something like the Instinct where you give up the color screen and the ability to change the straps and all that kind of stuff, maybe that's one option. I'm now at the point where I would much rather have the Phoenix than the Instinct. I know when we first got the Instinct, I was kind of blown away by it because the value at $300. Incredible. Yeah. There's an incredible gift. Yeah. If you find it, find an instinct on sale, that's just a killer watch with like a lot of the hard features and just, it's just in a different format, you know, that has the more simple screen and the, a great wrist presence and those sorts of things, but maybe look into, you know, that not only the Phoenix six, but I mean, they make a Phoenix six at 42 millimeters, which is probably be incredible. I that's one I would love to see in person and play with a bit at some point. And then there's a whole, cascading effect of other watches that are maybe designed more for running and less for hiking or adventuring and these sorts of things. So maybe just kind of bring yourself up to speed a little bit on Garmin's website. And then maybe if you don't need the GPS tracking or the ABC functionality, the altimeter barometer compass, maybe it's more about fitness tracking and getting your notifications. They have solutions that are a little bit more limited than that. And maybe don't even replace your watch. They're more of a band for your other wrist.
Unknown Yeah, and I've got the Descent Dive Computer, and if you're a diver and you're looking to upgrade your computer, I can't say enough good things about the Descent. I guess the moral of the story is, for $900, say, for the Phoenix 6 or any number of garments from the $300 Instinct up to the Descent, which is $1,500 or something around that, these are watches that are probably and maybe not a gift for somebody else. Maybe it's that what we talked about, you get a bonus, you've had a good year, you want to splurge a little bit. Maybe you're so saturated with mechanical watches and those collectible watches that you keep on a winder, you keep in your watch box. Maybe this is the time to kind of dip a toe into sort of the sports sort of connected watch. I think Garmin is doing it better than arguably anybody else. And to me, I was skeptical. I'm a guy who never thought I would be wearing a watch like this even a year ago. But as soon as I dipped into this Garmin sort of end of the pool, I'm a devotee. I mean, I love this stuff. It's actually changed the way I work out. I love to watch it. To me, it feels really well-made. It feels like a tool watch. The quality of the build, the straps are tremendous. If you saw these straps on a Seiko or a Doxa or an Omega, you'd think these are great straps. Just really, really nice products. And I think, you know, it's very fitting that we kind of end or get close to the end of the year talking about the Garmin Fenix because I think it's a watch that has arguably been one that that has has changed us for the better over the course of this past year.
Unknown For a long time the Garmin stuff was something I put on when I was going to go for a run or if I was going for a hike and that's still definitely where they feel the sweetest. But now it's especially it's a lot of the smart watch functionality it's the stuff where you need to be connected but you also want something that I can bang on a washing machine and not care about. Like when I'm home, I'm kind of hustling around. I'm trying to get laundry done. I'm going on another trip in two days. And I I'm wearing a watch like for pure functionality. And these are like, this has become the absolute like tool watch for both the interesting parts of my life, the maybe maybe the hiking and the running and these things that are going on some adventure, but also these like really basic parts of my life, like making sure I don't forget a load of laundry in the washer that then has to be washed again because I went to bed or something like that. And it gets kind of funky in there to making sure that I don't burn food. You know, I'm not the world's greatest cook. I'm probably much closer to the world's worst cook. And you get you get all these sorts of functions in there that I find really tractable while also managing a lot of other detail. You want to know the weather. You want to know, you know, you want to kind of track various things about your your body and your fitness. And it's all in one package. And as soon as you get used to that UI, it feels so simple and straightforward and you have access to these different pieces of data. And then if you don't want any of it, either just take it off or just put it in do not disturb mode. And it just becomes just kind of a nice lightweight digital watch that that, you know, can kind of keep you in or not in touch, depending on what you're looking for.
Unknown Yeah. Well, that kind of puts a button on the kind of our holiday watch lovers gift guide.
Unknown Yeah. So, I mean, it's a fast blast through that list. I'm happy with it. I think there's everything from spring bars to $900 sports, smart watches and everything in between. I think a lot of this stuff is less than 50 or 60 bucks and would make a fantastic gift for the person who you either want to get into watches or, you know, is already into watches and maybe just doesn't have a decent case or a great tool, or, or maybe even in some cases, maybe they're missing a watch and that's your, that's level of, of kind of gifting that you're at. So. Any questions or concerns, always thegreatnadoatgmail.com. There's no way that we would get to everything, but this is definitely a pretty solid cross-section of the things that we would like to give or even receive as gifts in this part of the season. And I'd be more than happy to hear about any that you think we missed on the list. Jason, what do you think about some final notes?
Unknown Yeah, let's dive into it. I'll go first. So this is a bit of a follow-up. I think several episodes ago, I might've talked about this book, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea. about this kind of eccentric, brilliant engineer from Columbus, Ohio, who set out to bring up the lost treasure of a steamship that sank in the Atlantic off the Carolina coast back in the 1800s. It had a big load of gold from the San Francisco Gold Rush. The ship was called the SS Central America, and it went down the West Coast through the Panama Canal, came up through the Caribbean, and made it almost to its destination, which was, I believe, New York City, but it sank in a hurricane off the North Carolina coast. People knew about this, but this guy, this was back in the 1980s and 90s. The technology was not quite there for salvaging or much less finding the ship, but he was very committed to it, raised a lot of money from donors and investors who were promised a piece of the treasure if he could bring it up. That book, Ship of Gold in the Deep Blue Sea, is just a great read on its own, but it ends sort of at the end of that project or when they had started to bring up the treasure. I have a follow-up article that I'm going to talk about today, which is called The Curse of the Ship of Gold, and it does a bit of a recap of that story about this brilliant engineer named Tommy Thompson. But what happened after the end of that book is as remarkable as the finding of the wreck and bringing up of the treasure because in the subsequent 30 years there were all sorts of lawsuits from the insurance companies that wanted to claim a piece of that wreck to the investors that feel like they've been bilked out of their investment money when they didn't get what they were promised. But Thompson himself kind of went a little bit crazy and actually was on the run and was a fugitive from justice. Um, and when he was finally caught, which is an interesting story in itself, where he was hiding with his girlfriend, um, he has to this day refused to tell where he's hidden a bunch of the gold. Um, which, which just kind of lends such a weird coda to the whole story and kind of, um, you know, a bit of, it's, I guess, dark humor, I guess you can call it funny, but it's a bit tragic as well. Um, what, what became of him and the whole story. And this article is on a website called narratively. And it's a very long scrolling article with multiple parts. And there's sort of some interactive stuff along the way, lots of great photos. And if you don't want to sit and read the whole thing, you can actually listen to the story. So it's actually a downloadable audio file that you can play or just stream on their website. So just a great follow up to what I think is one of the great sort of treasure hunting stories of the modern era. And I know last time We talked about the treasure hunting story on the Pacific side of the U.S. over in Monterey Bay. This is another kind of in that vein. So check that out.
Unknown Very cool. This is definitely a neat story. I'm part way into it and really, really enjoying it. And actually my pick is kind of adjacent to the same thing and also touches in on if any of you want to buy Buy old James a Christmas gift, I wouldn't mind a bubble sub. So this is a, this is kind of a cross section or a look at the history and development of these personal submarines called bubble subs. And it was done by the New York times. The photography is really gorgeous. These subs are like one of the coolest things in the world to me. I just love the idea that these are something that like some people can buy and obviously not me or Jason, but maybe, you know, maybe research outfits or, or very well healed nerds could could get their way into one of these amazing bubble subs and it takes you kind of through the history of some of these the deep rovers and uh some of these deep ocean engineering submarines which is you know partly developed in canada and you have triton submarines and and it takes you through kind of the birth of this company and the work they go through to make these subs and what the subs are capable of and what the market is doing around them And it's, uh, I don't know. It's fascinating. I, I, uh, I love it because it's, uh, you know, it's a vehicle, I've got a thing for vehicles and it's a vehicle that takes you underwater. It's just, I can't imagine any greater like rich guy thing than your own submarine. And, uh, and you look at some of these, some of these photos of these Triton 3300, uh, slash three submarines, uh, during testing with, with, uh, Triton. It's, uh, I mean, it's just the stuff out of, uh, like Cousteau, Cousteau's dreams. It's just these, uh, amazing and they're very cool you know they're yellow and they have this giant clear bubble i remember having like lego uh lego models that were similar to this back in the day and uh talk about something that really captures my uh the sort of childlike love of the ocean the idea that you could hop in a submarine and go down to six or seven thousand feet uh it's just uh it's crazy and it's a great story i highly recommend it
Unknown Yeah, I feel like there's been a bit of a renaissance in deep sea exploration, or at least an uptick in the interest. And I think, you know, earlier this year, I got to meet and we talked about Victor Vescovo, who partnered with Triton for his Five Deeps expedition, where he visited the points, the five deepest points in the planet's oceans. You know, as well as just a lot of this, I don't know if the technology is becoming more accessible, or if there's just more rich guys who kind of want to do this kind of stuff. Um, I see it as a positive trend. I think, uh, you know, we've, we've spent a lot of time looking at outer space and I think this, this really, um, is almost more interesting to me to kind of see what's at the bottom of the sea.
Unknown Really cool. I agree. And I, it makes you wonder if Triton has press loaners.
Unknown Yeah. Oh yeah.
Unknown Hey, I'm sure it bored cars that costs more than one of these submarines. So let's work on that.
Unknown Maybe we get lucky TGN 2020. We'll do something. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So that wraps up the, Two-episode series on holiday gifting and gifts for watch enthusiasts. As always, thanks so much for listening and a huge thanks to AORUS for supporting this show and for their efforts to improve the world's oceans. You can check out more information about AORUS' Clean Oceans Project and their limited edition watches at AORUS.ch. You can hit the show notes via Hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at J.E. Stacey and be sure to follow the show at TheGrenado. If you have any questions for us, please write TheGreyNado at gmail.com. And please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
Unknown And we leave you with this quote from noted submarine enthusiast, Sylvia Earle. With every drop of water you drink, every breath you take, you're connected to the sea. No matter where on earth you live, most of the oxygen in the atmosphere is generated by the sea.