The Grey Nato - Ep 23 - Collection Inspection Vol 3¶
Published on Tue, 06 Dec 2016 09:04:08 -0500
Synopsis¶
In episode 23 of The Grey NATO podcast, hosts James Stacy and Jason Heaton announce their first-ever giveaway—a Seiko SRP Padi Edition dive watch generously donated by watch journalist Max Bustamante. The main segment features their third "Collection Inspection," where each host discusses a significant watch from their personal collection. James covers his Bremont Solo white dial pilot's watch, praising its legibility, versatile strap options, and exceptional anti-reflective crystal. Jason discusses his Oris Big Crown ProPilot Altimeter, a unique mechanical watch incorporating a working barometric altimeter, which he tested during a memorable flight in a vintage fighter jet and found particularly useful for hiking in the mountains.
The hosts also share updates from their recent adventures. Jason recounts a diving trip to Bonaire where he tested Deep Blue dive computers and new Scubapro fins while photographing underwater. James discusses his deep dive into researching USB-rechargeable flashlights, ultimately settling on an affordable Zanflare F1. Their final notes include fascinating long-form reads about early diving history, the Trieste deep-sea expedition, and aviation accidents, plus a thrilling account of setting a cross-country driving record in a Morgan three-wheeler.
Links¶
Transcript¶
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| James Stacy | Welcome to episode twenty-three of the Grey NATO, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, gear, and most certainly watches. I'm James Stacy. And I' |
| Jason Heaton | m Jason Heaton. Before we get into today's main topic, uh James has some details on our holiday season giveaway. James, what's the deal |
| James Stacy | ? Well, I mean, we could take very little credit for this, but I I am really excited. Uh my pal and colleague at a blog to watch Max found himself in a pickle uh when he was gifted a second Seiko SRP diver. So because he's a good and generous dude and and also a fan of kind of TGN's big love for Seiko divers, he wants to give away this spare watch to the TGN audience, which is amazing. So now we have our first giveaway. Oh, and also this isn't some garden variety SRP 777. This is actually the Patty Edition SRP A21. Awesome. One of the most fun versions of our favorite watch of 2016. The rules for the giveaway are going to be super simple. At some point in this show, Jason is going to let you know a special code word, basically like an Instagram hashtag. Then we need you to go to Instagram and follow Max. He's at watchmax w at c MAX and our account at the Greenado. Sometime shortly after this episode episode twenty three goes live, we will put a specific giveaway post on the TGN account. Comment on that post by tagging one friend, uh, we recommend like your favorite adventure buddy, and use that special code word hashtag that we'll tell you later in the episode, and you're entered for the giveaway. The giveaway will run until December 31st. There will be a huge worldwide countdown to mark the end of the giveaway, and also perhaps New Year's Eve. And we will select a winner and contact you on Instagram. Be sure you're following both accounts. So what an amazing giveaway. And uh, Max, thank you so much for the generosity. And uh yeah, we can move on with the show. Be sure to stay tuned for your codeword hashtag for Instagram |
| Jason Heaton | . Yeah, this is uh this is super exciting. So thanks a lot to Max and uh good luck to all of our listeners out there with the with the contest. Uh moving on to today's main topic, uh we're going to do a third installment of the series that we have called the Collection Inspection, where James and I discuss a particular watch from our own collections. And previously we we've done two previous volumes of this, this being volume three. James has talked about previously his Omega Seamaster Professional and his Helios Tropic, and I tackled my own uh Rolex Submariner and my Bremont Supermarine 2000. So today we've each picked a different watch, about which we're going to wax poetic. James, |
| James Stacy | which one did you pick for today? I picked a watch uh not unlike my Seamaster, which had been in my collection for a long time. I picked a watch I've had for quite a few years now, the Bremont uh solo. It's the forty three millimeter, the white version. I got it around Christmas twenty twelve. And uh yeah, so that that's uh |
| Jason Heaton | that's the one I've got. What have you picked for today? I guess we' gotve sort of a pilot's watch theme going here for a couple of divers like we are. Um I've got the Auris Big Crown Pro Pilot Altimeter, which is a watch of course we've I think we talked about a little bit. I I brought it to uh Vancouver for our uh T GN summit over the summer. So yeah, a couple of pilots watches uh pretty cool. I I happen to really love the your solo. I mean I I know I saw it in person when I was in Vancouver and I think I've seen it at uh at Basel World, but I something about that white dial on that watch, uh it's every time I see a picture of it that you post on Instagram, it's just it's just so striking. It's just such a minimalist beautiful watch. Yeah, it' |
| James Stacy | s kind of razor sharp, but it's very like aesthetically maybe traditional is the word I want. Mm-hmm. You know, like it kind of has the same sort of razor sharpness as like a pelagos, but not that kind of stark stop sign sort of aesthetic. Yeah. And at 43 millimeters it's, roughly my largest watch. Certainly the largest that I wear frequently. And I find that uh it's it's just kind of become my go-to big watch. It's super comfortable because you know I love the Braymont, the triptych case. This is an early version of the white dial, which has uh screwdown crown, which is a nice addition, not at all important for the way that I actually use or or kind of kick around with the solo. But y you know, the the the watch has been fantastic for quite a few years and and I've banged it into all sorts of stuff and that that hardened steel case really takes a scratch well. It looks really clean. And uh and yeah, I just I really adore the dial. It's it's kind of a matte with a bit of a silver in it. It's a strange white. It's it's a very different white than my Explorer 2, and uh and then of course you get kind of white metal. I think they might be white gold, but I don't remember specifically. You know, numerals and then kind of luminous elements at twelve, three, six, and nine and a date. I love the legibility. I think it looks great on a gray NATO, on a green NATO leather strap. White dials really take straps well |
| Jason Heaton | . Um and you've certainly mounted it on quite a few. I I think uh it's funny when the solo first came out, I can't remember what year they introduced that watch, but it it was I it just didn't do much for me. And you know, since that time my my wife uh Gishani actually uh she got the the 37mm version with the black dial and and she wears it fairly often and it's be it's kind of risen to the top of the heap uh close to the top of the heap for me when it comes to to Braymont watches. I I think it's uh you know it has that great um i th they kind of they kind of targeted this uh at that sort of IWC Mark series sort of aesthetic, you know, the classic pilot's watch, and and yet they did it in a really original way, like I think Braymont just has a knack for doing. You know, they take these these sort of classic forms like the Super Marine with a dive watch or and the solo with with a pilot's watch and and they keep the aesthetic but they they kind of do it in their own way and and of course the the build quality on these is always so good |
| James Stacy | . Yeah I I really like uh the finishing is relatively simple you know it's mostly brushed you can actually now buy a polished version the solo slash PW or PB polished white dial, polish black dial. Um, you know, I saw that at Basel last year, and certainly not to my taste. Yeah. Just because I loved brushed steel and I really like the the case while you know straight on is quite simple from any angle being uh the triptych case. It's actually you know it's nice, it's a th a three-piece case where the lugs are built into the top segment, which also kind of mounts the bezel, and then below that you have kind of the middle barrel, which on the uh on my solo is a kind of black PvD. Uh and then you have the case back, which is a display case back. You know, I I wouldn't have paid extra to have the display case back, the movement they use while it keeps fantastic time and has been very reliable for me. Uh doesn't need to be seen, in my opinion. It's it's kind of like my my Zen has a display case back. I just don't need it. Yeah. Um and I I think with a pilot's watch you could have kind of that's that's a nice canvas for a cool design. Uh steel you know, the steel case back. Yeah. But yeah, they make uh so this is a uh 43mm version and they make a 37, which you mentioned uh Gashani having, which is a very cool watch. Uh my buddy Paul has uh one of those, which I think is really neat, and at that size, it really has a very very much a vintage appeal, especially if you're used to wearing a big watch. Right. And then just last year they announced the solo 32, which is a specific ladies model, so it's a chronometer. Uh but in 32 millimeters, it's also a very nice style. Certainly, again, Braymont's first specifically ladies line. So the the solo is kind of expanded. You have in in the 43mm side you have the the white and black in polished, the white and black in brushed, and then of course you have the solo CR, which one is I've never actually seen in person, but that uses kind of a cream marker and hand. Oh, I do like that one on a black dial, which I think would probably look really smart in person. Yeah. For me it's all about the uh the white dial. You know, I had seen w when I decided to buy this watch, I had been heavily weighing the uh the S500, which is the first Braymont that I kind of borrowed from the brand for review, and and a watch that I still to this day really love but you know I I found it quite thick on wrist and certainly with the if you wear it with the bracelets quite heavy and when I saw the solo you know I thought oh it's a black dial pilot's watch it looks very nice. And then I saw the white one and it's the way that the uh the kind of polished markers really play with the light against the relatively matte back of the uh dial and then you get some little bit of red accents at twelve and on the seconds hand, loom is like a BGW9, so it's effective, but not like dive watch. Yeah. I'd love to see them grow this line. You know, I w you and I have talked about this a lot, and we always kind of I always have my fingers crossed as I go to another Basel. Will they do a a GMT? I think it it would be really cool to cross an MB2 with a solo and then do the 12-hour bezel. Uh not on like the kind of special edition they did with I think it was timeless. Oh sure. Yeah. But again, just maintain the white dial, the aesthetic of the white dial, which I think is so clean. And I I find, you know, you can put this watch on I have like an alligator leather strap. And then if you want to wear a blazer and a sweater and kind of do like more of a professor look, it still seems to work despite being kind of a big watch. Yeah. And then on a NATO, I mean I've worn it, I've traveled to many, many places in the world with it as my go-to and current you know, w worn all day watch. It's very tough and easy to wear. It fits under a fits under a shirt cuff without too much trouble. And uh it's uh it's just a |
| Jason Heaton | treat, you know I'm I'm curious about the the screwdown crown because uh you know I for one thing I guess I'm curious um how it came to be that that the solo had a screwdown crown at the beginning and then they went away from that because so many of I remember, you know, the Alt One C and the you know, the the chronographs with the the inner bezel and and pretty much everything except the the Supermarine series doesn't have a screwdown crown, so I'm just curious. Do do you know the stor |
| James Stacy | y behind that? I don't know the backstory. I actually, you know, shortly after I well no, I guess not shortly, but you know, sometime after I bought the watch, I think there was a time where I was maybe the only guy kind of on Twitter and Instagram posting photos of it. Mm-hmm. Aside from you know Braymont's press images and such. Yeah. And a guy that I followed in the UK, he bought one and then wrote me, you know, hey, is yours a screwdown, mine's not. And then I think he reached out to uh to Braymont and they said, Yeah, the the early ones were and uh and the later ones are it doesn't affect the water resistance and I I don't think it would bother me if mine wasn't. Uh but it it's I guess it's kind of interesting that, you know, being an early one that it is and uh you know, as as a kind of dive watch fan you kind of have this mythos that you have to have a screwdown |
| Jason Heaton | crown. Right. It it's interesting too that um you mentioned that this was your first white dial watch. I wonder if it was a kind of a gateway watch to your Explorer Two, which of course is is your other white white dial watch, which of course uh beauty that we talked about befor |
| James Stacy | e Seiko World Timer, which is I guess you would say the Seiko World Timer is like silver. Yeah. Uh but on wrist in sunlight it very much feels like you're wearing a white a white dial. Uh I d I do like a white dial and I think the the solo kind of kicked me out of a funk of pretty much just sticking to black dial watches with BGW nine or C three markers, very much you know within the range of an SKX or or or something like that and now got a blue tropic, I've got the world timer, I've got a yellow autodromo. So I guess yeah, if it maybe maybe it was not only a kind of a kickoff point for liking and enjoying white dials, but |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, no, it it's great. I mean I uh it makes me think that I need it I I don't think I currently own a white dial watch and and every time I see them, I I'm just so drawn to them. So yeah, need to correct that at some |
| James Stacy | point. Well, I think one of the my f easily my favorite aesthetic element of my Explorer two, which is is the white one, the the sixteen five seventy polar um is the black surrounds oh yeah on the markers in the hands. I I absolutely adore it. I just think it that on white is such an awesome look. Yeah. And the solo, the white solo manages to to copy some of that simply because the markers and hands have a polished face. Mm-hmm. So when they're not catching light, they look quite dark against a white background, the same way that like a polished hand or face disappears against a black background. Right, right. It actually stands out. It goes the opposite direction in with a white one. And when you combine that kind of element with what I would argue is the one of the best, simply one of the best crystals I've ever come across that that's domed. Yeah. Lots of watches can get away with a fantastic, you know, very anti-reflective flat crystal. I mean, you look at my Xin 144, and you only know there's a crystal there because some of there's some little scratches in the AR. Yeah. Otherwise you can't see the crystal at all. Yeah. But with the Solo, it's a it's a slightly domed crystal and then it's something like I'd have to go back and check my notes, but it's over a dozen layers of antireflective coating. Oh wow. And each one is like hardened or polished to really ensure like the best possible optical performance. They're really crazy about the crystal. Yeah. And you see that on the Super Marine, because that has a fairly domed crystal, and you look at it and you go, There's no way that watch could be as anti-reflect, like that crystal could be as transparent as it is in photos. Right. And you see it in person, it's just excellent. Yeah. |
| Jason Heaton | I I love I love the Bremont domes, especially when you look at them from profile. They're they're they're just a perfect, just a ever so slight dome. But yeah, you're right. They're much more legible than |
| James Stacy | than so many other domed crystals I've seen. Yeah, and I find I find that the you get a a a really strong legible face on on the solo in both the black and the white, but certainly the white just kinda uses that polished white metal marker and and hand outline to its advantage as far as just |
| Jason Heaton | pure contrast. Yeah, it's a great watch and and we're of course we're both big fans of Braymont. I I think a lot of times uh they do everything with sort of a wink. There's sort of a uh they they love the adventure aspect of watches and and sort of the they respect the history of watches that are used for for adventure and I think that |
| James Stacy | that that definitely appeals to me. Yeah, for sure. I've uh yeah, like like I said, it's been it's been a great watch. You know, I I bought the bracelet, and I know like on on with your aurus the strap is you have to be kind of careful what what you use as far as the strap because of the size of the watch. Yeah. And I actually can't explain why the bracelet for the the solo is fine. It's very nice. It's a gr nice steel bracelet. Relatively simple but super sturdy and nicely made. But I like never wear it on the bracelet. It feels it it it feels like it triples the weight of the watch both visually and just yes the actual weight of the watch. Yeah. So it looks nice, especially with the white dial on a bracelet always looks good, but it's uh it's too much. I you know I really like the the actually OEM brown leather strap. I commented recently on Instagram that the strap had held up so well over so many years. You know, it has a nice kind of curved edge that fits into the uh shape of the case and and the lugs, but doesn't actually sit against the leather. So it still looks like a str like a leather strap should, like with that gap. Yeah. And it it's just worked out well. It's very comfy. And then the one that it came with was nice. I mean, I think if I was recommending somebody buy a solo, I wouldn't tell them to go out and get the bracelet. Uh it's great on the Temple Island, they're a rubber strap, and it's really good on the house leather. And uh you know it,'s a nice brown kind of brightling style brown leather strap with contrast stitching that matches the dial really nicely. And then really, you could even do away with all of those options and just wear it on a NATO because it's just very comfortable that way. Yeah, I I |
| Jason Heaton | I remember trying that um that bracelet on on my Super Marine two thousand and uh you know it like you said, it's it's certainly a a high quality bracelet. Um but the the aesthetic it's it's that sort of if I m remember right, it's almost like a speedmaster style with that little thin which has never really been my favorite style. I I'm just kind of a classic sort of three link guy. Um I I don't know, for some reason Braymont's worked really well on straps and I think the solo with that white dial and just all the elements that you talked about just uh it goes so well on I don't know, anything I've seen you |
| James Stacy | post it on. Uh yeah, for sure. I mean I'll uh I'll take a I'll I'll be sure to get a a few pictures of the watch up around when the this episode comes out, but uh certainly there's tons in the history of my Instagram and you can find my original review on uh on a blog to watch. But uh uh let's take a look at this uh propilot altimeter. So It's big in every dimension. Yeah. Yeah, I think it's my biggest, heaviest watch. For sure. I would say it's also fairly different from what you normally wear. 'Cause it it's quite modern in both its aesthetic and its its technology and and and that sort of thing. So w what kind of led you to even selecting that watch from you know, Oris makes so many watches you could choose from, many many great watches. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it r you know it really wasn't on my radar much at all, though I did I I you know I did pay attention to it when it when it first came out and when the announcement came out and I thought um you know neat neat idea. I mean uh you know for those that maybe aren't familiar with this watch the the Pro Pilot altimeter uh what really sets it apart is that it incorporates a mechanical altimeter within the watch case. So it's a if I remember correctly, it's actually the first th they you know, to get hyperbolic about it,. it It was the world's first self-winding watch that incorporates a mechanical altimeter. Um previously I remember going to to Basel when that brand uh Breva, which is a very small brand, um introduced a couple of watches that had an altimeter in them that used this sort of similar concept of barometric pressure used to to tell altitude. But those watches were extremely expensive for one thing, like really, really expensive. And they were hand-wound, in-house movement, you know, all sorts of things. So this is just a whole different animal. These watches are somewhere between, I don't know, three and five thousand dollars. I can't remember what I paid for this, but um much more reasonably priced than than Brava was and and apparently the world's first automatic uh watch with an altimeter in it. And um I so I you know going back to what attracted me to it, I I've always liked Oris as a brand, and I've always liked the their pilot's watches. And this one carries forward a lot of the aesthetics that the rest of the Big Crown Pro Pilot family has. It has these sort of radially knurled band um around the the bezel. Um the crown is is really deeply fluted. The bezel looks really cool. The bezel looks really cool. It has this vaguely i i they ri I guess what I really like about it is uh you know, as much as you and I are both divers or whatever, I'm I'm at heart, I'm really kind of an aviation geek. I I've always loved, you know, jets, fighter jets, flying, um planes, uh pilots, all that kind of the gear and all that that goes along with it. And I think what Oris did with this watch um is they they somehow ca they somehow captured that in in a watch. It's kind of like what we talked about in our last episode about the Autodroma Group B where autodroma really captured that sense of of rally racing in the nineteen eighties in a watch without being overly literal about it. And I think Oris kind of has accomplished the same thing with this watch, where you get this this radial knurling around the bezel, th this de these these big crowns, you know, without any sort of goofy um you know overly literal logos or you know airplane shaped this or that or propellers for seconds hands or any goofiness like that. I think it it just looks like a tool. And I first got a chance to try out this watch because Oris had invited me on a press trip a couple of years ago to Amber I've seen pictures, it just looks unbelievable. Yeah, and it's a beautiful setting. Ambry is in the the Italian speaking part of uh Switzerland, kind of in the south, and um they do this annual fly in that Aura sponsors. And and when I was there, I I I was lucky enough to be one of the the people that was selected to fly in in w a hawker hunter, which is a it was built in the f in the fifties and sixties and seventies. It's a it's a British plane that was used by the Swiss Air Force and it's a you know it's a legitimate Cold War era fighter jet that that um I think it's subsonic, but you know, um you know nevertheless it it's just a really cool fighter jet. And so i I I I got to go on a flight in this in this jet off this little airstrip um amidst all these beautiful mountains. And um I they lent me this propile at Altimeter to wear um, you know, just for this this the few days that I was there. And you know, I it was under the auspices of testing it and certainly I probably glanced at my wrist a couple of times while I was up on the flight, but you know, let's face it, I was I was more enthralled with the flight itself than the watch. But I don't know, somehow being on that trip with that watch sort of imbued it it's sort of it's it's sort of like a smell reminds you of a place and I think that that w the watch sort of reminds me of that trip and reminds me of that experience and it sort of embedded that sense of adventure and flying and and just that whole experience. And so I think it kind of endeared me to the watch and after the trip I I bought one. And I I wear it quite a bit. Having said all this about flying and aviation and pilots' watches, this watch actually I think works much better as sort of a sports watch, an all-around sports watch. You and I took it um on our hike up to uh St. Mark's when I was in Vancouver for the TGN summit over the summer. And since then I also took it to Colorado and did some hiking in the mountains in the in the Rockies there. And it it's remarkably accurate and and you know, as it should be. I mean mechanical altimeters have been around a lot longer than the digital ones we find in like Suntos and Garmin's and things. But it it works really well as as a hiking watch. I mean if you're if you're in an airplane, chances are you're in a pressurized capsule, you're not going to get a true reading of altitude. And I'm guessing most pilots aren't glancing at the wrist when they're when they're flying, you know, for altitude readings. So yeah, even though it has this piloty sort of vibe to it, um I find it works really well as just kind of a a cool watch to wear in |
| James Stacy | the mountains. Yeah, no doubt. I think it it I mean it certainly looked at home hiking around in the mist of uh the Pacific Northwest when you're here and it's uh the Dow has like a fantastic kind of three dimensionality to it |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I mean i the the construction of this watch is really interesting because what they've done is they've sort of it i they've sort of suspended the the mechanical automatic watch movement, which I think is a Salita movement, um sort of in a bowl almost that rides or is suspended above a bowl on which the the needle for the altimeter spins. And then the altimeter unit is actually in the bottom of the watch case. Which you're right, it it lends this incredible detail. There's there's a lot of numbers going on in the dial. I mean the entire outer um track is is the altitude track, and then you get this like valley in between, this cutout section where the altimeter needle spins and then the watch dials in the middle. And yet it all really remains remarkably legible for for as bus |
| James Stacy | y, I guess, as it is. And being, you know, forty-seven millimeters and some eighteen millimeters tall. I mean you have a big wrist, it's not it's not like it looks crazy or anything. It looks fine, but how what do you how do you wear it? How do you how do you find that it's most comfortable? Does it work on a NATO, something that big? Well so the |
| Jason Heaton | strap it came on is really awesome. And and I think it's the same strap that that they also use on a lot of the other propilots. It it's a sort of a woven textile that's backed with leather and and then it comes with a really cool deployant clasp that it you know it's a fold over clasp, but the way you that you release it is very much like and it's modeled after an airplane seatbelt buckle. So you kind of get it. Oh yeah, I remember seeing this. You get your fingernail under it and then you just pull it up and it and it comes loose and it even says um you know, lift, like uh at the little section where you'd you'd lift it. Which you know, having said what I said earlier about them not getting too gimmicky that, that's probably as close as it comes. But it I don't think it's over the top. And I think it was clever. It works really well. And the strap looks really good. They sell two versions of the strap. It comes in like a drab olive, and then I've got the it's sort of a silvery grey. But this textile color, I again it's that notion of capturing sort of an aviation vibe without being too literal, and I can't quite put my finger on what that textile reminds me of. But the strap is great. Um the unfortunate thing is that the fact that it's backed with leather doesn't make it great for for hiking and things like that f too much because it's um you know, if you get sweaty and stuff, you probably would ruin the leather. I've tried it on NATO. It's it's just way too it's way too big, it's way too heavy to wear on NATO. But currently I've currently I've got it on a um it's actually the strap that came on on my Supermarine two thousand my Bremont. It's it's it's the one that Bremont sells with uh several of their watches, it's uh I don't want to call it a NATO style, but it's o it's kind of a one piece strap that has a loop on one end and then the velcro that loops through it on the other end. Oh sure. I think they call it their Zulu. Yeah. Um so originally Braymont was getting it made by c Carl Evans over at Gas Gas Bones, and then I think he ran into some sort of uh volume issues and and it was outsourced somewhere else for a while, but I think he's back to making them for Braymont and I'm not sure which version I have here, but it works really, really well on this watch. I think it it fits it nicely, it um it's a good balance for the just the heft of the watch. So that that that's working for me at this point. Um but uh I noticed on their website actually that they sell this version with uh with a bracelet, which I think would just make it incredibly heavy. And they also announced uh a new version recently, didn't they? Yeah, so I I was looking at their website for kind of some specs and things in preparation for today's show, and you know, they still sell the the same two versions that they always have, which is one that comes in with a feet scale and one with a metric scale. But then I noticed that they have a third version now that that is I I I think it's sort of a limited commemorative edition that pays tribute to like a a Swiss mountain |
| James Stacy | rescue team or something like that. See, I mean that the the new one kind of looks like all the other ones, but it has like a little Swiss flag on the dial and then it's uh what a P V D coating, kind of a d uh medium dark black. Yeah, and I think it works it |
| Jason Heaton | it it looks really different than than it's really cool. It gives it a more of a kind of a tactical look to it |
| James Stacy | . Yeah, and it works well with that like hyper you know aviation gauge sort of you know I, think of of all the pro pilots, because of that altimeter, it looks so much like a piece of aviation equipment. Yeah. Yeah. Like it's just kind of pulled right off of the, you know, dash of some plane and then minimized a bit. Yeah. And do you know what roughly what the price point is? I'm wondering if maybe it's within the same I think it must be within the same vein as the solo. Yeah, I think uh I think both our |
| Jason Heaton | watches today come in right around thirty eight hundred, just um just below four thousand. Is that about what the solo is as |
| James Stacy | well? I actually don't know what the current price is on the solo. When I reviewed it for a blog to watch, it was uh let's see forty one hundred USD. Okay. So my guess is in that four years it's gone up a couple hundred bucks. If I were to really wager, I'd say probably forty three ninety-five, something like that. Sure. Uh plus or minus the bracelet. Hmm. Um what they actually sell for in the store, I I don't know. I don't know like what the retail kind of discounting experience would be on either an Oris or a Braymont. Yeah. Um certainly you can buy Braymont stuff and probably Oris too on like cruises. Right. And then you're not paying taxes. That's gotta be a great way to buy the watch. Yeah. Uh you know, uh or at least a a great way if you already know the watch you're looking for. Yeah. But I've seen, you know, uh Mike, the guy that runs Braymont for the US. Uh, I've seen him on various cruises, so I know that they they must move some watches that way, which is a a pretty attractive way to buy like a luxury good 'cause you do pay a handful in tax or at least you would as a Canadian. Yeah. I'm not a |
| Jason Heaton | Oh yeah. No, I think it's a it it's definitely a viable um great way to buy these things. Um, you know, I've certainly trolled the duty free shops when I've been been traveling and uh it is a good way to do it Regardless, I mean thirty eight hundred dollars for this propilot is it's pretty it's pretty impressive for what you get uh in this watch. Exact |
| James Stacy | ly. Yeah. Similarly, I mean like it's one of the rare watches a watch reviewer could go out of their way and say, like, oh this is a fairly unique watch. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, and and whenever I wear this, um you know, everybody kind of knows not everybody, but you know, a lot of people in the watch enthusiast community, I guess, no Aurus. But Aurus has this real knack for just making keeping price points low while creating pretty interesting watches. I mean that that dive watch with the depth gauge um was really innovative and that that's pretty inexpensive as well. You know, there you can get the really great dive watches from Oris for pfft geez, I think you can get them for c you know, not much more than a thousand bucks uh in some cases, but Yeah, for sure. People get curious, they look at it, th it has just enough kind of interest to it. Um you know, it's got little splashes of red and yellow. Of course there's the whole backstory and kind of the technology behind it. So it's I I would say it's I I wear it quite a bit and it's a watch that it's just it's just fun to wear. I mean it's not practical, it's not something that fits under a shirt sleeve by any means. Um but it's |
| James Stacy | it's a blast. I love it. Great watch, really uh really cool choice and uh you know, I think that basically wraps up collection inspection volume three. We brought a couple pilots watches out of the uh out of the watch case and uh I think both are great watches and I and I kinda see how both kind of suit our taste in other watches as well, like with mine with the with the uh white dial and such, and yours with kind of the crazy complication, and then of course you've got your emergency two, and it's kind of a big toolish pil ofoty sort sports watch and uh you know I think that's well within the vein of your uh kind of collecting collecting sphere. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah we uh we tend to not stray too far from our uh I guess our core values, I guess, so to speak |
| James Stacy | . So yeah, if you have any experience with uh Braymont Solo or an Oris Pro Pilot, whatever, or you have a question with either of these watches, and now you know that one of us has one, please to gradenado at gmail.com, send us your questions, I reply to every single email and the ones that I'm too swamped or too frazzled to reply to I forward to Jason. So that's the way that works and please send us your questions if you've got 'em. We'll be back in just a moment with some new business |
| Jason Heaton | . Okay, so it's time for new business, but before we get into things, uh let me tell you the code word that James mentioned earlier in the show for our holiday giveaway. And that code word is WatchMax T G N. So W A T C H M A X T G N. And if you put the hashtag in front of it, in your Instagram post, we will be able to find it. So watch Max T G N. James, what's ne |
| James Stacy | w in your world? Oh man, so I went down um a rabbit hole on flashlights. So I I guarantee that a lot of the guys, and theoretically some women that listen to TGN uh know a lot about flashlights, but it's something that I only ever have dabbled in long enough to find one that I like and then I I quickly back out. Because it is one of these like slippery slope hobbies where you're like, oh this forty dollar flashlight's so much better than the ten dollar one I got at that work gave me yeah as a gift or that somebody gave me for you know that uses two double A's or plugs into USB and then before you know it forty is like oh I really need this one made by a guy in Ohio and he mills the case by hand and then you're into like the Chris Reeves things with the knife and you're buying a four hundred dollar flashlight and and I know that I'm that person that does that. Oh yeah. So I just I I I knew I wanted a brighter flashlight that was USB rechargeable and even if it just had like okay reviews that was fine by me because I don't like use a flashlight all the time. I'm not like in search and rescue or anything. But I wanted to have one that like I could throw in a bag when I go to Basel, you walk into an Airbnb and it's pitch black, or you're trying to find that stupid Swiss power port somewhere around your room and and just something like that and and and that wasn't too big, but also not like a keychain size thing. Yeah. So I dug around and I I almost bought some stuff from four sevens and I almost bought some uh I almost bought some some stuff from Mech Army. And then I came across these uh reviews for kind of a Chinese-made light called the Zan Flare F1. It's made by a company called Gearbest, which is like if you imagine an Amazon for random thing, semi-random tech items out of China. Yeah. That's kind of what Gear Best is. You know, I bought a Mi Band, a Zhao Mi Band, like a it's like a fitness tracker from them. So that's the only reason I knew Gear Best. But the the Zanflare is kind of their swing at copying the best elements of these more expensive flashlights and kind of building them into something that they offer for a much lesser price. Yeah. And it just so happened that when I came across the page, it was also in a like a pre-Black Friday sale if enough people bought it. And enough people had already bought this light, so it was like, I think I got it for $30. Oh wow. And so I mean it's um it's super super powerful. It's not too big. It's a nice kind of simple black metal flashlight. It's an aluminum body. So yeah, I got it for 25% off. It's on for 40 right now. Max output with the correct battery is 1240 lumens. Wow. Which is 3x what my dive lamp does at 400. Yeah. And uh and then it has um it has kind of a a a tail switch and a thumb switch to take you through the modes so there's kind of a nice way of controlling because there's variable brightness. Some of these rechargeable lights, you have to like take the light apart to get to the rechargeable part, like where the where the port is for the USB cable. Yeah. This has like a ring about mid-flashlight that you unscrew and it just uncovers the port and the ring is double is gasketed on both sides. Wow. And it uses uh yeah uh aluminum body and it has a charge indicator and uh it it'll remember the last brightness you had it on via the tail switch. Wow. So it'll kind of jump back and forth to the way you want to use it. And yeah, it does something like twelve hundred and forty lumens and then ramps down when the light starts to heat up, so you get like 30 seconds or something at that brightness, and it brings it down to, I guess, a more reasonable 500. And like I'm currently borrowing a flashlight from a buddy that does 220 lumens. Yeah. This kind of nice model from Phoenix called the E35. And Phoenix has uh upgraded models of the E35, which are I think in many ways what the Zanflare is copying. You know, this is kind of your traditional like pocket-sized flashlight. It's maybe four or five inches long and maybe a roll of nickels around and it works really well at 220 lumens. So I think the twelve hundred and forty is like I guess if you wanted a blind someone oh sure. Signal an aircraft. I'm not sure like just but you know, that flexibility's nice and certainly the the the rechargeability is is kind of key for what I wanted. And uh all the kind of flashlight forums had various reviews of them and people seem to really dig 'em. So I've got one of those uh coming in the mail and then a couple batteries from eBay, so I'm not sure you want to talk more about flashlights, but that that's what I use. I mean do you have a flashlight that you love or or are we are we closet flash |
| Jason Heaton | light guys? I don't I don't think I don't know. Well I didn't think I was, but y you know, when you were talking about it I was I was thinking about this collection of of lights that I have and most of them are are you know, dive lights and uh when when I came to Vancouver and we were diving there I brought my um probably my best light, which is a light in motion Sola eight hundred, which is so so much fun to use. Yeah, I mean it's uh they're bomb proof, you know, underwater lights that you can use as like a video light or just as a a regular hand torch for looking for octopus and stuff like that. But you know, I've I've got kind of a cool Hollis LED three that I use for diving, kind of a smaller one, and then kind of the two that that you can use topside that are probably m the brightest ones are are also light in motion and they're called the Gobi lights. And they're they're really kind of quirky lights. I they have kind of a weird target market because light in motion does bike lights and they also do dive lights and this is sort of the merging of the two. So these you can carry them in your hand, like small flashlights, but then they have mounts that you can put on like arms for diving for like putting on a tray with a camera Okay. Or they have like mounts for for mounting to like a bicycle handlebar or your your helmet. And I I think I think they're like si |
| James Stacy | x or seven hundred lumens. Yeah, it looks like they run between five hundred and like eight fifty, depending on the lamp |
| Jason Heaton | . Yeah, a and then you can get like spot or um flood um lenses for them. Um so they're they're pretty versatile lights. I I don't use them much, but they're um you've kind of made me you've kind of inspired me to dig them out and and charge them up because they've they're they're they're really sturdy, they're really versatile, they're very light. Um and I should use them. I think when I got them I thought, oh these are dive lights, but um I think I think they'd have some good use topside as well. And I like your idea of tucking a small one in a bag. Maybe it's not the Gobi, maybe I need to start uh heading down that rabbit hole that you went down and and pick up a a nice small flashlight that' a little bitll send you flare F1 the next time it's |
| James Stacy | on sale. Yeah. Yeah right. But yeah, I I find it pretty handy. Like it you you I often have the um use the LED on my phone uh to do a little bit and then you realize just how how much nicer it is when you I you know, I'll grab a headlamp, which is typically my go to flashlight around the house is a headlamp. You know, you're fixing something under a sink. Right. Or y you're digging through a a pile of something in a storage locker and you really want to be able to see what you're going for. I I love a good headlamp, but the uh yeah we'll we'll we'll see what I get out of this. Um maybe it was forty dollars with the battery, you know, not well spent, but I'll I'll report back in case anyone's interested, and of course we'll include links in the show notes. Yeah. And uh how about you? You you just came back from uh from from some diving. How was all of that? Good trip |
| Jason Heaton | ? It was a good trip. Uh you know, it it kind of incorporates a lot of what we do. We talk about a new business because it was an experience, but then I also got a chance to to test out some new gear. My wife and I were in uh Bonair, which is one of our favorite places. I've probably talked about it before on the show. For sure. It's down in the southern Caribbean, and we were there for uh a full week kind of over the Thanksgiving week here in the U.S. And we were there to do a kind of a commercial photo shoot for a company called Deep Blue that makes digital dive computers and they had sent along five different colors, color versions of of this new dive computer that they've come out with called the Cosmic Plus, which is a a computer I think we talked about quite a while ago. I think that was in new business probably back in the summer. Um but I finally got a chance to dive with these computers down there. We did about um fifteen or sixteen dives over six days, all shore diving. So there were no boat charters involved, which which is really what I think is the beauty of of Bonaire is it's one of these, you know, great southern Caribbean spots with with really healthy reefs, but what what makes it fun is that you just rent a a pickup truck and drive up and down the coast with with tanks in the back and and throw 'em on your back whenever you find a good spot on the beach and and wade into the water, swim out to the reef and and dive as long as you've got air. And so we we just did a lot of that. We took a lot of photos. I think Gashani took seventeen hundred photos, uh of which we we have to weed down to somewhere between twenty and thirty for for delivery. So, you know, it it was a lot of work. Most mostly most of our diving was to take photos uh of this uh these new dive computers. Which I'll I'll I'll say I'm I'm quite impressed with these dive computers. The Cosmic Plus, the the cool thing about them is um you know there's uh it's But what they've done is is they've made this computer uh you know it,' its's digital, got a a big bright dis digital display. Um all the functions, all the settings are set through uh via Bluetooth via um uh an app on your phone. So you set up, you know, whether you want feet or meters, the time of day, um how conservative you want the the computer to track your dive. The algorithm that it uses you know there's a number of settings that you kind of dial in via |
| James Stacy | the phone app. If you've like you and I know like I I've I use uh dive with uh Centos Zoop and to change those settings on the Zoop, you know, you're kind of mashing these buttons that aren't exactly you know they don't give you any tactile feedback. Yeah. And you're trying to figure out going, you know, it's nested menus, so you're going back and forwards through menus to try and find everything to get it the way you want. And you can change the algorithm on a zoop, I think it's one, two, or three. And uh you know, in in terms of level of conservatism and of course you when you go back to get your dive logs to write it down, that's a pain because then you have that plastic guard that protects the screen is all fogged up so you're having trouble figuring out are am I in the menu, am I in the the log? Right. I imagine that this is a a pretty refreshing experience where you just kind of do what you normally do and flip through your phone and get everything the way you want it. Yeah it feels very modern. It feels |
| Jason Heaton | like next generation. Because I I've I've dived with the Zoop or the previous version which was called the Gecko for many, many years and and it took a little bit of getting used to but the the cosmic uh you know the the setting on the phone is nice, but then what happens is when you get it on your wrist, um the display is is really bright, works really well in in especially in darker conditions. It's a little hard to read in in really bright daylight. But um even even kind of toggling through the menus on the computer itself was really simple to kind of put it in nitrox mode and you dial in the percentage of oxygen that you've got in your mix. Oh cool. Yeah the, the the safety stop countdown it has this feature that I just wish Sunto I mean they should just do it. Um it counts down minutes and seconds. So if you remember from your Zoop, it's like you go on a three minute safety stop and it's like three, two, or one minutes, and you're like you have no idea where you are. And and this thing just counts down. It's like starts at three minutes and two fifty-nine, two fifty-eight, two fifty-seven, and you you can just watch it and that three min |
| James Stacy | ute countdown on a really cold dive. Yeah. Yeah. Where you're you're you have to stop moving roughly for the for the safety stop, or at least limit your movements, and you can feel the blood start to cool in your hands and your arms and your feet, and you're just like, oh, I really hope that that three becomes a two soon. Yeah. Ye |
| Jason Heaton | ah. Yeah. So uh there are a lot of lot of things I really liked about it. Um it's got kind of a neat NATO style Velcro strap, kind of not unlike the Bremont one that I was telling you I have on my on my Aurus right now. So you know really really a fun a fun way to kind of test them out and and take it. And do they charge on USB? Yeah so it's a USB charger with a magnetic um attachment. Okay. So it |
| James Stacy | just rubbery flap that's gonna flow. No. Oh cool, okay. Yeah, it just sticks to the bank. How many dives for battery or minutes diving for battery life or |
| Jason Heaton | So um I think I got so when it's fully charged, I think I got about two full days of diving off of it. So you know roughly five or six dives um in very normal person to go out for a day and then charge it that way. Totally. Totally. I haven't tried it on you know the cold cold dives like Great Lakes or up where you are. Um I'd love to I'd love to try it out there. But uh you know so far so good I saw some photos. It looked great. Great. You know, it it was funny to have this ultra high-tech modern dive computer on one wrist and then this really minimalist retro no date uh you know dive watch with a a bezel that just has like But it was it was fun. You know, I mean uh uh as you know, you know, when you wear a a good a good dive watch dive wat divching, you really hardly even notice it. It just it kind of wears well, um, doesn't snag on stuff, easy to read. Um and you know held up well all week. It was it was really fun to wear. So I'm gonna be doing a a review on Hodinky of that unimatic so um you know maybe by the time this episode airs we'll we'll have that up or or within a few days of it. So uh very cool. Looking forward to reading it. And then the final bit of of new gear that I was trying out on this trip. Um I you know, for years, almost since the beginning of my diving career, I've I've dived with uh these fins called force fins, which is from a kind of a quirky small company in California that custom molds, almost pairs per order, you know, to to order when you when you order them. Um and they're kind of funky frog-looking short little fins um that I've I've loved for years, but you know, my my wife slash photographer was hoping that she could get some fins on me that would show up a little bit better in photos, maybe get a little color, so I I kind of scouted around and and read some reviews and I I picked up a pair of Scuba Pro twinjet Max fins in bright yellow. Nice. And I was a little skeptical because uh the advantage of the force fins is they're they're s small and and fairly light, but they have a completely open foot pocket in the front. So, you know, your your not only your toes you can wiggle your toes, but almost the entire front of your foot is free. So it it really eliminates any issues with cramping while you're diving. So I was kind of worried about going to a fin that is a little bit more closed at the front, but the I had no issues. The the scuba pros were wonderful. Great power. Slightly positively buoyant, which is different than the force fins, which kind of always had my Sure. And uh you know the spring straps, easy to pull on and off. Um I I loved 'em. They they're great. Cool. Yeah, really nice. It was a good week. We did you know mostly uh reef diving. We did a couple of dives on on a wreck there and uh yeah, like I said just any wildlife highlights? Um you know, we saw I mean Bonaire is is all about kind of the smaller stuff. You don't really get uh many big things. I mean we we saw a few turtles, we saw um you get uh like cuttlefish there. Awesome um you get uh I don't think we saw an octopus on this trip. Uh but you get like flounders and and scorpion fish and and lion fish which are invasive down there, but they're still kind of kind of fun to see. But you know, I I spend so much time posing with this stupid computer on my wrist that you just don't get much time to be looking at |
| James Stacy | Yeah, I guess it's not tourist diving when you've got it 'cause it's so much work to shoot underwater. Yeah. And you have to get coverage, otherwise you start all over again on the next dive. Yeah. I guess that makes sense. And you can blow a huge amount of time and gas just kind of holding your position. Yeah. Uh for the lights and the and the camera and such. But that's uh that's really cool. I'm jealous. You know, I haven't been in the water uh for a while, certainly not tropical. I I was just looking at my images from a year ago, you know, Google Google uh photos like hey, look what you were doing a year ago when I was diving in Mexico with the pelagos and the oh yeah the Halios Delphin and the Aurus sixty-five. And yeah, I would love to be doing a little warm water diving, so that's that's great. I'm I'm uh I'm definitely jealous. And I'll be less jealous when your winter returns, but uh Well it's coming, it's coming. Yeah, no doubt. You uh feeling some final notes? Yeah, let's move on. Cool. So uh I'll kick this off. I've got um my first one is uh a post by a guy, uh auto writer Zach Bowman. Uh, he and another guy whose name you may recognize if you've been into cars for a while, uh Alex Roy went and drove the LA to NYC, the cannonball route, roughly twenty nine hundred miles in a Morgan three wheeler. Oh jeez. Which is, you know, a car that's basically they're still making like it was nineteen forty five or f nineteen forty, I suppose. And the title, so this is on uh the drive.com fantastic car website that's popped up. It's where Alex Roy does all his writing and I've enjoyed really really enjoyed a all of his recent posts, but his co driver for this endeavor, Zach Bowman wrote a great piece called I Set the LA to NY Record in a Morgan III Wheeler. And then the byline is and it was absolutely terrible. I can imagine. So this is a car that's uh like barely room for two people to sit in it. I mean you would drive it for twenty minutes and feel like you probably aged a couple years. Mm-hmm and these guys drove it across country and I won't say the time, it's in the post. And then of course for, those of you who know who Alex Roy is, he at one time held the all-time record for NYC to LA, the kind of uh Brock Yates cannonball uh in a uh highly modified bmw m five at thirty one hours four minutes. And a couple years ago a guy beat that time and actually came in, I believe at twenty-nine hours fifty-one minutes, I wanna say. And so I mean this is all done. There's like a a a kind of secret society that that curates people claiming to have done this. Originally the cannonball, if I have my fact straight, the cannonball was set up by a guy named Brock Yates uh to protest the onslaught of speed limits uh across the highway system of the US and his plan was to show that you could drive at ridiculous speeds safely across these great roads and so they did it a number of times and it's where you also get uh was the movie with um oh burt reynolds a cannonball run is kind of that kind of makes more of a joke out of the whole thing, but uh certainly if you go back and read up on Brock Gates if you're interested in it, and then that record kind of sat dormant for a long time, and then Alex Roy and was involved with some of the early gumball rally stuff before it was maybe as broy and rich guy as it's become. Yeah. And then took his uh this really nice E39 M5 that's full of all sorts of tech and an additional um you know gas tank. It's modified to go very long distances at very high speeds and do its best to avoid uh police detection and uh and set his time 31 hours four minutes. He wrote a book. I believe there was a documentary when the statute of limitations for basically all the GPS records would show you how fast you are, where you're going, and when. Yeah. So they had to make sure that the all of that had kind of cleared before they talked too much about it. And he's since then done he's done the run, he holds the record for a Tesla as well, and now the record for an open top vehicle, a three wheel vehicle, and I I guess specifically a Morgan three wheeler. So I you know, I guess you could modify uh Ariel Adam or something and try and catch their time, but uh really crazy and and when you read this post it's bonkers how terrible it sounds. It it |
| Jason Heaton | sounds horrible, but I I even think that that trip trying to set a record that I mean that's a long drive and even you know even the pr e even earlier records at you know roughly thirty hours uh that's such an insane time to do that number of miles |
| James Stacy | . Yeah, I think you start I think you break into the respect area if you have a very fast car and you come in under forty hours. Wow. But yeah, so it's basically you need a you need the better gas tank, you need of you need to know your route very well. Yeah. Um and then you get into the legal issues of like you have to know what states have reciprocity with your license. Oh. So it's preferable to have a license from a state that doesn't have reciprocity, so you'll just pay the money. Oh. But of course, if you're talking about and I don't condone any of this, but not that it matters one way or another, people are gonna do it, some of these guys going a hundred and sixty miles an hour. Oh sure. They're not giving you a fine for that in any state, I assume. They just take the car. Yeah. Or at least send you to jail. So I mean you have to be kind of smart about it. And certainly in the old days of cannonball run and and some of the other kind of cross-country races that popped up or or or coastal races that popped up in its wake. People were using spotting planes. Oh wow. And d dummy cars sending cars out ahead, things like that, lots of radio contact. And now technology can help a lot with that. And certain states allow you to use all those various technologies. So it's just a question of how legal do you want to go to kind of chase this dream of the seventies and and And this is technically you're not racing anybody except the clock, which m maybe is just as crazy. I don't know. But yeah, it's uh certainly he's done it in a Tesla mo uh something like 90 plus percent of it on autopilot. Oh. Yeah, really cool. Like he was trying to prove a point that that autopilot was better than the average driver. Wow. Certainly better than the average driver. And uh and now in a three-wheeler, and I mean please please go read Zach Bowman's piece because it's it's it's funny, but it's also like it I drew comparisons to reading what people you know climbing mountains, yeah, where every moment is just pure misery, and then they start to get close to the end or the top or whatever, and you start to feel giddy, and like kind of you're losing your mind at certain points, and you're remembering things you've never thought about before because your brain is so bored. Yeah. And uh, you know, it's it's a it's a funny and kind of it's beautifully written uh the post. So check that out. That's uh that's kind of my my first share for the week. Uh you Jason, you've got a a long reading |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I um I so I've I've got two long reads uh for my uh final notes this week. The first is uh it was a really cool long form article that was written by a guy named James Nestor, who I had heard of previously, because he's the author of a great book called Deep, which was about free diving. I encourage anybody to check that book out. Um but this article was called Unfathom Unfathom This article is called Unfathomable and it it really focused on uh this bit of history that I wasn't aware of, although I'd heard of the names of the people involved. It was a kind of about the origins of hardhat salvage diving, which um really came about because of um uh a number of circumstances, but but basically there was a a shipwreck uh in England, um it was kind of a a a warship, um that sank just outside of a harbour in fairly shallow water by kind of our divers terms, about eighty feet deep. But at in those days it was, you know, pretty well inaccessible to anybody. And but it had a lot of uh a lot of very valuable stuff on board that that you know the government really was eager to get back. And so these two brothers, Charles and John Dean, um kind of put their heads together and and came up with this idea to uh use like a brass helmet um mated to a canvas suit that that I one of the brothers had invented for use by firefighters that never really caught on. And they suddenly had this brainstorm that we could use this to do underwater salvage work by, you know, attaching an air hose to it and pumping compressed air. And so they did all these weird experiments like I don't know if it was like in the Thames River or you know, somewhere where they they were were just testing out this system. And ultimately it worked. And you know, as the story goes, they kind of made great wealth and whatever by salvaging not only this wreck, but they became kind of the go-to guys for salvaging shipwrecks back in the 1780s and 90s. But but beyond kind of that historical element, it it's kind of a fascinating piece about the relationship between the two brothers and kind of their rise and fall of their fortune and fame and kind of what their uh what their good fortune did to their relationship with each other, how it affected their lives. And it you know, it it reads like it's almost Shakespearean in a way, and and it kind of marries this great historical diving piece with um kind of this very human story about these two brothers. So again, great story. It's called Unfathomable and it's it was part of a on a website called Epic Magazine, which I hadn't heard of before, but the format is really cool. It it really it's done in in a really nice kind of scrolling digital format with some some great visuals and animations uh that uh is really kind of worthy of of reading on a computer, which, you know, a lot of online articles you just you know, I I don'd almost just rather read them in a paper magazine or something. But this this works really well in that in this format. So we'll throw a link in the show notes and and uh you you really should check it out. I don't know if you've had a chance to read that yet, James. |
| James Stacy | A couple of people you you know, you included s sent me the link and uh and and I clicked on it and and I thought that the title was exciting and then I saw the visual and I and then I started to scroll to get a a quick idea of how long it was and I was like, Oh, this is intimidating. And uh I keep it's still in pocket, so I I will read it. Yeah. Um but I'm I haven't gotten to it yet, unfortunately. And now listening to you kind of summarize it, I'm I'm I'm kicking myself because it uh uh sounds really cool. I'm excited to read it either either way. So yeah, you know, keeping in tune with the diving and the kind of construction and the engineering side and the development of new technologies and that sort of thing. My next final note is uh from the Rolex Presents series on YouTube, which is just at their like the Rolex channel. But this is about the Trieste deep Dive, and then you want the one that's in parenthesis extended. So it is uh twenty-two and a half minutes long. Uh you know, uh uh uh one of our listeners recommended this to me in email, and then I could not for the life of me find the email today to give them credit. Uh so I'm really sorry. I I know that I replied to the email. I then watched the video, loved it, and wanted to put it in final notes, and I cannot give you credit for sending it to me. So if you can just send me another email, I'll get you some credit in a further show, I but I've really loved this video. It's uh essentially just a kind of medium-length documentary about the Trieste and about Don Walsh and Jacques Picard, who you know traveled to Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench. Just uh fantastic. I mean, there's not a lot to talk about. I think a lot of people know the rough story, but Rolex is of course very tied to that, and they've produced this lovely, very watchable if you've got a lunch break or you're just trying to not think about work for a little while, pull this up and even watch it in two parts or whatever with with a coffee in the morning. It's uh it's great. I loved it |
| Jason Heaton | . Yeah, it's a it's a really great video, James. And um just you know, going back to who sent it it, was actually uh an email that was sent to me by uh Alan Clark, uh who is based in uh Switzerland actually. So Alan |
| James Stacy | , thanks a lot for the recommendation. Great choice, Alan. Really uh really love the video. And and I actually found a handful of other really cool videos on their Rolex channel. So get on there, subscribe and uh kill some time someday. Jason, you've got uh another for us, right? Yeah, I've got one more long read. |
| Jason Heaton | Um this one uh aviation related. Um you know, we you and I have kind of uh geeked out over that uh cliffhanger series that was uh outside podcast about the the plane crash in the mountains uh down in South America. Uh this one is an article called The Human Factor. Uh it was actually from from twenty fourteen, so it's uh a little bit older. But uh it it's definitely worth digging up and and reading. It was written by uh this famous aviation expert and author named William Langewisha. And um what what he does in this article and it's a really long article, so be sure to set aside a good amount of time or save it, download it for a plane trip or something. Well you might not want to read it on a plane trip. Yeah, I suppose not. It it really takes a deep look into the factors that caused the crash of the Air France flight four seven four four four seven that uh uh was en route from Brazil to Paris and ended up crashing in the middle of the Atlantic. Um what Langawisha does is he he looks at the flight recorder and the cockpit voice recorder and kind of almost goes minute by minute during the crisis that led to the crash and analyzes the pilots' communication, what was happening to the aircraft, um, and then using that as sort of a vehicle to discuss what has become of piloting in an era of what they call nowadays the glass cockpit, which is this sort of, you know, planes have changed, Airbus and Boeing have created this cockpit environment where pilots are no longer flipping switches and looking at, you know, electrical and mechanical gauges, but they're actually almost looking at iPad screens and given to them by the the airplane systems. And what has that done to the modern pilot? It they've it's kind of turned them into more of sort of reactionary in a way. They're they're sort of reacting to the stimuli that the machine is giving them and and it's more about how they work with each other. It it's almost more of a business environment nowadays than it is a a mechanical sort of hands on piloting environment. And while he does note that that these advancements in airplane design have really uh brought down the the accident rate and made flying a lot, lot safer, it's also changed the way that pilots interact with each other and with with flying, and when crises do happen, um they're almost less equipped to to react to them. And just a really fascinating uh fascinating story. And um anyway that anyone that's interested in in aviation in any way um uh would really find this a a worthy article. So check that out. It was actually originally published in Vanity Fair magazine and um it's available on their website, so we'll drop a link into the show notes. Very cool. Well I think that just about does it, wouldn't you think? I think so. As always, thanks so much for listening. Hit the show notes for more details, and you can follow us on Instagram. I'm at Jason Heaton, James is at J E Stacy, and follow the show at the Gray NATO. If you have any questions for us, please do write to thegraynato at gmail.com, and please subscribe and review wherever you find your podcasts or grab the feed from thegrayNado.com. Music throughout is Siesta by J |
| James Stacy | azzar via the Free Music Archive. And until next time, we leave you this quote from Yvonne Schuinard, the founder of Patagonia. The word adventure has gotten overused. For me, when everything goes wrong, that's when the adventure starts. |