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The Grey NATO – 212 – The New Watches We've Been Thinking About

Published on Wed, 19 Oct 2022 03:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In episode 212 of The Grey NATO podcast, James and Jason discuss recent travels and dive into their main topic: watches currently on their minds. Jason recently returned from Bonaire where he experienced memorable diving including bioluminescent ostracods and a poignant encounter with mating squid. James is preparing for multiple trips to Europe, including a Leica event in Germany.

The hosts review several notable watch releases and models that have caught their attention, including the Monta SkyQuest GMT refresh, the new Serica 8351 GMT, Seiko's Prospex "Cave Diver" series, limited edition Seiko 5 models, Bremont's new H-1 line featuring their manufacture movement, and various other releases from brands like Gnomon, ZRC, and SO Labs. They discuss the emerging availability of affordable GMT movements, particularly the Miyota 9075, and James delivers a passionate commentary about the misleading terminology of "true GMT" versus caller GMTs. The episode concludes with final notes about a James Bond music documentary and James's new Anker charging solution for travel.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of the Grey NATO, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode two hundred and twelve, and it's proudly brought to you by the ever growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support, and if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegraynato.com for more details. Hey Jason, you make it home from Bonaire okay? I did, yeah. We got home
Jason Heaton uh boy in the Wii hours on Sunday. Um and speaking of the supporter crew, uh thanks everybody for your patience. I I actually spent uh the Wii hours of this morning because I had a little insomnia packaging up um gosh a a whole raft of of new uh T GN supporter kits for for a bunch of folks that signed up while I was away. So uh thanks for your patience and thanks for the support. Yeah. That's excellent. Yeah we, um we we f flew in. It was a long travel day. Uh you know, it shouldn't shouldn't feel that long, but it always does coming home. Um uh you know, uneventful, baggage all arrived. No cockroaches crawling out of our suitcase like happened one time before. I guess since we spoke last week between recording then and now, we had almost another full week of of diving and it was uh it was a good one. I mean we you know, we've been there so many times, but we hadn't done a couple of things. We we took a trip over to in fact just hours after we we talked last, we drove over to the east coast of the island, which is uh kind of the windier, wavier, rougher side, so you don't do any shore diving over there and hooked up with a a small outfit that that takes fo people out in boats out past the reef break. And uh and we did kind of a really nice dive there where we saw about a dozen turtles and a bunch of morays and um just uh some cool, very cool, cool new reef that we hadn't seen before. That was fun. And then we did a couple of nights uh of uh night diving after that because uh we happen to time our trip right where there's a a a a crustacean called an ostracod that uh mates uh three to four nights after the full moon every month every month and um they're bioluminescent so when they kind of embark on their on their little mating ritual they they kind of rise up out of the coral and emit a a glow that looks like beads of light uh heading towards the surface and you have to time it within 45 minutes of sunset down to the minute almost and then they they all lift off and it's about a 20 minute display and then that's the end of it. So we did that two nights in a row, tried to get some photos, which didn't turn out well. But uh it was it was cool. I mean it's something we always wanted to do there and had a great last dive the day before, you know, within the the 24 just outside the 24 hour window before we hit our no-fly time before we could get on a plane and saw a couple of squid. It was a mating pair of uh Caribbean reef squid that were Oh cool. Uh the female was depositing eggs in in kind of crevices along the reef. And then the male kind of escorts her and protects her, including from other squid. And there were like some males that that were kind of coming down to investigate, and then the the escorting male would change color rapidly, flare out its tentacles and look as big as it could, and kind of uh, you know, chase them away, and then the female would kind of go about her business. And we just watched them the entire dive, and and while she was depositing the eggs, there were there was a moray eel that was following them, and when she would deposit the eggs in the crevice, the moray would go into the crevice, presumably to eat some, if not all the eggs. Right. I mean, that's nature. And you know, we finished the dive at um, you know, we it was almost an hour dive and and we wanted to finish shallow as you would. And conveniently the these two squid kind of were were gradually moving up the reef, and then by the time we got to our safety stop they just sort of disappeared and and we found out later that the female squid actually dies immediately after laying her eggs. So it was kind of it was oh it was very poignant. It was kind of sad also but but sort of fitting for for our last dive and and it was very memorable. So it was uh it was really cool. Nature's hardcore. It is, yeah. Yeah. And and it was it's funny because uh you know, we we had done a number of kind of photo projects while we were there and and so for the last day we decided let's just leave the camera behind and just kind of go and enjoy the dive. You know, kind of like um Sean Penn's character in The Secret Life of Walter Middy, where he's he's got the camera lined up on the snow leopard in the Himalayas and and Ben Stiller's character says, you know, Aren't you going to take the picture? And he said, Sometimes I don't. And and it was kind of like that. You know, we just wanted to kind of experience what we saw on those dives and it was uh it was really special. It was gre
James Stacey at. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. I uh this weekend I went to the aquarium. Maybe maybe subconsciously I was missing the fact that you were diving or jealous or something like that. And uh I I've been several times. We have a membership, so we go pretty frequently and you know, there's good and bad times to go. Sometimes it's busy. This is the weekend, but it wasn't great weather, so it wasn't overly busy. And uh, I've been several times and I always you know take a pause at the cuttlefish tank. Oh, yeah, they're probably one of my you know top three favorite animals, and just to really fascinating thing. And and it always seemed like they're different groups of them. Like I'm I'm never always sure if I'm seeing the same cuttlefish. Yeah. Because the first couple times we were there, there was this several group of smaller ones, three, four inches in length. Um, but there's you know three or four of them in the tank. And then this time for the first time there was a larger one, six, seven inches maybe, and uh seemed to be alone, although with a cuttlefish they hide pretty well. There might have been one skulking behind a rock or something like that. But he was um the the the one that was in there was kind of coming and going from where people could see him and where they couldn't. Yeah. And he would he would come back and and put on a little show, whether it was with a bit of patterning or he had the he had the I don't know if that means he was in a good mood or a bad mood and occasionally he was doing some weird stuff with his tentacles and uh they're they're just uh it you know it it's so cliche, but it's like watching an alien, right? If you'll you feel like you're watching something totally apart uh from your existence. Yeah. Uh you know, they move perfectly in the water, they seem to make eye contact, uh, they seem to have a lot of character, and you know I,'m standing there kind of in awe of this little animal and there's people next to me just saying like you know, they went on a thirty second diatribe about how ugly it was. Oh jeez. And I was like, Yeah, you guys need to uh I don't know. Yeah appreciate the world around you a little bit better. I think they're fascinating. I I'm a big big uh cuttlefish fan. Acephalopods in general, for sure. Yeah, and
Jason Heaton so now I I guess I'm I'm we're we're back home. It's it's downright cold here today. I had to go out and get groceries this morning and it was uh gosh it's it's it was below freezing so I'm I'm bundled up. Yeah it's not
James Stacey that cold here and then uh I I'm about to head out for some travel and uh I was just looking and it's like consider I'm going back to Central Europe again. Uh not not to say that's a complaint in any way, it's just I was there. It feels like I was just there. It just got no over the jet lag and the rest of it. Uh so yeah, I'll be back uh back in Germany for um a Leica event, which is the same one that I I attended last year. It's the Oscar Barnick Awards. It's kind of their celebration of photography. It's a couple days and some tours and see some new cool new product and and all that kind of stuff. So I'm I'm looking forward to that. It's a fun relationship between Hodinki and Leica. And and of course I've been using my Leica's even more than I I have previously have really fallen in love with the M10 over the past year. Uh so I'm I'm really excited to go do that for uh for a few days. And then I get back from that. I'm home for a little while and I I go in the opposite direction out to the west coast for a very short trip. I guess next week. So before you get to episode two thirteen, I'll be back by the time two thirteen comes out. You know, work working on uh working on you know accumulating those uh status qualifying miles and such, but yeah, and using that Tenba that you talked about last week quite a bit. Yeah, it's uh it's I literally had to take a couple things out of it, just uh cables and stuff that I would I use for this for when we record but otherwise it's loaded for bear I'm about fifty percent through packing my my clothes uh sadly this trip requires like a suit and a tie so yeah it's a a different zone for me, uh uh especially you know, think about the last three years. I think yeah. I don't I don't may maybe I wore a suit and a tie to last year's Oscar Barnick Awards. I don't remember. I'd have to go back and look at the photos and saw the you know uh that that's kind of on on the on the docket for today. And then we're recording this Monday. There's some pretty big watch releases that'll happen before this episode comes out. Um nothing I'm prepared to talk about because I've only heard the rumors. Uh I don't have any um hard evidence, but s some bigger stuff, some stuff that isn't really in the TGN space, but definitely is kind of in the general mind share of watch enthusiasm. So that should be exciting. Uh but also it's a ton of work. So yeah, it's it's a lot of uh travel and and putting the putting the stuff together and that sort of
Jason Heaton thing. Yeah. Well and speaking of travel, I mean I'm I'm guessing I know which watch you're wearing. Well I can see it in the notes, so I'm cheating here, but uh yeah, it seems fitting. Yeah.
James Stacey With us back to being fall and and that sort of thing, I'm I'm you know, di digging back into slightly less sporty watches, you know, fewer divers on rubber and NATO and that sort of thing and jumping a couple time zones because I'm not going directly to Frankfurt. I'm I'm stopping off well I'm going to Frankfurt and then flying somewhere else and then going back to Frankfurt and then and then moving on. So I'm moving time zones a little bit and uh so I I picked the Explorer 2 for this trip. Uh it feels like a little while since I actually put it to like proper travel use and the last time that I jumped time zones I took the the Seiko the SKX double O three and as much as I love uh and and I think this will be a comment to that we can dig into later in the episode uh given what we're talking about. But as much as I do love a collar GMT and I think they can be very handy, uh when I landed in Switzerland, you know, a few weeks ago uh and had to essentially reset up the entire watch rather than just jumping the hour hand a little bit. You do go like, oh yeah, like one's amazing for when you're sitting at home and want to know what time it is, and wherever a coworker is or your office is or whatever. And the other one's really just perfect for I landed somewhere new, I'm kind of tired and out of it, and I just have to make one small adjustment and not like pull my phone out and do any recalibration of my mental state and that sort of thing. So yeah. We're doing the um the explorer two for this trip, which I think will be good. Uh I had I had another watch coming in and it'll be one that we're talking about uh later in the show as well. Also a GMT and uh at this point because my travel plans changed several times while the watch has been in transit, uh I think it's actually gonna arrive a couple hours after I leave for the airport. That's so frustrating. Uh yeah, it's uh the the schedule's just been I mean insane. I thought I had, you know, the Leica things been on the docket for a while and now there's this thing before which has shuffled around several flights and timing and and that's why we're recording on a Monday and not a Tuesday. And we had other special recordings. Uh stay tuned early November for that. But we had another special recording that was going to be today, tomorrow, and uh that had to be moved. So yeah, it's it's been I again, I I don't mean this at all as a complaint, but it's been a week that has, uh, in terms of just trying to keep all the strings, like so one doesn't fly away and you lose track of it forever. Uh yeah. So
Jason Heaton yeah. How about you? What are you wearing uh today? Yeah, um well, after, you know, kind of shuffling through some working dive watches uh for the past couple of weeks, I came home and put on something decidedly vintage, uh you know still a dive watch, but one that um I'm fairly convinced is not watertight, um judging by how it looked when I took the case back off when I first got this. This is a a vintage aquastar benthos um that I don't wear often but it it's it's just such a cool watch every time I take it out and put it on. It's um uh you know it's it's such a such a classic, and then I've got it on this uh Alongapo cuff band, so it's that custom cool steel cuff band that I had made by um Jaffe Girardo over in the Philippines. And you know, this this definitely isn't the kind of band that that's to everyone's taste, but I I feel like it's very fitting for this watch. It's kind of this rugged old, you know, kind of beat up diver and and uh from the era in which these uh these bands were were made and used by a lot of the the soldiers and and divers and airmen and whatever in in Vietnam that went when they were on leave in the Philippines, they had these custom made for them. So it's uh it's a lot of fun. I it probably won't stay on my wrist too long, but it's uh it was fun to pull out and put on
James Stacey . That's super nice. Yeah. I saw that on your on your Instagram this morning and it looks great. Yeah. And and it suits, you know, you were in a vest and a sweater because again, you mentioned it's cold. Yeah. Um different vibe than Bonair certainly, but hey, things change, right? Right. Yeah. Uh those seasons they. They get come after you every year. But uh yeah, it's uh I I think that's a super fun watch. I I think those are kind of I don't know if underrated is right, but they're still kinda like sleepery. Yeah, I think people forget about them, right? Yeah, the the aquastar stuff especially, but anything that's not a deep star. Right. And the Benthos is pretty rad and certainly a a cool design for sure. But yeah, I mean speaking of cool designs, this episode kind of follows one like we did last year where we realized that there were six or seven watches that we just never found a uh specific show topic to host them. So it's just kind of a a main topic today about uh watches that are on our mind, stuff that we've noticed, stuff that we're kind of excited to see at some point in the future. And uh and stuff that I think are is kind of uh noteworthy, but also maybe not getting the s the amount of attention either specific to TGN or otherwise that you might expect. So I think that probably covers the impetus for the next list of watches we've got, right,
Jason Heaton Jason? Yeah, I would say so. Yeah. And and just um a disclaimer, at least on my end, is I none of these watches in the list uh are any that I've handled personally or or seen in person, you know, at least in this current generation that we're talking about. So um I I'm kind of in the same boat as as probably most of our listeners, as is kind of reading about them on blogs and through press releases and kind of uh websites and things and then just sort of doing an armchair um first impression of these. So yeah
James Stacey . Yeah, yeah. It is it is very much an on paper, on paper. Yeah. Uh I think of maybe a couple of these I've seen in some form in person or will even by the next episode. Yeah. Um sadly. But you know, stay tuned for those stories. If I if it's a watch that I end up putting my hands on, then we do a story about it. Certainly, there's just a big line of uh of watches to get through these days. Uh so w where do you figure? Where do you want to start with this
Jason Heaton ? I don't know. I mean, you know, th there's one that keeps kind of popping up in my in my social media, whether it's through an ad or because I follow them and and I can tell that they're justifiably excited about it. This is the the guys down at Monta. Um they've re they've kind of redesigned and and um re-released or or refreshed their SkyQuest uh which is their GMT watch. You know, you talked about traveling and GMT watches and I guess we have I guess this is one of two that we're going to talk about, uh GMTs in today's episode. And you know, Monta's kind of become the I don't know, they've kind of risen to this level of of a kind of a benchmark in um for for micro brands in terms of their attention to quality and and and um kind of getting the little details right. And you know, their SkyQuest uh GMT was a watch that definitely follows the formula of a Rolex GMT master. I mean, if you squint, that's kind of what you see, and and people would certainly comment on that from a distance. They might say, Oh, is that a rope? No, it's not a Rolex. You know, uh they've managed to kind of carve out a space and a and a loyal following and the SkyQuis is kind of one of their core collection, uh, along with the Ocean King. It's kind of based on the same kind of design as their dive watch and and indeed it, has a three hundred meter water resistance so, you could take it swimming, diving, whatever you wanted. But apparently with this one, from from what I've seen and read, they've they've redesigned the case. It's a again, it's like a 40 millimeter or slightly more than 40 millimeter case. And then the there's a new bezel action that they've got three patents on apparently. Okay. Uh and and then the bracelet. And you know, James, you've handled the bracelet and and you've spoken highly about the bracelet. I I I I don't know how they've improved this one. I mean, from what I've heard from you, it's uh it's pretty good or was pretty good uh as on its
James Stacey own. Uh yeah, in in my experience uh the the touch any touch points of of a monta I've come across have always been really good. Um for whatever reason the SkyQuest has never spoken directly to me. Maybe may it's the the proximity to Rolex, maybe it's how much I really just like the standard Ocean King or the Atlas, which is their kind of GMT with the more of a field watch, a little bit smaller. I've I've had those in for review before, but this new one looks solid, you know uh. Uh definitely in my mind it would I would go with the black bezel try and get some distance from the the Pepsi Coke sort of look. You know, if you're gonna compare this to something like a GMT Master or even just other GMTs, one, you know, you have to go do the collar flyer thing and decide which one is important to you and the way that you use it. Two, you know, there's a big delta in prices here. We're looking at a little under $2,200 for a SkyQuest currently in their pre-order. And then of course what's a BB GMT pushes you to about five grand, or maybe a little less than that right now. Maybe it's $4,400. And then I don't actually know what you'd pay for a GMT master 2 these days, you know, a multi uh you know, a a multitude above that. Uh but I do have a strong soft spot for the Atlas. And and the the thing to know with Monta is you're just you're getting a watch where all the little like I said earlier, the touch points, the kind of fit and finish is really tidy. So the other one that's in my list as far as uh GMT, which is the one that I, you know, I'm I'm pretty excited to talk about and I think I will actually miss by just a couple hours this afternoon, is the new Cerica 8351, which is a chronometer uh GMT with a collar style movement. It's um it's it's basically a development of of the Sarica aesthetic. I saw uh sort of render of it uh back at Watches and Wonders. And and I just think it's it's absolutely gorgeous. It's super cool. Uh it has its own sort of look. It's 200 meters water resistance, it's a steel case. Um, it's uh 39 millimeters wide, 12.3 millimeters thick, 46.5 millimeters lug to lug, and they use 20 millimeter lug width. So you can put a bunch of different straps on it, of course. And then this one uses the Sopride C125 caliber. Uh so it's a four hertz movement, it's cost certified, 40 hours of power reserve, etc. etc. You get a ceramic bezel. Um, and this gives you an AMPM 24 hour radiation to kind of do a day-night with a nice kind of ceramic inlay on that. Uh it's an enamel dial, sapphire crystal, oversized crown. And yeah, if you look at the bezel, you might immediately, like I did, think, well, it's a 12 hour bezel, why would you use a 24 hour GMT function for that? But then if you look again, the AMPM. delineates on two, six o'ccloks. So there's actually instead of showing you 24 hour time, there's sort of roughly something like 12 hours in daytime and roughly something like 12 hours in nighttime. And it it's kind of clever that way. It's a neat design. It kind of stands out in that in that metric. But for me, you're you know, with these, it's it's a great price point. It's uh 1,575 euros. And you know, your Swiss made two year warranty. It looks like they're going to start delivering in January of twenty twenty three. If this is one that you're interested in, you know, they're they're essentially in um in order now. You can do a left or right handed crown, which it you know was a kind of cool thing that they made available previously and it's nice to see it included on the eightyree-th fifteen. Jason, this is one I'm excited about. I think these are stylish, they look different than other stuff. In my mind, these guys kind of manage to do what Unimatic is doing, but with an entirely different aesthetic. Like they're making something that anyone who likes watches can kind of get in on because it's a different avenue and it doesn't cost a fortune, right
Jason Heaton ? Yeah, I think so too. And and I like um that it obviously pulls from a number of influences. I mean I'm looking at the case and it has those definite C master vibes with the lyre-shaped lugs and then this kind of oversized crown and and some of the dial markings kind of feel Rolexy, but obviously not. They've tweaked it a bit with the way that they've oriented the I think um two things about this that when I look at it, my my eyes go crossed when I'm looking at that bezel. It would take a little bit of getting used to um kind of the way that they've got that laid out with the AM and PM as posted 24 hour. And then the they've they've done a lollipop hand for the 24 hour hand. I think that would get it's not quite as clear um or legible, I guess, as a as a nice big arrow. I think to be different, they did the lollipop, but I think, you know, in terms of kind of legibility, I would prefer an arrow. But these are just, you know, quibbles of of of mine that I would s certainly overlook if I owned a watch like this. I think it's I think it's beautiful. I think the size is great. The price is fantastic.
James Stacey Yeah. Um yeah. No, this looks awesome. Yeah. I mean again, this would this would be a great, great sort of option for someone who wants to track another time zone, but maybe only travels to a different time zone a few times a year. Yeah. Right. Stay tuned later in the show for a development in that space, which many of you already know about, but it's something I've had on our list to talk about for a little while. Uh, but as far as the Serica goes, um, not unlike what they're what they've done with the SkyQuest, you know, good job on both sides. I the the the look of the Serica really I kind of attach to it. I love the fact that there's no brand on the dial. It kind of does vintage in a way that doesn't necessarily feel like too much of a gimmick, especially with the ceramic, uh bezel insert and that kind of stuff. So yeah, I uh I'm I'm impressed by these. I'm looking forward to get a chance to play around with one. I'm hoping that DHL shows up while we're recording and it can come with me to uh to Europe, but uh at this point I'm not so sure. So uh stay tuned. Eventually uh I'm I'm very excited to put a story about these out in the next uh few weeks. So uh what
Jason Heaton else we got on the list? Let's uh let's jump from the tiny brands to uh to one of the biggest um let's go to seiko i'm I'm pretty for sure pretty interested in these prospects uh cave divers they call them i for lack of a better term that's they're they're made for the U.S. market they're they say that they're they've taken inspiration from cave diving. Um uh the the reference numbers for these three new watches specifically is the sp349, the spirit one, and the sp three five three, and these are watches that um I they keep popping up and I keep seeing them and I'm more and more interested as I look at them because this is not a a Seiko case shape that I'm normally interested in. I I think collectors used to call this the Shogun case, I believe. It's a bit more of an Angular, modern looking case as opposed to kind of what we're used to with sort of the the turtles and the SKX style stuff, which which which, you know, admittedly look uh uh uh dated, I guess you'd call the word, you know, deliberately so. Um th this this watch case actually looks more, you know, planted firmly in the 21st century. I think it's just got some more angular um aspects to it. And what Seiko's been doing a lot lately, and I think this has kind of trickled down from Grand Seiko, is they're playing a lot more with with dials and dial colors and w which is something that a lot of brands uh short of you know just changing a color, I think Seiko has been trickling down this idea of kind of texturing dials on on even some of their prospects dive watches. And I think they've done a really nice job with uh with these three examples. These are six hour thirty-five movements with a seventy hour power reserve. It's has a date at three, so that might or might not make people happy. I think there's a cyclops, uh if I'm seeing that correctly. Yeah, there's a cyclops on on the date. Again, bit divisive. I think, you know, personally, I think that would be just fine with me. But of the three, I I kind of like the mossy green color with that bit of texture to it. I think it's a it's a nice looking
James Stacey watch. Yep, I agree. I think these look great. You know, for me, I've I've become such a nerd for the uh the kind of SPB one four three, you know, the twenty mass or twenty twenty two mass or whatever we're calling them. I I do really like these. I just don't know if there's a world in which I I'm gonna go back to a non-cushion case Seiko diver that's bigger than forty point five. Yeah, right. Yeah, they're big. I know how like s almost silly and pi picky that is, because I'm sure these are lovely. I love the idea, much like you kind of pinpointed, I love the amount to which they've drawn in a little bit of Grand Psycho with the dial texture and coloring and finish and that sort of thing while still being kind of nice toolish modern dive watches. Yeah. I could see these being super popular. I'd be just be really interested to see how they wear because 43.5 is the size of uh 777. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Te.ru Granted that,'s with the four R. And those wear really nicely, but I wouldn't say they wear like really small. They just wear really well for their size. But I've owned a samurai or two, one that was titanium, and it wore just fine. Um, visually, it can it looked a bit bit big for my wrist in a way that the 777 looked intentional, and this simply looked like I was wearing a watch that was a bit too big for me. Yeah, if if you know if you know that like that's such a subtle derivation. Yeah, I think these are clever. Uh I I do like that they're doing more of the limited edition stuff that's available to the US and isn't just Grand Seiko SPGWs. As much as I love those and and would like to own one at some point. These are like accessible, they're fifteen hundred dollars. Sure, that's a little on the higher side, but that's also exactly where Seiko's operating these days with the prospect stuff. So I don't think the price point is surprising. And of course they still have a ton of and we have more in the list, but they have a ton of interesting stuff at the Seiko five level as well. Little special editions and and market special market stuff and that sort of thing. So I I think these are pretty promis
Jason Heaton ing. Yeah. The only the only thing I I can't get my I can't I've can't grow to like about these and and it's just kind of a general thing that I have about this handset. Um does your monster have this handset? I've never I've never warmed to this with that kind of really big arrow ho
James Stacey ur. Yeah, it's a different arrow and spear tip hand, uh, but they're not dissimilar. Yeah. Um especially when it comes to the hour hand. Yeah. The but the the the original monster and and ones like mine, the SKX monsters, have sort of a a very exaggerated, two sided triangular hand and then a spear hand, but I would say there's similar to this but different. I know that's not necessarily helpful. Uh but I'll put both in the show notes and you can click from one tab to another and see what I mean. Yeah, and I
Jason Heaton I think also Seiko, you know, I I don't I feel like we don't see a lot of titanium from Seiko. And this this these are made from titanium, so I think that should mitigate kind of the the big size in terms of wearability. It should help for sure. Um you know we tend to see titanium a lot from citizen these days, but I I'm struggling to think of kind of a core collection Seiko that that gets a lot of attention that's also titanium. And I think that will be a bit of a differentiator along with the dial colors in this. So yeah, cool. Interesting ne
James Stacey w launch. Yeah, and then the next one I wanted to talk about, and we can stay on the Seiko run is this new Seiko 5 Sports 55th Anniversary Ultra Seven Limited Edition. And I'll go right out on the edge here and say I don't know what Ultra Seven is. Um I've not seen it. It's a Japanese uh television show. I'm not sure that would stop me from buying this watch. It's uh it's referential to uh you know some very early Seiko five models. Uh it's a limited edition of thirty four hundred pieces. It's a a standard Seiko five, so it's a SKX effect. But if you go in, it has this very beautiful vintage silver and black dial, um, a fully marked uh elapsed time bezel uh with what looks like a flat uh sort of crystal on it, and then you have uh uh NATO uh, sort of gray and white and black striped NATO that must make some sort of connection to the show. Would you wear that one? Terrestrial Defense Force. Yeah, I don't I don't know if I would I but I mean why not? It's kind of cool. Yeah. I mean it it's's not n I would say it's not not cool. Yeah. And they have uh yeah, they have uh TDF U G on the on the dial, which I think is actually subtle enough that again it it wouldn't bother me that I don't know what that necessarily references. Yeah. Um it's kind of just a cool design. I really like the bezel is what stands out for me on this watch, the dark bezel with the silver dial and of course the steel case. I think it's about four hundred and ten bucks is what I'm reading online. But I I I do rather like the watch, you know, for the money, we're now a third of the cost of those previous ones. You know, this is sure, it's a four R series, it's a hundred meters of water resistance. It's a little bit more casual of a watch.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Can't go wrong with kind of that SKX style case. I think that's uh Seiko just's pure fun. I mean, when you get to this level
James Stacey with that price, I mean it's yeah, that's cool. Feel free to check that one out. Uh this is mostly like I mean that those Seiko fives are like a known quantity now, even after the point of the GMTs. Uh so this is more about the dial, the bezel, that sort of thing. And I think they did a nice job making something that stands out while still referencing some early Seiko designs. Uh so yeah, uh a cool piece for sure. Uh next up, I would you you want to talk Braymont because they've got
Jason Heaton Yeah, it kind of almost feels like the the biggest news of the past at least week, I would say, right? They've launched the H one line um with three new watches, as well as Mark Strong as an ambassador, which I actually think found more exciting than anything. I think I I love uh I love that actor and uh I love that little
James Stacey intro video he did for them that was really cool. I agree. Yeah Mark Strong's awesome. It's it's kind of the first time that they've put the ENG 300 or a movement based on the ENG 300 into production watches. And instead of putting it back into MBs and Solos and Super Marines, it's three new models uh that kind of go up level for a Braymont in terms of a price point. It's three new models, uh, like you mentioned, Jason, and is so it's the supernova, which is their 40 millimeter uh integrated bracelet. It's kind of like their, I guess Royal Oak, their Nautilus, but I would say it's more like their Ingenieur, if that makes sense, the IWC Ingenieur, which of course hasn't been around for uh several years at this point. And then they have a new sort of pilot's watch with a polished case, it's called the Fury. Also 40 millimeters. They do it in blue and in black, and I think both of them are kind of gorgeous. Like if you wanted to take a solo and go in a more elegant direction, it in many ways these look a lot like some of the work that they've done on the LEs, but in a but in a production model, and then you get this uh movement, and these are using uh movement called the ENG 375, which is the manufacture movement from Braymont based on the the plus K1. You can read more on I'll I'll include some stories if you want to go into the background of this movement, but they're producing the movement. Um they've modified the original movement enough that it's considered a a different caliber, and it's one that they're making from uh making an assembling from the T0 level at the wing in um in England. We had them on uh you know back when this first announced so I'll include that as well. And you can hear their technical director uh chit-chat about how the movement came together and what they've changed and that sort of thing. Anyways, in in these ones, depending on the spec, it's a date and a power reserve or a grand date in a power reserve is what you get on the supernova as well. And then the uh the third model is the oddly, which is kind of even dressier than the Fury. And I I think it's also a very handsome watch. I think it I would I would lean more towards the kind of more casual Fury or Supernova than the oddly. Uh, but those are the three new ranges. They're all uh forty millimeters. They all still use triptych cases and and now they're they're kind of the first production series that are coming out with uh this this movement uh that you know Braymont spent the last several years getting ready and it originally launched in the longitude, and now we're seeing it in in some of these uh more or less production watches. And and Jason, what do what do you think of these three? How do they hit you? You know, at first um kind of the first one
Jason Heaton that I saw was the supernova, and I thought, hmm, you know, it it feels a little too kind of me too um royal oak, but the once I kind of dug into it and looked more closely at at some of the details. I I think that the fact that they are still using the triptych case, which I think is is just such core kind of Braymont aesthetic, um, I think it kind of saves it from that. And I think your analogy or or your comparison to to an engineer is is a little better. I think it feels more burly and and um less uh precious looking than a royal oak. Uh and I don't mean that in a negative sense. I think it it just feels more bold and and so I like that. But the one for me is is the fury. I mean I I like more classically styled watches and and this one just hits the right mark. It's got that kind of onion crown and um right. Yeah this this really big oversized power reserve uh subdial at the bottom, which I I think is really cool. I think that'd just be fun to watch and and and wear. And and I think you know it would it'll go well in a number of different straps. The oddly looks fine, uh certainly a a nice dress won't be too dressy for us. Doesn't hit me
James Stacey . Yeah. But uh you know, nicely done. But it's even dressier than than like some of the aircos they've done, which I do really like those because they have just a little bit of casual right left in them, whether it's in the dial color or the hand choice or something like that. These are, as far as Braymount goes, like very traditional English sort of dressier designs. Yeah. Um, but if we go back, uh one thing to be clear is I said that they're all ENG three seven fives. That's not accurate. The supernova has the 375 with the big date, and so it's a two-digit date and a power reserve. The other two use the 365, which has a standard date window, like a conventional date window, which is a a single aperture single wheel or single aperture single disc and then have a um uh power reserve like jason mentioned so for those keeping track the supernova is black silver or blue, a dark blue, and they're nine thousand dollars US. So like I said, it's a it's a a step up for Braymont from the four, five thousand, six thousand dollars that we'd see common to uh these sorts of things, but you're getting a complication, the new moon, but all that kind of stuff. Uh Fury is about $6,795, I want to say $6,800. And then the oddly, it it depends on what you pick. The steel oddly is um is also about $6,800, $67,95. And then there's a version in precious metal as well. So uh I I'm excited to get a chance to see the supernova in person because I think it's one of the stranger watches to come from the brand recently. And I don't mean strange in a bad way. Yeah. I just mean strange. Like unexpected is probably a a better word. But I'm excited to get a chance to take a look at that. I should have one, you know, in the in the next couple of weeks to take a closer look at. And uh I've seen a prototype of the watch. I was pretty impressed by the overall like fit and finish and how it worked on wrist. Uh but I'm I'm excited to see a production one at this point and put a story together. So if you're curious about that, I mean a nine thousand dollar Braymon is probably gonna strike up some curiosity in in most people, right? Yeah. Because the brand is just so commonly worked kind of one level down from that in terms of their their price point. Especially when we're talking like non-chronographs. But when you factor, I think when you factor for the movement, especially when you see some of the complexity in the case and then the additional complications. I don't think it's that surprising of a price point. Um, but I think it's when you combine that price point with an entirely different sort of silhouette on wrist, uh a different wrist presence than any other Braymont. It it is a brand that's uh I so commonly and we've definitely talked about this in the past, but it is a brand I so commonly attached to a leather watch. Yeah. Uh a leather a leather strap. Yeah, same here
Jason Heaton . Yeah, I think it just looks good on on leather NATO. I mean I I've got my S two thousand I I have it on a bracelet occasionally, but it it always goes back on rubber or NATO. It just feels right for it. But um Yeah. You know what I just noticed too on the on the supernova, the black and the white dial have Arabic numerals and the blue has um just kind of hash markers which bar markers. Yeah. Yeah. I'm I'm curious to see how these take, how they'll do. I'm sure they'll do fine among the kind of the Braymont um faithful. You know, they they have have a strong following uh around the world, specifically in England, certainly and and also in the US. But uh yeah, this is a big move for them
James Stacey . Yeah, I would agree. And I think the the fury and the oddly feel within their normal lane, whereas the supernova feels like they like they wanted to try something and and and also kind of hit on the trendiness of the integrated bracelet thing, which you can't blame them. Pretty much everybody's taking a swing at putting together such as that. Uh so yeah, I I think it's worth taking a closer look. Swing by the show notes if you want to see those. Where do we go next? We've got uh we're kind of all over the map here. We've got uh inexpensive, expensive, um small, bus biginess. There's actually just a brand that I want to shout out because we saw them at Wind Up Chicago, and that's SO Labs. And this is one where you really are just gonna have to go to the show notes and click on it. You know, their their watches are based around these sort of plastic style cases. Jason and I have seen these in person very briefly, but it's a brand that's been on my mind since we saw them back at uh Chicago. So with wind up um you know starting essentially the within a day or two of of this episode dropping, I thought we'd we'd get a chance to shout them out. You had a chance to see a couple of these. Most of them are limited in some way.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean it i it it was just fun and and nice guys that run the company. And I think um, you know, look, I these these watches are not in my wheelhouse at all. I you'll never see one of these on my wrist. Uh you know, just uh not not out of any dislike for them or for the brand or anything like that. They're just they're not my style, but I do like their take on it. I think we need more kind of watch brands taking chances, you know, whether it's these guys or Brew or um, you know, like like the the the affordable watch that that MB and F produced, the Mad Watch. Yeah, the Mad One. Yeah, the Mad One. I mean, I I I just admire, you know, when brands kind of take a bit of a step. Because this is this is a bit of a risk, right? I mean, it's it's the colors, it's the time displa
James Stacey y, it's kind of their general vibe. It's very much not starting a watch brand to make a vintage effect diver that looks somewhat like a submariner. Yeah, true. Right? And also what they have on their website currently is 175 bucks. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. So it's just a question of getting one before they sell out. It looks from what I can tell, they make about five hundred pieces, at least that's what they're showing, of of any given color version. And at a hundred and seventy five dollars, in my mind, this falls into like a swatch territory. And that's the exact same mindset where the way I might wear a swatch would be exactly how I'd want to wear one of these solabs. Right. Yeah. Super fun. Yeah. So one wanted to at least get that on the radar. Uh but Jason, you can pick our uh next one from the list if you like. I think we both
Jason Heaton had this Gnomos Club thirty seven millimeter Neomatic. I I actually had the wrong one listed, but I'm glad you you put this one in here because I think this is an interesting uh new release from Gnomos, and I think uh you know, Gnomos, you know, it used to be a brand that used to pop up more. I think we used to talk about them more and and somehow they kind of slipped away. And then this one caught my eye. I like the look of the bracelet. This blue dial version is just um beautiful
James Stacey . Um yeah, I love the idea of a club with a bracelet, right? And obviously to go club with a pneumatic, you're jumping up. Like a pro a club is like fourteen hundred dollars, fifteen hundred dollars back in the day. Um, but it was also one of the last ones that used a sort of not in-house movement. Um, and and the interesting thing, I think there's a few things to note about this. One, the case thickness is eight point four millimeters because the neomatic movement is so thin. This uses the DUW 3001, which has been in a bunch of stuff. But the movement is only 3.2 millimeters thick despite being an automatic. It's a three hertz movement. These are $3,500. But on a bracelet, I almost think this does something that other gnomoses don't like it's a it's a completely different take on on the on the format you're still getting 200 meters of water resistance I can't decide brace jason do you think Jason do you think that the bracelet looks at home on on the gnomos or am I so tied to the the sort of gnomo again almost like the braymont thing where the bracelet almost looks a bit we
Jason Heaton ird it does look weird it's a little jarring I mean when I look at it I feel like did someone like try to fit a you know submariner bracelet on like on a gnomo. Exactly. Um although it works, it looks good. Um, but my it's like my eyes are play
James Stacey ing tricks on me when I look at that. Yeah. I think these are definitely within the zone though. You're paying a lot, you're you're paying up for the movement like you might be with a Braymont. So you're paying up for the movement, but it it's a great size at 37 millimeters, uh super wearable. It maintains what the what the club was kind of about. You know, I still have such a soft spot for that club with the silvery dial and the orange accent and uh and sort of the Cali dial look. And always kind of thinking like, oh, maybe that's the kind of thing I would buy, and then maybe get the case brushed. I always have a thing about polished cases, especially on like um casual watches. And I I always thought like with a brush watch it might subtle out a little bit. Uh but I like these. It definitely definitely on the list when I saw, you know, Logan did a story for Hodinky. And I was kinda like, wait, what am I looking at? Where'd they get that bracelet? Right? And I I think I think they're handsome for
Jason Heaton sure. I remember years ago, Gashani had a 36mm club, and we both loved the watch. She loved the watch. It it but strangely, even the thirty-six millimeter fit my wrist better than hers. It just it had that those really long lugs. Always a long case. Yeah. This one, you know, uh I don't know whose wrist it is it's on in the photos in um in Logan's article. Maybe it's own, but yeah, we think it's Logan's. Yeah. You know, thirty-seven millimeters seems right to me. It it looks like the lugs are still long, but uh on the bracelet it kind of mitigates that because it sort of softens that effect, I guess. Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's a it's a cool watch. I l I like I said, I particularly love the blue version. But
James Stacey um Nomas has always done a nice job with color. Yeah, I agree. Uh the other one, if we're talking about watches that you're not really sure how they're gonna fit, uh we've got to talk ZRC quickly because um I I had an I had a chance to experience one of their watches uh earlier this summer when we were out doing some diving and and a project that has yet to be released with our friend Asha Wagner, and she had a special edition ZRS dive watch on an Erica strap. There's a photo in my Instagram. You can check it out. And so I've become kind of enamored with this brand over the last several months because it does that Doxa thing where you look at it and you make your mind makes all these assumptions about how it will fit, and then you put it on your wrist and it just kind of disappears. Yeah. And you have like a singular experience because they're kind of weird looking. They have dots on the bezel instead of numbers. They come in a few different versions, they actually come in several different versions, and a few different sizes. But the one that uh Jason you put on the list, thankfully, uh, because I would have put it as well, is this new GF Grand Fawn's 38 heritage. It's it references a 38 millimeter size, but it's actually 39, the new one. So these are the GF38163 and 38263. Two different dial designs, basically. One a little bit more traditional dive watch, very uh early 60s, I'd say. Um, maybe even very late fifties in terms of a dial design. And then the other one very c classic ZRC with the the big um sort of twelve three six nine and then bar markers and dots and these giant hands and I I really find these to be exciting. Wash is just such a cool watch on wrist. Like I put it on and I didn't want to, and I took way too many pictures of it. And that kind of thing. It's it like I said, it's on my Instagram, so you can see how it works on a seven-inch wrist, the kind of flat, bony seven-inch wrist. But they wear really, really like surprisingly well. Yeah, I'm I'
Jason Heaton m glad you mentioned Doxa because I I think it has that that same weirdness to it. Um and it slots into this this territory of of brands that were doing things radically different than kind of the Blanc Pons and Rolexes and Omegas of the day, at least till Omega hit the 1970s. Um, you know, the the Tritons, the ZRCs, the Doxas, the Aquastars. You know, they were they were just these were like hardcore nerd dive watches. And I think that that is it's just core TGN. It fits right in with us. And I I tried one of these on, I think at Basel years ago, someone had one. I don't know if it was at their booth or whatever, but I just remember kind of falling for it. And I think there's so much that's different about this watch that it's it's incredibly appealing. I mean the the bracelet itself, um kind of expands to kind of take up uh slack, um the crown at six o'clock, the like you said, the dots on the bezel, the you know, lollipop seconds and I mean there's there's nothing about this watch that looks like anything else. And for that, I think we both love
James Stacey it. Yeah, I agree. I mean, they're a little bit more on the expensive side. A little over three thousand Swiss francs is what we're looking at. But if this is a brand where you're like, I have no idea what you're talking about with ZRC, swing swing by their website and take a look. They do several different versions. Some much more modern takes in titanium and a larger size by larger. It's 42 is their big size from what I can tell. And then it comes down to something like 39. I think uh I think anything, any of those sizes would probably wear pretty similarly given the case shape. Um, and I think if you see them, you'd know what I mean. But you know, lots of water resistance, the automatic movements, Swiss automatic movements, um, and and an interesting history that connects back to the French Navy and several like sort of cool, cool other elements. So I I think there's a nice little rabbit hole to go down on their website. Uh they they responded to my photo with um a bunch of emojis. I didn't quite know what they meant. And I said, Hey, you know, if you guys have a review like a loaner unit or something, let me know. And uh and they read the message but uh left it on read. So uh if if I can hook up a chance to borrow one for a little while, I'd love to do a story if if it could time out with some diving, maybe early next year or something like that, that could that would be even more fun. I think they'd be probably pretty cool to see uh underwater and with dive gear and that sort of stuff. So fingers crossed, we can make that happen.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think Cousteau was our guy. I mean when when you look at I mean this was a a watch that popped up on his on the Calypso as well as you know Doxa, Aquastar, you know, Ploprofs. I mean he he he kind of uh He had
James Stacey the zone. Yeah, exactly. And yeah, I think that's the majority of our list. I don't want to I don't want the episode be too long as I do have to um ed edit it in a rush on an airplane and all that kind of thing. But I did want to get into one more thing, which I think is maybe the the crux of what I'm really talking about, is we are right on the edge of what I believe to be and I hope let's say we're mo more hopeful than belief, but what I hope to be kind of a new generation of GMTs. So we now have Seiko, of course, offering in the SKX uh double O whatever, and I'm sure several other models in the future, offering a solid collar GMT for about 500 bucks. And the other thing I wanted to mention, and several people have written in, I've just trying to I've been trying to be as patient as possible in waiting for watches to start using it. Is this new Miyota 9075, which is Miyota's answer to an inexpensive or more accessible level of GMT movement, but in this case it's local jumping. So you have a flyer GMT that's currently in watches right around a thousand dollars. So from what I could find, and you may be able to find some other ones, that's cool. I searched around for a while. The bull of a Wilton, which is a 43 millimeter dress watch. Not really my zone. It's 8075 bucks, but it uses the movement. The Boulder Odyssey Freediver, which I was very excited when I saw the story come out, and then I realized it was 44 millimeters, which I don't I don't think is necessary. Like Boulder, by all means, make the 44mm. You would know your market better than us. Yeah. But maybe consider making a 39 with the same movement. Because I actually think, the aesthetic of the Odyssey free Diver is pretty cool. It's kind of modern, a little bit of an angular case, nice and legible. I've read lots of good stuff about Boulder, but that's a brand that I've literally never seen like on a table at a red bar. And then the other one I found was this Lipnotic Ski. So it's about 925 euros. There's a 41 millimeter, kind of like a super compressor style aesthetic. Uh 41, like I said, wide, 15.5 thick. Those are those are the ones that I could find, you know. So we're talking all around or in the neighborhood of a thousand dollars. The movement itself is uh automatic 42 hours of power reserve. It's rated for something like negative 10 to plus 30 seconds a day. So it's a pretty wide delta, which of course, is not uncommon to movements at this price point these days that aren't from say Eda or Selita. Uh, you know, in in some ways this is kind of maybe their yin to Seiko's Yang when it comes to GMTs that that that could be at a a pretty reasonable price point, let's call it under a thousand dollars. And then the reason I'm getting more and more excited about it is not only do we have these two movements, but we also have the the Eda CO7 system. Yeah. Which I think we, you know, we've already started to see Mito start to use again in larger watches, but to a very promising effect. And I'm hoping that we're just a generation or two away from an ocean star at 40 millimeters with this movement from you know some of these more exciting things to kind of come together and I would love to see the 9075 you know assuming that micro brands smaller brands can buy these how exciting would it be to have uh a Halios a Baltic a Laurier a CWC a scurfa, Raven, Fair, like we I could we could list 20, 30 brands. Yeah. That could all make a really solid GMT that would just kind of offer a lot for the money. Like you you remember how big a deal it was when Tudor launched the Black Bay GMT at half the price or even less than that of a GMT Master 2. And it was finally you could get this movement in a sporty watch that people really wanted to wear with a great aesthetic and a brand that people liked and a good warranty. And I think now we're we could be talking about most of those things, depending on how you feel about a specific brand. The ones I listed, I'd be thrilled. We we might be hitting you know twelve hundred bucks for a great dive watch that could also be a great travel watch that has a a nice reliable MiOTA movement and it looks like the movement can fit into the same sort of stuff that other 9-0s fit in. So that's a pretty decent range. That's kind of my pseudo rant. But I have oh my rant has one more stanza. I've went and read every story about these that I could find of about this 9075, and I need to I need to put it out to the industry of other people who write about watches to stop calling these things a pure GMT or a true GMT. Huh. I think you're doing your audience a disservice. You know, i I see it on Reddit, I see it on forums, I see it in a lot of other trade writing about GMT watches, about travel watches, is this idea of those that have a flyer GMT are true GMTs. But the truth is that if you're not changing time zones that frequently, let's say you wanted to use an explorer to a quote unquote true GMT, let's say you wanted to use that to follow another time zone, it's actually a bit of a pain to set that up to do that. Much like it is to do the inverse with a collar GMT. They they just they serve two different purposes and there's not one that's more true than the other that's ridiculous. You we either need to think of them like, yeah, there's travel or flyer, sure. There's callers, sure, or office GMTs. I think they've they've also been referred to in the past, or simply you have 24-hour independent GMTs, that being caller or an office, or you have local jumping GMTs, those being flyer travel style ones that are better for jumping time zones, but less useful for quickly adapting to another time zone in the background. That does actually finish my rant, but it bugs me that there's one idea that one's true and one's not simply because one's more common to a higher price point. You have to know what you want that function to do for you. In doing some due diligence for the nine oh seven five, I saw it referenced so many times, and there's so many better ways to promote this to your audience than calling one a true versus the other one not
Jason Heaton . Yeah, I mean I think the original um function or or need that was addressed by the first GMT watches, the GMT Master, um the Glycine Airman, etc. back in 53, 54 um was for pilots that needed a constant reference to actual GMT time because that's what aviation, that's what that's what pilots use. They're always referring to that no matter where they are in the world. Yeah, and that's why the bezel and a GMT master spins. Well, I I mean, I think you know, this idea that that when you when you travel or if you want to track a second time zone, you have to manipulate the GMT hand is not accurate. I mean if you have a watch with a rotating bezel, use the bezel. I mean, that that's why it's there. Like if you're always just fiddling with the hand, unless it's a watch like your Explorer 2, where the bezel doesn't turn, then you do need to manipulate that hand. But other than that, use the bezel. I mean, that that's what they're designed for. And this idea that you can have a a independently adjustable GMT hand or and a rotating bezel, and then you call it a three time zone watch, unless you have a twenty four hour scale on the dial, it's it's only still only tracking two time zones. There's there's nothing it can point to that
James Stacey that has a third time zone. Yeah, exactly. I guess in that case, like with a with a GMT Master 2, if you had the fourth hand set to UTC or GMT um and started rotating the bezel, you would have to go backwards from the bezel display if you couldn't remember plus minus what you were from UTC. I do see what you mean by that. Yeah. If they don't have independent scales. It's a it's a complicated thing, but no no one no one is more true than the other. Right. Yeah. Uh otherwise like a world timer is what the most true. But then what about the ones that can't do 30 minute or 15 minute offsets? Yeah, right. So there's only like three watches that are true GMTs. Like it's kind of just silly. All right. Well, rant over. And I think also the main topic of the episode is so that that's a handful of new watches. I'm sure we didn't get to everything. This is just everything that we could um we could kind of collect uh that had been on our mind recently. All right. Let's zip through the final notes
Jason Heaton so you can uh you can pack and get on the plane. Yeah, yeah. Better do that for sure. Uh you want to go first? Yeah, um I can jump in. Uh so I watched a movie last night um called The Sound of Double O seven. Now this is um it was a fairly highly anticipated documentary um kind of in the in the James Bond nerd community. Um there's a lot going on these days because it's the 60th anniversary of the first Bond film, Dr. No, 1962. And uh Amazon actually, of course, now owns the rights to all the films. And uh if you're in need of of a 007 binge, um all of the 25 films are now available for streaming on Amazon Prime. That's just an aside. But uh if not, you definitely should watch uh The Sound of Double O seven, which is a documentary about kind of the history of Bond music. So everything from the theme songs to you know the the score of the movie, um kind of the composers, the some actors uh give their feedback, um a lot of the singers and performers, you know, everyone from John Barry, um Shirley Bassey, Paul McCartney, um Jack White, um, all kind of chime in about this. Daniel Craig gives some of his impressions. It's it's really a fun kind of crossover documentary that kind of crosses over from kind of the the music documentary genre and and film uh genre. And I came away from it. I mean, you know, obviously a big Bond fan, but you know, with with an even greater appreciation for the role that the music plays in these movies. And um, you know, there there was some, there's some great old footage um and and just a lot of kind of inside baseball sort of talk about the development of a lot of these songs and you know, they didn't punches, you know, Barbara Broccoli and who was one of the producers of the Bond films and the the daughter of Cubby Broccoli who who brought D uh James Bond to the screen, um, you know, talks about, you know talking to Amy Winehouse about doing a theme and and, you know, hits and misses when when it comes to different performers and and that sort of thing. And and it just makes for a really interesting documentary. There was one tidbit in there that I I enjoyed and that is that um back in in the early 60s Michael Cain the actor was roommates with Terence Stamp another British actor um and Stamp apparently um did a lot of entertaining at their apartment and and didn't want Kane around all the time. So Kane went and crashed at John Barry's house. John Barry is the legendary composer who scored something like, you know, over ten Bond films and and helped orchestrate the the original theme song. Anyway, he was staying in his apartment. Barry was actually composing Goldfinger. And Michael Cain said he couldn't sleep because Barry was at the piano all night long. And by morning when he got up to make coffee. Uh Barry was still at the piano and he said, Listen to this. So Michael Cain was the first person to hear the Goldfinger theme song, which I th I thought was just uh fascinating. And Michael Cain actually relates that story in this movie. So that's super fun. Yeah, it's a it's a really great uh great film, uh The Sound of Double O seven. And I've gotten a number of uh direct messages and emails and things uh with people saying, Hey, you should check this out. So I hear ya and I did watch it and it's great. Yeah. So check it out. Sound of double oh seven on Amazon Pri
James Stacey me. Yeah, like you, uh so many mentions. Uh between we got several into the inbox, uh several DMs saying we should check this out. So it's on my list. I haven't gotten to it, sadly. But I'm I'm thrilled that you enjoyed it. That that allows it to move up my list.. Yeah So for my final note this week, it's actually a a a product I bought recently. I've I've been on a bit of a tear of late trying to really perfect the amount of gear that I take on a trip. I'm doing more and more travel now and I'm finding it more stressful than I did before the pandemic to travel. I never quite feel ready. I I just feel like I'm out of um practice with some of it. And so I I really wanted to focus on the stuff that I could minimize to the extent that it would only remove stress by bringing less stuff. And that for me really comes down to things you plug in in a hotel room. Oh yeah. Like having a as as simple a system as possible. I wanted to get to the point where I pretty much had uh, you know, one wall adapter if I was going to Europe, one little extension cable, and then one charging brick that could do everything from camera batteries to my phone, various headphones, and my computer. The core of this, after a lot of research and consideration and looking at the different options, is the anchor 736. So I think this would be kind of perfect for anyone doing the home and travel thing for your the second location your home. If you have a desk where your laptop goes, that's probably where the OEM charger will be and and tons of other cables if your life is like mine. But when you're maybe next to your bed or or next to a chair where you like to work, you have another one. I think that's where this would live normally. And then when I go travel, I just unplug it and take it with me. But it's um a hundred watt travel charger. It has enough juice to charge up a modern high-end MacBook or other other USB C device. It has two C ports, one USB A port. So if you end up with an older cable or something that just doesn't do the USB th C thing, you've got that. It's not very big and it's about eighty dollars. So you can spend more money for more juice, 140 watts up, but they get quite a bit bigger. And size in a bag matters, size and weight when you want it to fit into one of those ones on the airplane without falling out immediately. That also matters. And and this will store a charge so like it doesn't have to be plugged into the wall to like do charge on the road kind of thing? No, this doesn't have the battery built into it. When I bought the seven three six I also bought a fast charge capable 10,000 milliamp hour battery. Um, so that can be charged by the 736, and then I can leave and still speed charge three uh two devices actually at the same time. Oh nice. That's what that was like a no name thing. It just took a lot of work to find the right one that could charge and discharge on USB C, which is uh convenient and it fits right in that uh one of the little pocket interior pockets of that alpaca uh thing. So it got a new charging solution. Um if you're nerdy like me and a little bit stressed out about travel, it's it's actually kind of more maybe more exciting than I've made the last few minutes sound. Nice. I mean it's all coming together. You got your your anchor inside your alpaca inside your Temba and Yeah, we're going. Put put it all together. But yeah, I got I definitely like got to Austria recently and realized like, oh, I have three travel plugs for different things that all have to go into different parts of the room, and then now you get hotel rooms that only have one or two plugs, and it's a whole thing. And I was like, all right, I need to rethink this. And and maybe there's a couple other people in the audience who who were thinking about the same thing. I like it when you don't have to buy something specifically for travel, it works just as well at home and then it it adapts nicely for travel. So but
Jason Heaton good use there, not too expensive. That was a good episode. I real heavy duty watch talk, um a couple of solid final notes. You've got a trip to go on, so without uh further ado, as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegreynado.com. Music throughout a siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music
James Stacey Archive. And we leave you this quote from Marcel Proust, who said, The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.