The Grey NATO - Ep 98 - Collection Inspection Vol 8

Published on Thu, 16 Jan 2020 06:00:10 -0500

Synopsis

In this episode, Jason and James discuss their latest watch acquisitions as part of their ongoing "Collection Inspection" series. James talks about his recently obtained Oris Hodinkee Limited Edition Divers 65, highlighting its unique features like the handwound movement, screw-down crown, and attractive gray colorway. Jason shares details about his vintage 1968 Omega Speedmaster Professional, touching on its historical significance, robust build, and versatility across different strap options. They explore the appeal and collectibility of the iconic Speedmaster in relation to its role in space exploration.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey Nado, a Houdinki podcast. It's a loose discussion of travel, diving, driving, gear, and most certainly watches. My name is James Stacy. This is episode 98. We thank you for listening. And I'm here with Jason. How's it going, man? Hey, good.
Jason Heaton Yeah, really good. It's, uh, you know, well into the new year and got some, got some things cooking and You know, despite the kind of gloomy weather here, it's all's well.
James Stacey Yeah, you know, it's kind of a kind of a mixed bag. It's been a little bit colder. Is it pretty cold in Minneapolis?
Jason Heaton It's been a roller coaster yesterday. It was boy, it was really chilly. I don't know what it was in centigrade, but it was in the single digits Fahrenheit. And today it's it's pushing the thawing point. So zero centigrade, 32 Fahrenheit. And yeah, so you don't quite know how to dress on a given day.
James Stacey But yeah, I'm feeling the same way here. It's kind of up and down. It's, you know, it's below freezing today. I was just out running some errands and it got real cold, got pretty chilly on my walk around. My fingers got fairly cold, but yeah, made it back in time to make a nice, strong cup of coffee. And now for a quick record. Yeah. I know the other thing that you've done as far as achievements since the last time we talked is while my Lego Defender remains in its 2,500 plus pieces, you have yours assembled.
Jason Heaton Yes, so Ghoshani and I worked on it together. It's the first time. So when I did the Saturn V rocket, I did it by myself. And it certainly was fun, but it was fun to do it together. And we did it over, I think, about four nights. It took about three hours each night. So, you know, we might have worked slower. I was talking to a guy who did his in one eight-hour push, which seemed like I'd have, you know, be cross-eyed by the end of that. Yeah, it was fun to kind of do it in modules and then kind of set it aside, come back to it the next night. We were sitting by the fire and doing it every day. Um, it came together. We had a bit of a crisis on day three. I had, you know, we were well into it and then it came time to attach a piece. And I realized that way before this I had installed one of the kind of the cross members on the frame of the truck. Uh, I was off by one hole and that was going to jeopardize the remainder of the build. So we actually had to backtrack and disassemble all the way back to that point because, you know, If anyone's done these complicated Lego models, they're done in steps and you can't just sort of start pulling stuff apart because you won't know where things go once you put it back together. I think that's kind of the downfall, not downfall, but the negative aspect of these is that you can't just creatively patch stuff together. You have to kind of do it in order. So I had to backtrack and take everything apart back to that level and move that one piece over by one hole and then reassemble it. So all's well, it's together. I'm discovering a few little things that need to be pushed together, tightened up, adjusted a little bit, but it looks really, really good. It was really a lot of fun.
James Stacey We got to do the old 10, 50, 100. shake down your drive at 10 miles and then see what falls off, drive another 50, see how it falls off.
Jason Heaton Yeah, exactly.
James Stacey But yeah, I'm glad it's coming together. I'm eyeballing a couple of big Lego boxes that I need to get to eventually. And I just, man, I had a kind of a busy holidays. I didn't, you know, the few times that I had a night, um, where I wasn't driving really late back from family or friends or something like that. I really did just kind of like sit still and listen to music or watch a movie or something. I find that the Lego thing can be a task, depending on what your mental state is.
Jason Heaton Well, as well as the space required. I mean, once you lay it out, you're kind of, you know, you're kind of committed, you know, unless you're going to shovel it all back into a Ziploc. The whole thing is about organizing by color, by shape or whatever you want to do. And then once you have it spread out, you're kind of set for the next few hours, you know, so if you're going to read a book, you know, you, you know, that that's simple enough, but like committing to this is, uh, you gotta be ready for it.
James Stacey Yeah, I did. I did, uh, you know, kind of warm up my Lego-ing fingers. I, um, you know, I've talked quite a bit in the, on some past episodes about the, uh, speed champions, these little cheaper car sets, uh, that mimic, you know, real life vehicles. Yeah. And they recently, you know, announced a handful of new ones, including like a Ferrari F8 Tributo and a couple bigger sets, including like a Lamborghini one and a Nissan GT-R Nismo and that kind of thing. But the one that caught my eye and I ordered it immediately was a little 85 Audi Sport Quattro S1, like the very end, tail end Group B, yellow and white with the giant air dam and the huge wing and Oh, yeah.
Jason Heaton The car looks like a Lego in real life.
James Stacey It really it really does. And the scale, I would say, is maybe 10 percent bigger for those who have bought the 911, the turbo, the three liter turbo or the what's the other one? Oh, the F40, which I spoke about in the past. So it's a little bit bigger than that. But then again, in my mind, there's a chance that this car is actually kind of bigger than an F40, which isn't a huge car to begin with. So I had a really good time putting that together. It's got a lot of colors and stickers and it's got these really rad like triple headlights. Triangular triple headlights on the big rally lamps on the front. So cool. It's another really good set. So my love for Speed Champions continues. And you know, the nice thing about that is it's maybe like a 30 minute commitment.
Jason Heaton Oh, that's awesome.
James Stacey You know, I think it was maybe a hundred and 70 pieces, something like that. Oh, great. Yeah. So that's on the mantel. I'm slowly building out a really beautiful car collection. If anyone from Lego is listening, I wouldn't mind a 288 GTO or maybe a short wheelbase. If you could make it swoopy enough, this is tough with Lego, but a 33 Tipo. would be pretty rad. Any old Lancias would be really cool. If you get me like an old Fulvia or a Giulietta, I think there's an endless world of cars that they could choose. And the thing that I really like is... What gets me excited is, yeah, it's not that surprising that they would do something like an old 911, but it is pretty cool that they went and did the F40. I think it's really cool that they went ahead and did things like uh, the 68 Mustang fastback, which is in, uh, dark Highland green or this S one, uh, Quattro. Uh, I think it's cool because that's not like a modern car in any way. Like it's not even a modern, there's not even a modern expression of an S one Quattro. So it's, it's one thing to do a brand new Ferrari, like this F eight or the GTR Nismo, which is like a, I don't know, a 200 year old sports car at this point, it's been around for a long time. Yeah. Um, but it's another thing to do with like a weird rally car from the mid eighties. So I was thrilled when I saw it, it's yellow, it's white. It's kind of like, it's, it is just all hard angles. So it came together really well.
Jason Heaton Yeah. You know, in a strange way, putting together the Lego defender inspired me or boosted my confidence to go out and actually tinker with, with my full size Land Rover, my old series three. And, um, we had a run of decent weather. I guess it was last week or the week before and I had gotten a new carburetor, um, a Weber carburetor for, for the Land Rover. I had some issues with the old carburetor, so I, I ordered a new one and I put that in and then I ordered a new, um, PCV valve and installed that as well. And I don't know something about like in the evenings putting together the Lego defender defender and then going out and working on the real thing. Um, like the next afternoon was like strangely compatible. It was almost like this micro macro level of. of confidence that was great. I patched an exhaust manifold leak that I had and I was kind of out there every day doing one little job and then in the evening building another module on the Lego version. And boy, I got to say my old truck is now running, it runs like a new one. I mean, I can hardly hear it idling. It's just purring. It's nice and quiet. A new carburetor makes a huge difference. Somebody said, Oh, you should just rebuild the old one. And I just, I didn't have the the space or the aptitude to sit and fiddle with that. And plus I do it out in the driveway. So I kind of have to do things that I can fix within a couple of hours. But, uh, for sure that was really, that was really rewarding. Um, but the back to the Lego defender, the, the, the pieces, the, the way this thing goes together, I mean, it has a functional gearbox forward and reverse high and low. Um, you know, the steering mechanism works, there's you joints and ball joints and, um, working differentials front and back. I mean, the amount of engineering that goes into these things is tremendous. And I know we've, probably overstate our welcome talking about Legos for the past couple of episodes, uh, going back to our, our holiday gift guide. But, uh, yeah, I, I, I can see, you know, it's funny. I went down a little bit of a rabbit hole to there. There's actually web forums now for, you know, Lego enthusiasts, just like there are watch nerds and anything else. And, uh, I'm not headed down that rabbit hole. I just don't have enough horizontal space in the house to build too much of this stuff, but, uh, it's, it's a lot of fun. I recommend it. And it seems like it resonated with a lot of people too. I posted a photo on, Instagram and, you know, just kind of blew up my feed. So it's, uh, clearly a very popular thing.
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And, uh, you know, speaking, speaking, uh, uh, speaking of rabbit holes and online forums and all that kind of stuff, I, uh, I I've embarked since the last episode, uh, maybe a little bit before that, but I wasn't ready to talk about it, but in the, just in the last few weeks embarked on a fairly deep dive into kind of entry-level hi-fi. So for years, I had been using a Harman Kardon AVR, kind of a 5.1 receiver, but just running it in stereo mode with two Polk Audio RTI6s. These are speakers and a receiver that I bought when I used to work for an electronics retailer in Canada, and I got them at like an insane discount. And at the time, it was like the most I'd ever... If it had been at its list price, would have been an extreme amount of money for a kid in university, or at least a kid in my scenario in university. And I kept them for a really long time. And then over time, I just been kind of like messing around with this or that. And then my brother was in town over the Christmas break. And he had me do like an AB test between Spotify's high bitrate and Tidal, which is lossless, and in some cases, right off of the master. And the difference was insane, even on what is not a hi-fi system at all. Like it's not that powerful. It's not, you know, it's, it's two big speakers and a big, I have a huge paradigm subwoofer from several purchases ago. And then this receiver, which is more designed for movies and television than music. Yeah. And it sounded insane. Like the difference was notable to anyone, even someone with my tinnitus and, and everything else, it just sounded incredible. So then I was like, well, now I immediately ended my Spotify subscription and and started up a deal with Tidal and I'd been really liking it. And then I was messing around with the speakers and I added, I ordered in a really simple DAC to kind of translate some of the stuff from the Chromecast audio, which is the Tidal interface into this receiver, which doesn't have a DAC of any note, which is your digital to analog converter. So when you're taking a streaming signal and sending it to copper wire, and to the speakers and such, you use a DAC, or at least at some point in the system, regardless of what you're doing, there is a DAC. Yeah. And this way, if you're supplying via something like a Toslink or an optical cable, you can choose what DAC is actually making that translation. So I had added in a DAC and I was fiddling with the speakers and I noticed one of the two RTA6s, one of these two Polks sounded just terrible, but it was on the other side of the room from where I normally sit, so it's not the speaker that faced me directly. Yeah. It was down maybe 40% on volume. It sounded really muddy. I couldn't quite tell if one speaker or, you know, it has a tweeter element and a larger woofer element. I couldn't tell if either of them was blown. There was no clicking or popping, which is more common to that when that happens. So anyways, I figured, well, I don't really know what to do with these at the moment, but I figured I would look into a reasonable way of replacing them. I had been planning on buying a new amp for some time, a proper stereo amplifier, probably something like a Yamaha 801 for people who are in the space. And now I figured I would look into other options. So in an attempt to make a long story short, I then spent the next 15 to 18 days or whatever it was, just reading online about anything I could within, say, a price point of a couple thousand dollars. And I ended up finding these speakers, which are made by a British company called CAF. And anyone who's into audio at this point knows where I'm going. It's really only one of two directions. I originally had been looking at the LS50s, which are passive speakers. You power them with an external amplifier, like most people's stereo. And then the company also makes two active speakers, which operate more like a monitor. So the speaker has its own amplifier enclosed within the housing, and you don't have to run an amplifier. And they have an entry level for them, which is called the LSX. It's a smaller speaker. It has an amp built into each speaker. And I would say these are maybe less than, you know, they're maybe 10 inches tall, maybe a little bit less than that. So they're not very big. They sound incredible. And then if you want, you can spend, you know, in the realm of double the price and into the 2000 to 3000 Canadian range for an LS50 that's also wireless. So now you just plug the power into the wall. for each speaker and you do the rest on an app. And I fiddled around for a while and I decided that because I have a separate subwoofer which is compatible with these speakers, you can actually just subwoofer out from the back of the main speaker. I picked up to test the KEF LSX system, mostly because I'm operating in a fairly small room and I didn't want to put all my eggs in one basket on a giant speaker system that doesn't have an amp that I could, you know, upgrade over time. You end up fairly locked into the app and everything else for tuning the speakers. Yeah. If you go that route. So I thought the safest bet was to, you know, to try the LSX. I didn't really know what to expect. You know, I was used to, uh, some pretty solid sound. I had heard the LS50s at some point, but on a very cheap amp and they sounded really good. Not amazing, but again, that's the amps problem, less the speaker. I got these LSX home and they kind of blew me right out of the water. I mean, they sound ridiculous. I can't believe a speaker this size sounds so big and so nice. And I've really just been loving them. They're certainly not a cheap speaker. In Canada, we're looking at something like they were on sale for about $1,300. So that's about $1,000. I think list price is something more like $1,500, $1,400. These are things that do go on sale occasionally. And then again, just so people understand for that money, it's two closed unit speakers that can actually operate wirelessly independent of each other. But for the proper fidelity, you run a little network cable between the two.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And then each plugs into power and you do the rest on an amp. There's a remote control, but there's no power button on the speakers. Oh, okay. There's no controls on the speakers themselves. Everything else is done via your phone or the remote control. Wow. They're really gorgeous. They sound like I literally can't kind of can't get over how they sound. I've moved them because they're so easy to move because there's no amplifier. I've moved them to various rooms in my house to hear them. And they sound great. They work really well with Tidal. All I'm doing is they have a whole system built in for streaming. Like you can use the Kef app to stream directly to the speaker. I'm not doing that. I've gone a little bit of a circuitous route by using a Chromecast and an optical cable. And that way I can tell my Google Home to pause the song or to go to another song or resume the song without picking up my phone. Yeah. Which makes it a lot easier as I have Google Home speakers in my home, or I guess they're called Google Nest speakers at this point. So that way I can preserve the Chromecast ability. It also means that I can make the KEF setup part of a home network of speakers. So as I walk from one room to another, I have several stereos kind of playing at once, whether it's these little Google Nest Minis or like a larger system. If you're in the world of wanting a higher end, but this is still entry level when it comes to audiophile, I think even audiophiles would probably consider this more hi-fi than audiophile. This is about as light a lift as you can imagine in terms of like wiring and setup and general understanding. You open the app, it asks you a few questions about your room and it tunes the speakers live. Uh, so you can tell it how far it is away from a wall. If it's on a desk, how much desk is in front of the speaker, that sort of thing. And in the whole time, it's just kind of tuning to what inputs you're giving. Um, but ultimately for the money, I'm not sure you could find something that's going to sound a lot better. Um, maybe a single speaker system like the, the, the phantom from a Diavolet. Uh, but that's also more, it's, it costs more money than the calf.
Jason Heaton So, yeah, I realize it's more of an audio experience than a visual one, but maybe as a companion to the podcast, you could
James Stacey do like an instagram story of the of the setup and then you know save it to your feed or something and link out to it so we can check out what how this all comes together i'd love to see it yeah absolutely i could i could put that together definitely all i'm still at the point where i'm trying to decide if it's if it's the direction that i definitely want to go i'm testing it in a few different rooms all that kind of thing but if it ends up being something where i'm you know i don't intend to uh to take it back
Jason Heaton Oh, I see.
James Stacey Yeah. Then, then, yeah, I think for sure. Right now I'm exceedingly happy with it, but it is more money than I would typically spend on a system that offers really no additional, like it's a super flexible system in its design. But of course, anyone who knows audio knows that typically it's a component system. So you would have one system that does the streaming, one that does the amplify, one that is your speakers, wires that connect all of them. This kind of doesn't do most of that. Oh, yeah. So if you're going to go that route of either the LS50 wireless or the LSX from KEF, you are buying two kind of closed things. And let's say, you know, a lot of people, this is a very common thing that pops up on Reddit or other reviews is like, what happens if KEF doesn't have the app in 10 years?
Unknown Yeah, right.
James Stacey Then what do you do with these speakers? And yeah, I think that's a fair point. And I also think that for right now, I'm kind of buying for the lighter side of my needs. And if I ever need more, I think I would go back to a traditional setup where you've got something like a Yamaha 801 and then some LS50s or maybe some BW607s or something like that. Something kind of like standard, the Seamaster, the Submariner of really decent audio, the known quantities. Yeah, sure. For sure. But yeah, I'm definitely happy to put some up on Instagram. I've actually just been so busy, I haven't been doing any Instagram, kind of taking a mental break from it. So unless a new post goes up on Hodinkee, I've really been just kind of skipping it for a while.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah, I kind of took that approach this year, too. I'm just like, you know, rather than sort of daily wrist shots or just how my life is going in general, I'm just kind of waiting on interesting stuff that happens. You know, we'll see how that goes.
James Stacey I'm sure that. Yeah, I agree. I kind of like I'm not really checking it that much. I'm down to maybe less than 20 minutes a day, um, on the platform. And most of that is like replying to comments or, or DMS when a new post goes live. So I think that's a pretty fair spot. And I'm sure that especially for you and I, as we progress through the year with jobs that have actual things to share, uh, then that'll change. I mean, if I, if I end up on a press trip or something like that, I'm sure there'll be plenty, plenty of posting, but when I, when I'm just kind of kicking around at home, I'm trying not to spend that much time on the platform as a whole.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah. But yeah, so that was my very long rant about, uh, some rather expensive speakers. I think if you're not in the world of caring about home audio, then the idea that someone spent that kind of money on two, just two, two small speakers is insane. Uh, but there's definitely going to be some people in the audience that are into the auto audio file, the hi-fi kind of gear. And all I would say is if you're in a shop and you happen to walk by and you see Kef, it's K E F just has to hear Oh, yeah. Because it's just kind of surprising that there's like it's an insane amount of detail. It's very bright. It feels like you're listening to two huge speakers that are very relaxed. But I think you're actually just listening to two small speakers that are working real hard is how I would describe it. But so far, I've been loving it. It pairs up really nicely with a subwoofer. So you get this kind of a lot of separation between the various elements of the music and and kind of kind of back into a space where I'm actually like sitting in my living room, just listening to music. maybe flipping through a magazine, and I've been enjoying that quite a bit.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah, that's great. Well let's say we jump into our main topic today, which is revisiting a series that we started way back at the beginning of TGN, which is our Collection Inspection, which for people that don't know, maybe some new listeners, is a series in which we each take a watch that we own. It doesn't have to be a long-standing one or anything new or whatever, it's just something we own. talk about it, kind of talk about what, how we came by it and what we like about it. So today it's volume eight. We've, we've done seven of these before and why don't, uh, why don't you kind of introduce yours and we can sort of bat it back and forth. But, uh, yeah, why don't you kick it off?
James Stacey Yeah, actually, you know, we are at volume eight, so we've done seven watches previously. It's been about six months since we've done a collection inspection. And in that time I've really only added one watch. Uh, and I am kind of getting towards the outer limits of the number of watches that I own to the extent where I would love to extol their value. Some of them are just kind of transient. They're coming and going. Um, but yeah, so for today it's, it's actually the watch I try and only buy one watch a year, certainly one watch of any value. Like if we're talking more than say $500, um, I try and keep it to one a year just to, just to slow the pace. Um, because I really don't like selling watches. It's, it's an uncomfortable thing to do. And if they're much over $500, then it's also, you're at a value, at least in my world, where you do have to sell them if you don't want them anymore. It's not something I'm just gonna give away. I need to be able to pass that value on to other things in my life, whether it's bills or another watch or something like that. So with this one, this is a watch I'm actually really proud to own, and that's the Houdinki AORUS Diver 65 Limited Edition. So this is the one that Houdinki designed with Oris as a special edition of 250 pieces. And I know I'd seen some stuff on Instagram directed at you and I, Jason, about whether or not we were involved with the design of this watch as it has a gray dial and a gray bezel. I'll start this off as being on the record that, um, by the time you and I saw even an image of this watch, it was done. Yeah. Uh, it was shared with us, you know, at an NDA level, but long after there was any design changes to be made, it was going into production. they already knew when it would be available, those sorts of things. So while this is very much the AORUS 65 that I would have designed, it had no... There was no involvement from Jason and I in the creation of this watch. For me, it's also my first... I had been with Hodinkee for a couple of years when this watch launched and had kind of increasingly integrated with the team there in New York, and I wanted something to kind of commemorate that as, you know, as would also be my first Hodinkee LE. I hadn't purchased any of the previous ones. This one is much more in my price range, you know, comfort zone for spending on a watch. And, you know, it retailed for $2,300. And I think the $250 that were made lasted on the website for less than maybe even five minutes, certainly no more than 10. So really not an easy watch to get. It's something that as soon as I saw what was up, I wanted a certain number. and I got my number, and I've been just hugely happy with it. I think it's a weird watch. It has some quirks, and I like that Oris and Hodinkee went to a certain level to differentiate it from other 65s, even other limited edition 65s.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I agree. I mean, I thought it was a really spectacular watch. I have actually not seen it in person yet. I'll be seeing you in a couple of weeks, and I'm assuming you'll be wearing this one. I will, absolutely. Yeah, so I can't wait to check it out. Yeah, you're right. I mean, the Diver 65 has been the platform for a few special editions. I think there was the Movember one, the Red Bar one, and the Revolution one are the three that I can think of. But this one really stands out, you know, due to the hand wound, screw down crown, no date, and then that beautiful grayed out both dial and bezel. I just think it just ticks so many boxes for me. I like the Diver 65, but I like this sort of muted color way. I find the watch to be sort of a bold, sort of vintagey, kind of quirky expression. And I think this kind of mutes it down a little bit and makes it just look like it kind of has the same charm that your old Skin Diver, your old Silvana has in a much newer, obviously in a modern expression.
James Stacey You know what? I absolutely agree. And it's a little bit bigger at 40 millimeters than the Skin Diver and nothing presents itself kind of out of balance of anything else. It's a nice thin bezel. It's a lot of dial, has a beautiful kind of bubbled crystal. Of course, for this one, no date, kind of a faux tan aged loom, which I'll certainly hate on with lots of watches. And when I saw this one, I liked it. I don't wish it was a white treatment. I think this really seals the deal. It's a very matte kind of you know, expression of what a vintage watch looks like. I really love the ghosted bezel. And I like that this is kind of not an ultra thin, but a thinner version because they opted to go with a hand wound version of the movement. So you have no automatic winding mass, which does bring the thickness down by something like 1.3, 1.4 millimeters. And on wrist, it wears really, really well. I did get a lot of feedback when the watch first came out about people who were pretty skeptical of the idea of a screw-down crown also being a hand winder. And I actually would agree with that if this is the watch you're planning to wear, like, every day. You might get to a point where you could, you know, kind of wear down the crown just from use, even if you're very careful with the crown. In my case, no watch is an everyday watch. The closest thing I have these days to an everyday watch is a Garmin. But with this, this is a watch I put on and wear for a couple days at a time. And the hand winding is something I actually find very specific and something that I really enjoy about the watch. If this was going to be your day-to-day watch, I might actually... I mean, obviously, we're talking about a watch that was sold out almost immediately, so I'm not really making a recommendation about whether you can or can't buy this watch. You can't. But if you were looking at wanting... the Oris, I think one of the other ones that's automatic, if this is going to be your daily, everyday in and out watch, an automatic is absolutely the right choice for a dive watch. It is kind of an esoteric decision to go with a hand winder and a screw down crown. And with that, every time, you know, that I unscrew it and wind it, I am very kind of cognizant of the fact that I'm very careful about re-threading the crown because it is just a crown that's going to get more use than it would on an automatic.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, I can't think of the only other hand wound with a screw down. diver that I can think of is the Janos Avisos, the kind of one man brand out of Greece that I reviewed last year. And yeah, I got the same comments on that story when I wrote that up. People have concerns about that. And I, you know, I don't know, I assume that there are some intelligent and talented watchmakers at work at Aorus who thought this through and maybe considered that, but deemed that it was a safe choice. And I think it makes for Something unique. I like hand-wound watches. I have a few of them. I've got the couple of Doxa divers that are hand-wound and then a Speedmaster, of course, but I don't know. It's just something fun about it, especially with no date, you know, to pick it up and just give it a few spins and kind of get it going again. It's just a very tactile feel that's really cool and it's neat to see that done on a watch that is, you know, out there in the modern market that everybody kind of knows and loves and can have this little bit of a little bit of a tweak on that formula.
James Stacey Absolutely. I agree. And the other thing I like is, this is an Oris. It's a brand that we really like. It's a brand that had been on my radar for a few years where I really wanted to find the one that spoke directly to me to pick up. And the fact that I was able to combine... Need is, of course, a strong word, but my want for a watch that connected me with Hodinkee and a watch that was from Oris, and the fact that they happened to make one in roughly the right time frame, worked out really well. I think it's killer. I think it wears like an old watch, but of course, I don't ever worry about it, which is really nice. You would have no qualms at all about getting it wet, taking it diving, whatever. It wears beautifully on a NATO, like perfect. It wears really nice on the included steel. It wears really good. I have it on the Jubilee, that kind of fake Hadley Roma Jubilee that I have for the Explorer 2. And it looks really weird and cool on that as well. And I'll post a wrist shot for that in the show notes on Hodinkee if you want to see what it looks like, or I'll put it on my Instagram as well. Yeah, I like a watch that can go on almost any strap, which this has. I can't find one that doesn't seem to work. It looks really killer on an old rubber, like the Tropic stuff or, you know, maybe the thinner, like the toxic version of the Isofrane. Yeah. I wore it for weeks and weeks and weeks on one of the Bonetto Centurini Zulu Diver 328 straps, the Watch Gecko straps in gray. It's a really flexible, really subtle design. And a lot of this is trying to buy these things. If you're gonna buy them, at least have some sort of emotional connection to the watch. Yeah. And this one has that for me. So I think for 2019, definitely a watch I'm happy to have in uh... you know a small but uh... important collection to me and uh... and and and just kind of a cool watch i think oris hit it out the park with uh... making it something a little bit different than the normal ones but still retaining all of the charm yeah that's a real winner that was a good choice for today yeah i'll certainly bring it along when i see at the end of the month and uh... and you can uh... give it a run i've got uh... uh... a couple interesting new things coming from toxic that i think will suit it pretty well oh nice awesome yeah so it's
Jason Heaton It seems that we both chose hand-wound watches today. That was not coordinated, and they're very different watches. They certainly are. But I, you know, we get a lot of listener questions about, you know, watch maintenance, watch ownership, watches we own, and you forward the ones that pertain to me directly to me, and the one that seems to get the most questions is my vintage Omega Speedmaster Professional. Strangely enough, because I don't wear it a whole lot, I don't post a lot of photos of it, and You know, I'm mainly known for being a dive watch guy, and that's mainly what I own. And I think looking back at our previous seven volumes of collection inspection, all but one have been dive watches, I believe. So this is a bit of an anomaly for me, but it's a watch that I love. It's a 1968 Speedmaster Professional. quote-unquote pre-moon version so before the moon landing obviously it's the reference number is 145.012-68 and I got this watch about three or four years ago and I bought it locally from a vintage dealer, a longtime shop owner here who did a considerable amount of selling on eBay and as well in his local shop and he was retiring and he was kind of liquidating his store collection and he had a little bit of a party for the local watch crowd and I went and this watch was there and I had owned a few Speedmasters in my past. I think three previous versions. I had a couple of modern ones and then I had a like one from the mid seventies and they never quite stuck. I think it was, you know, for years I was just so focused on dive watches. I have to have owned something that I can get wet, et cetera, et cetera. Um, but I have a real penchant for both the sixties, um, as an era overall, as well as, um, you know, real passion for, kind of the space race and that time in history and that technology and the men that were involved with it and that sort of thing. And so I always liked the Speedmaster. I liked what it represented. Um, and I knew that I wanted one that I would keep. And when this one came along and the price was really great, um, you know, now prices have really gone away up on, on vintage Speedmasters. And, um, so I'm really glad that I picked this one up. It's, it turns out that it's my oldest watch. I tend to not, own a lot of vintage pieces, but it beats the two Docks of Teagraphs that I have by a year. Those are both from 69. And I don't know, to me, the Speedmaster is, it's both a common watch, it's a well-known watch, but I would almost say that its appeal is so universal and in so different a way than, say, a Submariner or like a Tag Heuer or Carrera or anything like that. simply because of its backstory. And I think you can explain this watch very simply, even to non-watch people. You know, you can tell them the story that someone sees me wearing this, it's like, oh, it's an interesting old watch. Tell me about it. You know, it's, well, it was designed in the fifties. It really hasn't changed. It was worn by the astronauts on the moon and people just kind of latch onto that. They like that. It feels more like a piece of history than sort of a luxury product that you buy for, you know, how it looks or what it says about you. And I think that's what I like about it. It's, you know, despite that sort of egalitarian appeal that it has, it tends to be a watch that's only owned by kind of watch people. And I think there's sort of this recognition if you see a guy wearing a Speedmaster in the wild, you know, on the subway or at the airport or whatever, it's almost like the secret handshake thing. I mean, it's a chronograph, it's a hand-wound chronograph with a plastic crystal. So it's not the most friendly, everyday watch that just anybody's going to walk into the mall and go to a jeweler and say, you know, that's the one I want. I want a watch that I have to wind every day and that if I brush on the side of my desk, it's going to get a big scratch on it. So it has this sort of dual appeal. It's a very watch, you know, watch nerd kind of watch, but it also lacks completely the sort of snobbery that goes along with say vintage Rolex or you know, kind of the ubiquitous sort of status pieces that you see, you know, Pateks or that sort of thing. So I think all of those things together are what have made me really like this watch, as well as the fact that it's just a really great looking watch. I think the matte dial, this particular one has, you know, that stepped matte dial with the applied logo. And then under a Hesalite or, you know, plastic acrylic crystal, it has a, a certain look to it that just makes the markers pop, and it's a very broad dial. It's a big watch. It's 41 or 42 millimeters for that era, and with that slim of a bezel, it has a very masculine look to it, and that's certainly not to say that women can't wear this watch, and they do make smaller versions of the Speedmasters, but to me, it just feels of its era, and it feels like a true tool watch in every respect. And when you see it across a room on somebody's wrist or in like an old NASA photograph or something, they're just so instantly recognizable. And I don't know, all of those things put together really make me like this watch. It's a watch that I wear maybe two, three days a month at most. I pull it out, I wind it up, I put it on, I wear it for a day or two, and then I put it back in the box and don't wear it. But I just don't think this is one that I'll probably ever sell. I think now, especially with prices going up and considering this was a nice investment for me at the time, it's definitely one that I want to keep. I've really kind of grown to be attached to it.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, I think they're just absolutely incredible watches. You know, I don't have an aesthetic taste or whatever for the Speedmaster at a wide level. There's a few versions that I like. A friend of mine a couple years ago in Vancouver loaned me his 145022. Oh yeah. And I loved it. It's really good. They're super charming. Um, they age maybe better than almost any other watch. Uh, there's, there's something about the way they age. It's a little bit more, um, it's a little bit more like the way a great, a great car can age where it never seems out of date or like wrong and like a scratch here or there, or a bump or a weird fade on the hood kind of adds to it.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And, you know, submariners do this as well. And most watches, especially when you're talking about expensive watches, whether they become expensive, like a 145 or started expensive, like say a solid gold Patek, like they don't age the same way. And there's something about the charm. There is something. It's not like a working class hero vibe to the speedmaster. It's something else. It's, it's definitely the connection to NASA and to like hardcore engineering and to pilots and all these other things. And obviously the name is incredible and, and speaks to the fact that it came, that the watch wasn't even, certainly wasn't like a designed to be used in space or, or, or with, uh, you know, space travel. Uh, they really are a great thing. They have one of the best stories in the watch. Excuse me. They are maybe the iconic watch. And and you know if you're if you're talking about what what it's possible for something like a Daytona to be worth. Mm-hmm There's there's not a number for the one that's been on the moon Right, you know what?
Jason Heaton I mean?
James Stacey Yeah, it really is kind of an insane thing.
Jason Heaton These are probably the most collectible watches in existence Yeah, and still reasonably affordable yet, you know strangely enough.
James Stacey Yeah, that's what's just supposed to say. It's like, you know, there's a scenario where You can still get into a Speedmaster which looks really similar a brand new one Yeah for five or six grand, seven grand, somewhere in there, depending on your currency. And then it goes up from there. If you want an old one, cool. If you want a rare old one, you want an Ed White, okay, that's more money. You can now buy a new Ed White. As of a couple of days before this recording, you can buy a very beautiful Speedmaster with a modern 321 that's kind of a callback to the watch set, the Ed White. And they come in many different versions, they come in different sizes, they come in different cases. Obviously, what you have there with your 045-012 is very much a classic, like straight down the line example. Yeah. But there is this DNA, and the source of that DNA, the shortest strand of it comes from a watch like yours. And I think while maybe I'm not in the... I don't have the money to get into something like a 145, uh and i'm not that interested in the new ones uh i there's no way that you can be interested in watches and be like oh this isn't a good watch yeah right it's maybe in some ways it's the watch it's the chronograph they're great yeah yeah and and i think it appeals on so many different levels you know to me it's this legitimate piece of history it looks good you know iconic etc but then you know if you're into watchmaking and
Jason Heaton And kind of movement stuff, or you're a bit of a nerd in that respect. Uh, it has one of the great movements, the, the caliber three to one, which dates back to, you know, like a PGA FPGA movement from the, the 1940s, um, almost unchanged up through today with some minor tweaks. Um, this is just dead center in that, in that space. And like, you know, you brought up the Daytona from even from the same era that used the value 72 and other great movement. Um, but, but the Speedmaster just. I don't know, to me it's just, uh, Roger Smith, you know, George Daniels' protege, who is an incredible watchmaker in his own right. He loves the 321 movement. Um, he wears the kind of the Seamaster chronograph version of the same watch. Um, you know, it's just on and on. And, and I think too, you know, this is a watch that, uh, it looks good on anything. So, you know, there's a lot of watches. I feel like, uh, for instance, a Submariner, Um, those, you know, some people wear it on leather and I, I've done the same, but you know, it looks best on its, on its steel bracelet. I think most Rolexes do, but, uh, or, or a NATO, but the Speedmaster looks good on anything. I mean, I've worn it on a Boone strap. I've worn it on just straight leather NATO straps. I've got an 1171 Omega bracelet. That's, you know, more of an early seventies vintage, um, that it looks good on. And then as I brought up, I think in, in the last episode that Forstner JB Comfit, uh, sort of mesh. bracelet that's a replica of the one that the astronauts wore. It looks great on that. So this is a watch you can dress up, you can dress down, you know, you could certainly it's not, uh, I've, I've worn this watch cross country skiing. I wouldn't take it in the water necessarily, but you know, it's, these are robust watches. These have been through a lot worse than, than I'll probably ever put it through. I'm short of, of getting in the water with it. So, you know, if I wasn't such a kind of a dive watch guy, um, I could see a Speedmaster being one of a really small collection. I, You could almost shed everything else and just keep sort of a dedicated, inexpensive water watch, like a, you know, CWC Quartz or a Citizen or Seiko and maybe your Garmin for, for kind of your rough duty or your sports. And then just wear your Speedmaster every day and you'd be pretty well good to go. Yeah.
James Stacey I mean, if it's good enough for people like, uh, like NASA astronauts, uh, in the Apollo program, I think it's probably good enough for just about anyone. And, and, and, you know, the modern ones, they, while they look very similar, have made several updates. Yeah. In terms of, you know, moving to Sapphire and just general manufacturing, the tolerances are finer than they used to be and that sort of thing. I think the old ones are definitely the one to have if you can go pre-moon rad. Yeah, they're killer. I mean, what is there to say? It's a Speedmaster. I mean, it's a legitimate icon. It's very well, there's tons of people out there. This is the one watch they bought, whether they knew it had anything to do with the moon landing or not. And you wear it until they die. I mean, like, This is an incredible, these are great watches for sure.
Jason Heaton And you know, a lot of the questions that come through the TGN mailbox that you forward to me about Speedmasters, the past few have been, you know, where do you get your service? And I have an old one that was passed down through the family. The recent one was a guy whose uncle bought it in the sixties because he knew it was part of the space program and now he owns it. And he thought, you know, needs a service, but I don't, I'm hesitant to send it off to Omega because I think that they'll replace a lot of parts and kind of take away from its originality, but I think if I'm not mistaken, and people can certainly correct us or correct me, but, uh, Omega does a pretty good job. They really have a respect for the heritage of their watches. And I think they're pretty good about, you know, if you tell them, you know, don't, don't touch the case, don't even change the crystal or the hands or whatever, just, just do a movement service. I think they're pretty good about that. Um, or at least they were a few years back. So I'm, I always tell people, you know, try the Omega retailer and Omega watchmaker, um, before anything else, because, Unlike Rolex, who's always been a little bit coy about, or some people say they ignore their history, Omega just embraces it. In fact, I was able to get information from Omega about the origins of my watch. And, you know, they actually told me that it was the manufacturing date. It was April 3rd, 1968. It was delivered to a retailer in Lebanon on May 28th, 1968. So, you know, like this watch has been around. I mean, every time I put it on, I think, Some guy in Beirut in 1968 bought this watch and was wearing it and who knows where it's been since and it made its way to a dealer in Minneapolis and now on my wrist. I tend to be more of a modern watch wearer but whenever I put this one on the history of it just oozes. I don't know what else to say about the watch. Everybody knows and loves the Speedmaster. Yeah, this one's mine and I'm not gonna sell it anytime soon.
James Stacey It's a winner. It's one that I kind of forget that you have. Yeah. And then every now and then you'll post a photo, I'm like, oh yeah, he's got that killer speedmaster. Yeah. Yeah, that's a winner. Yeah. I think, I mean, two very interesting watches for a collection inspection, like a dyed in the wool icon of sports horology of sports watches. I mean, this is... If you're going to write a book about the three great sports watches you'd probably get, at least one of them is gonna be a Speedmaster, probably a vintage one like yours from the heyday of its use in aeronautics and space travel. And then with mine, really a modern watch from a modern brand that is still very much a privately owned brand and is doing all sorts of things to innovate both in terms of conservation, which we spoke about on a previous episode, And in terms of design, and this is an example, and I think Oris is a leader in this space, and certainly was over the last several years, of the kind of new vintage trend of looking back. I remember when they launched the original 65, and it's with its big kind of box loom numerals, and I took one diving into Mexico. And these are just great watches, and these are two very different sides of steel sports watch appreciation. Uh, kind of vintage inspired, uh, uh, kind of lightweight on the wrist diver and, uh, pretty hardcore, cool, vintage, uh, chronograph from, uh, you know, one of the best brands in the world. Uh, so yeah, a solid collection inspection, I think two pieces that, that deserve a spot in, uh, in, in our collections for sure.
Unknown Yeah.
Jason Heaton Great. Well, let's jump into final notes. I've got one, you have two. Uh, so why don't I kind of sandwich mine between yours? Why don't you go first?
James Stacey Yeah, so my first one is actually a suggestion to check out a YouTube channel, which recently kind of launched. It's called Easy Me Official. That's I-S-S-I-M-I. There's some sort of an automotive retailer or the sort of company that helps you find special cars, like a dealer of some sort. But they've started to work with one of my favorite automotive journalists, Jason Kamisa. He's a contributing guy for Road and Track, writes some of my favorite stuff. This is kind of the next generation of what Jason's doing in the car visual space, video space. So it's a great channel. It has a run of different sorts of videos. It really feels like they're just starting to get up to pace with the channel. So that's everything from what he calls the Car Mudgeon Show, which is where he and Derek, Tam hyphen Scott run through various complaints about the car industry. I really like it. Some of it's fairly inside, some of it's not. You know, the most recent one was all about people who abused the left lane in America, which is very much a North American thing to do to the left lane. But I really like it. They also did a really excellent kind of look at the progression of Shelby Mustangs, you know, leading up to the now 2020 GT 500. He's definitely not worried about, you know, upsetting brands or listeners in some scenarios, which I love. And and definitely if you're one of the folks that that, you know, took our suggestion and subscribe to a rodent track over the holidays. Be sure to not skip his piece in the magazine. He always does really lovely work. It's super detailed. It's very nerdy. And he's one of my favorite personalities from the space and a truly talented guy. So I'm excited that he's working kind of on his own stuff. And and certainly Derek, who does some of the co-hosting with some of the stuff with him, is fantastic. I've caught him on a few other things as well. So, yeah, check out ECME officials. uh, YouTube channel. So that's I S S I M I. Nice.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's, it's good to learn about this because, uh, I need something to sustain me between the Henry catch poll, uh, carfection videos.
James Stacey Uh, yeah, definitely a different vibe than Henry, uh, more bad language than Henry. That's the thing. I doubt you can find someone who, who is more knowledgeable in what they're talking about, uh, when it comes to very, like if, if he's willing to take a stand on something, it not only is it considered, um, you know, it's very much, uh, a thoughtful and information based stance. I think he, uh, yeah, I think he's a great and a super strong personality, which comes across really well, but also silly and kind of funny and kind of aggressive and all those sorts of things.
Jason Heaton Cool. Well, um, the one that I chose for this week is, uh, it's a podcast, um, produced by the BBC. Um, that's a companion to an article that, um, I read about a really interesting, um, sort of addition to my long love of misery in the Arctic or in the winter. And it's called the Dyatlov Pass Mystery. And it refers to a tragedy that took place back in 1959 in the Ural Mountains that divide Europe from Asia in Russia. And it was this group of college students that set out on a cross-country ski trip into the mountains. This was 1959. And Um, they didn't come back for, for quite a while and people got worried and sent out a search party. And what they discovered was their tent. This was in the dead of winter, uh, in Russia, in the mountains. And they, they discovered that their tent was still erected where they had set up camp. Uh, the wall of the tent had been slashed. Um, and they determined that it had been slashed from the inside and that they'd kind of kept all of their food. Like they were preparing a meal and everything was kind of still laid out as if they were about to serve dinner. Um, and they found the bodies. There were nine of them and they found the bodies a ways away from the tent. All, all of them had perished, um, in various states of undress with very bizarre injuries, like a missing tongue, uh, no eyes. Um, some were half clothed, some were fully clothed. Um, just really a strange scenario that didn't suggest, didn't suggest any immediate obvious cause. It clearly looks like they had all run away from the tent and escaped from the inside of the tent. But what caused these strange injuries? It couldn't have necessarily been an animal or necessarily murder. So anyway, this case was sort of left to die in the vine, much as, you know, if you saw the series Chernobyl or knew about the Chernobyl disaster, you know, in Soviet times, Soviet Union was very secretive and, and kind of quiet about things, you know, they didn't necessarily want to let on about, uh, mistakes or, or problems that they were having. And, and some suggested that this was a, like a weapons test gone bad and some radiation or, or some strange cloud of, uh, you know, some chemical had driven these people crazy or something. Anyway, nobody knows what happened. And, and so it has kind of been a mystery for, what is that about 60 years? Um, until recently when Russia decided to reopen the case. And so in this podcast, this BBC reporter actually travels to Russia, to the place where this happened, and she, instead of skiing in, she goes in by snowmobile with some experts and interviews various people that are privy to both the case that's been reopened as well as survivors of those that died, you know, family members that that lived on. And, um, so it's, it's just a fascinating story. It's, it's one of those great sort of outdoor mysteries in the lines of the, um, what was it? The, the, the plane crash in the Andes with the soccer team or the Donner party, you know, these sort of grizzly outdoor survival slash, slash, uh, misery slash death stories. So I just found it. It's about, I think it's like 53 minutes long, the podcast. And you can certainly read the companion article, which is really well written and as much of the same information. But, uh, I just enjoyed kind of listening to the, the onsite, you know, crunching of snow and, and the, you know, the, the translated Russian that was being spoken and that sort of thing kind of added to the whole, the whole sense of, uh, of drama around this mystery. So, uh, definitely worth, worth an hour of your time.
James Stacey I just went and subscribed to it while you're talking. That sounds incredible. So that's the documentary podcast is what the overall product is called. And then. The actual episode is from mid-July, so you have to scroll down a bit. The Dyatlov Past Mystery. We've had quite a few emails where we talk for too long in final notes and then don't re-mention what the thing is. So I'm trying to make sure that we do little summaries at the end. So it's the ECME official channel, and then we're going to add in the documentary podcast from the BBC, and the episode is called The Dyatlov Past Mystery. Cool. Perfect. And my last one is actually just a piece of work from Hunter S. Thompson. In many ways, this is more of a suggestion to find your favorite piece of work from Hunter S. Thompson, but I'll offer a suggestion. I will always love his piece on the Kentucky Derby. I think that's my favorite piece he ever wrote. Very good. As far as shorter form, I actually haven't gotten into any of his books, but this one is called The Song of the Sausage Creature, and it's about his review of a 900 CC uh, Ducati sport bike. Wow. Um, I've linked to it. It's not super long. It like, it might take you three or four minutes to read. I actually think it's on the sillier side, even of his work. Um, but he definitely had a fun time with this bike and, uh, and talks a little bit about, uh, and, uh, a time when he was no longer connected to, uh, the earth while riding the bike. And, um, It's great. I mean, if you like Hunter S Thompson, this is definitely going to be up, up your alley. If you, if you think he's not that great or two, whatever, then maybe skip it. But, uh, I love it. And I love the idea that this song of the sausage creatures, when you have a bad enough motorcycle accident, you're just kind of a sausage creature for the rest of your life. Uh, so it's, it's his idea of like tempting fate, I guess, with, uh, with an insanely powerful, uh, sport bike. And of course, anyone who rides motorcycles here will know that you're not really messing around anymore. If you're at, 900 plus CC on a Ducati. So it's a short one. It's a super fun. I read it last night. You know, I have been tipped off to me and I really enjoyed it. If you like if you read this and like it, then definitely go ahead and also read his famous piece for about the Kentucky Derby. Both are fantastic. You know, there's a lot of his writing available online, certainly a lot of his essays. and I've yet to come across one that I didn't find very enjoyable, even if I don't agree with necessarily all of the stances he takes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, he's definitely known for being irreverent, but he's also so versatile. I mean, I didn't even realize he did this motorcycle review. I mean, that, the Kentucky Derby, I mean, he covered so many topics. And yeah, that'll be fun. I'll look forward to reading that.
James Stacey So, yeah, that's our show. A pretty solid set of final notes, a great Speedmaster, a solid Oris dive watch and some Lego and Hi-fi audio at the top, not a bad run for a collection inspection. And as always, thank you so much for listening and thanks to Hodinkee for supporting the show. You can hit the show notes via hodinkee.com or the feed for more details. You can also follow us on Instagram at Jason Heaton and at JECC, and you can follow the show at The Graynado. Should you happen to have any questions for us, please write thegraynado at gmail.com. And of course, please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts. Music throughout, as ever, is Siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Henry David Thoreau who said, How vain it is to sit down and write when you have not stood up to live.