The Grey NATO – 339 – Inside Citizen And The Aqualand With Neall Brick
Published on Thu, 07 Aug 2025 06:00:00 -0400
Synopsis
In Episode 339 of The Graynado podcast, hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton welcome Neil Brick, Director of Merchandising for Citizen Watch America, as their guest. The episode focuses on Neil's journey into the watch industry, his role at Citizen, and detailed discussion of the 40th anniversary Aqualand watch that all three hosts are wearing during the recording. Neil shares insights about Citizen's evolution as a brand, their efforts to connect with watch enthusiasts while maintaining their broader market presence, and upcoming projects including the 50th anniversary of EcoDrive technology. The conversation also covers the recent Wind Up in the Lake event and concludes with final notes featuring recommendations for Jaws and Led Zeppelin documentaries, and the spy thriller "Black Bag."
The hosts and guest engage in an in-depth discussion about the challenges and opportunities of bridging Japanese and American watch markets, and how Citizen has been successfully expanding its appeal to watch enthusiasts while maintaining its core business. The episode provides interesting behind-the-scenes perspectives on watch brand management and product development, particularly regarding the iconic Aqualand model and its potential future iterations.
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Transcript
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| James Stacey | Hello and welcome to another episode of The Graynado. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This episode 339 and it's proudly brought to you by the always 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 thegraynado.com for more details. My name is James Stacey, and I'm joined as ever by my pal and co-host, Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing this week? The second recording this week. Yeah, it is. |
| Jason Heaton | It's kind of crazy. We just did this a few days ago, so I'm doing the same as I did a few days ago. It's so funny, you know, we're doing video today because we have a guest who we'll introduce here shortly, but as I'm watching you read the intro, I'm like... I can't believe you and I still have to read that intro off of a page after 339 episodes. |
| James Stacey | I mean, I could probably do it. I mean, my daughter asked me yesterday, and I realized I have it off the dome. Maybe it's just like a comfort. uh to have it there on the screen it would i feel like if i didn't have it on the screen that's when i would forget exactly but if you ask me out in the wild or like you know we do a live we will do a live episode at uh toronto timepiece show this year again uh and last year my mom ran the intro yeah so maybe we'll have a guest do it again this year but if i had to do it i think i'm pretty sure i'm pretty confident i could do it off the dome uh for sure but oh man Yeah, we're recording a second one this week, so normally we record the same week that they go live, but my brother is actually coming into town for the first time in a couple years from the West Coast, and I just kind of wanted to not have the... Not so much not to... I don't mind editing it. There's evenings, kids up, that sort of thing. You can find time to edit, but actually scheduling these things can be kind of tough when we've got a lot of running around to do, because he's got a lot of family to see, and he'll be using my place as sort of his home base, so... I thank both you and our illustrious guest for being willing to record on a Friday. I think it's going to be a really fun episode. We do have a little bit of housekeeping kind of show notes to get to right here at the top. So the first one is we're still on a push to do... several Q&A episodes in the next little while so if you have a question for us and you're part of the subscriber side of the show so you can listen to the Q&A episodes be sure to send in your question to thegraynado at gmail.com we've gotten a good stack of them so we definitely have enough to get going but we'll continue this push for the next little while we were kicking around an idea of possibly attaching two or three Q&A episodes at the end of main episodes. And I would say Slack is about as divided as you could be on this topic. About half the messages are like, oh, I would love that. And the other half are, no, please don't do that. I like the Q&A episodes. So I imagine we'll end up not changing anything, as is the way when we can't get a consensus. So that is what it is. And then the next one, Jason, you just released something that I think people, if they're not on your Instagram, might have missed. Do you want to hype up a special audio recording while we're talking about recording audio? |
| Jason Heaton | Sure, yeah. As hypey as I can get, you know. I'm such a hype guy. Yeah. I mean, for years I've been asked to do an audio book recording of the novels that I wrote, Death Charge and Sweetwater. And truth be told, I have recorded chapters in the past. And I also, I might've talked about this in the past, but I solicited some auditions from some professional book readers and narrators. This was a couple of years ago and I just wasn't happy with the way that went. And then I got kind of in this analysis paralysis phase where I my lack of editing skills and just kind of the time commitment and all of that just sort of put it on on ice and i just decided i had pulled my readers of my substack on what they'd like to to hear or see or if i want me to branch out into audio and a couple of people requested audiobook readings uh you know chapters and things like that so i took the plunge and i kind of did a quick and dirty edit in garage band as best i could and um added in the theme music for my buddy oran and showed out or put it out i'm pretty pleased with it and um We'll see. I'm going to keep on with this. James, you offered some help going forward, so I might bring you in on a few things. I think it's behind my paywall on Substack, so if you're a subscriber to that one, enjoy. If not, you might want to consider there's a free trial if you just want to hear my voice yet another time during a week, as opposed to just TGN. You can go over and check that out. Thanks for bringing that up. |
| James Stacey | Absolutely. I think everybody should check that out, especially if maybe you read the book when it first came out and now you get a chance to listen to it on a drive. It's that summer driving season, that sort of thing, which could be lots of fun. On top of that, the last thing we've got before we jump into the rest of the episode with our great guest is the Toronto Timepiece Show is coming up. So this is the third week of... September this year, the days, the 20th and the 21st, Jason and I will be doing a live episode from the show on the Saturday, and we will be doing a repeat of our marathon event on the Sunday night this year. Invites should go out either with this episode or with 340. So check the show notes and we'll have it there as far as an RSVP link that you can connect to. If you remember the event from last year, we're just doing the same thing again. There is a little bit of a change in that the venue for the show is now quite a bit further north in Toronto. So we've adjusted a little bit of the scheduling to allow some time to travel downtown. But you have a few options of how to get downtown. Google Map is your friend in that scenario. So be sure to check that out. But we're very excited for... the Toronto Timepiece show. Jason's got his flights, so I'll have my favorite roommate back for a few days here in Toronto. And it's going to be a really good time. Between the live event and also the new award show is now on the Saturday evening. I'm very excited for that as well as a juror. And Jason will be... part of the presenting group so a lot of that is all coming together but it should be a very a very fun very exciting event so be sure to check that out we'll include any of the links you might need for that in the show notes as far as getting tickets to the show and and as soon as we have a direct schedule for our live recording which will be some point on saturday we'll be sure to share that as well probably just in the coming week or two. So yeah, I think that's all of our show notes. So let's get to some guest intro. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. We are very excited to have our guest on today. It is none other than Neil Brick. You might know Neil from, well, from a number of places, from Instagram. He's got an excellent, fun Instagram feed full of great... kind of adventures in photos and good wrist shots, an interesting collection of watches. Neil's a longtime TGN crew member and active member of our Slack crew. And perhaps most importantly, he is actually the director of merchandising for the Citizen brand at Citizen Watch America. It's a position that he's held for the past two and a half years. He's had over 15 years of experience in the fashion industry. And over the course of that career, Neil's worked with iconic brands such as Ralph Lauren and Levi's. He combines a deep understanding of product, brand, and consumer to drive results at those companies. And outside of work, Neil is a dedicated family man with an amazing wife of 10 years, two daughters who he absolutely adores. He's also passionate about movies, photography, and American football. Neil, welcome to TGN. I feel like you're just one of the OG crew here on TGN. We've known you for a long time, and it's been fun to work with you at Citizen the past couple of years, but welcome to the show officially. |
| Neil Brick | Thank you so much. It's semi-surreal here. As you said, I've been part of the crew and on the Slack, and I've been listening to you guys probably a year before COVID, before I was even in the watch industry. I have a distinct memory, it's so funny, of putting up Christmas decorations while listening to you guys talking about Doxa. And I was like, I gotta go to Doxa someday. Oh, that's great. So it's been, it's a very surreal experience to finally be on. It's awesome. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, no, this is going to be great. And we don't commonly have on like brand spokespeople. This is a different scenario because one, we've known you for quite some time. And two, you're quite active on the Slack as part of that community, especially into topics like Jason mentioned with photography and supporting people. a broader spectrum of watch enthusiasm than just a single brand. So it's an easy one. But I do feel like this is one of those scenarios where we need a little bit of a disclaimer. Neil is not paying us to be on the show. Citizen is not paying us to be on the show. This is just something that we like doing. We've had a lot of great partnerships with Citizen in the past. You know, Wind Up two years ago, we had a great event. and that sort of thing. So it was just kind of a natural option while we were looking for guests to start pulling people from the Slack and from our world. And Neil's been a very active. And then on top of that, you know, we have a watch to talk about that Jason and I have rambled quite a bit about, but don't have necessarily the inside track, the inside story, that sort of stuff. So we thought we could combine all of those sorts of topics into a single episode with Neil. So a pleasure to have you on, man. This is a treat. I love it. Yeah, definitely. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I remember going back a couple of years, Neil. I remember, you know, I knew of your presence. I knew you were a TGN listener. I followed you on Instagram. We communicated a few times, probably, you know, privately and whatever. And then suddenly you arrived and you arrived at Citizen. Suddenly you were working for Citizen. It's sort of just kind of, I wouldn't say it caught me by surprise, but I was so pleased that you were on the brand side in the watch space. And it's just been fun seeing you at wind up, you know, in Chicago and, um, you know, being on the boat with you last year when we did the wind up in a lake, which we'll talk about this year's event that James and I both missed, but, but you were there, um, in a little while, but, uh, yeah, it's, uh, it's, it's exciting to have you on and, and we're kind of using this as an excuse to, to really dig in deep on this, um, this watch that James and I are both wearing, but before we kind of get into the nitty gritty on that, what are you wearing today, Neil? |
| Neil Brick | So I think it might be a boring risk check. I am wearing the 40th anniversary Aqualand. It's the watch of the summer, mixed maybe with the Huckberry Citizen we did. I kind of like alternate between those two, but the Huckberry, the gold just is so awesome. I think they did a really good job and the coloration is great. And I love that Wochi strap. It just wears so well. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. Yeah. Well, as you've intimated there, all three of us are wearing the exact same watch today. James has his on that nylon strap that he's been raving about and that we've recommended on the show and that I have one. But Neil, you and I, it looks like we're both wearing it on the stock. What did you call this strap, Neil? |
| Neil Brick | Well, I have it on the Amazon, that cheap, woachy Velcro. Oh, you do? Yeah. Oh, okay. Three straps, three watches. I got it for the loom dial. Did you go with the black one? I don't have the black one on it yet. I've put the green one on. I think it matches better than the black does. It doesn't match as well as the loom dial does. It's because the loom dial is a little darker on the case. So but it's it's passable. And it's a funny story because I was at the beach last weekend with one of my friends and his 13 year old. And it was the first time he saw this watch and he was in awe. A 13 year old was just like struck, struck and by it. And he immediately had to buy it. He bought it like on the spot, which I thought was really cool. And I think the strap was kind of a big part of that, because if it was on the rubber, maybe it would have been too bulky. I don't know. It wears so well in this strap. I love it. |
| James Stacey | It's good stuff. I'm super happy with mine. I mean, regardless of whether or not you had done this episode this week or one in a couple weeks or something, I'd probably still be wearing it. Certainly would have been wearing it today. I didn't actually even have to think about it because I just picked it up and put it on when I got up this morning. I've been really enjoying it. And we talked a ton about it on the last episode. It's been a solid piece and a great watch for the summer. |
| Jason Heaton | I was inspired to dust off my OG Aqualand. I've got a 1985 version. And the batteries have gone flat, as they do. The batteries in those things are three batteries, three tiny little 371 batteries and a fiddly little case back with all these little screws that either get lost or stripped. Um, but I, I took it upon myself a couple of nights ago to, to change those batteries and, and fire it up and sync, sync the time and get that up and running. And I was tempted to wear that today. Um, I have it nearby, so it's, uh, it's ticking away, but, uh, yeah, I mean, it's, it's interesting because I think, let me just say, I'll get, I'll give you a lot of this, a lot of credit here. Um, in that I think around about the time you came on at citizen, I think it was a, it was a, during that time that James and I maybe were, We're more heavily into some other brands and thinking like, oh, we wish Citizen would do more of this and bring that back and do this and that. And then the Loom Dial JP 2007 was available in the US. We really got excited about that. And then I just feel like Citizen's been on a real roll, coincidentally, in the past couple of years that you've been at the brand. Now, you're free to take credit for that on this episode if you want, but I just feel like the brand is just on a really upward trajectory these days. Do you get that sense of momentum? |
| Neil Brick | I do. I think I do think the past couple of years, whether it's because of me or not, we've had a lot of young people enter the brand in the past couple of years, whether it's Citizen, Bolova, FC. I think all the brands are on the upswing and it's a testament to management to recognize that, you know, we should probably bring in some young blood and tap into this more enthusiast market. We've I mean. We sell a lot of watches, and we were kind of known as a mall brand, which is fine. I mean, that's how we pay our bills. But I think tapping into the enthusiast community is very important, and having two, three, four, five releases a year to kind of speak to those people is really, really important, and maybe they weren't doing that before we got here. So I'm really excited about kind of where we are and where we're going. |
| James Stacey | I also think it kind of speaks to some of the difficulty, and we've talked about this before, but not only in the context of watch brands, but just in brands in general where Citizen is a Japanese brand, which means anything they try and do has to be culturally translated for somewhere else. And I think it must be really difficult, like it would be for us, for Jason and I to try and craft a TGN episode for a Japanese audience. For a Japanese audience, or even a brand that knows... the international market really well. It's one thing to bring technology that you know is just useful for humans, like EcoDrive, for example, or like, you know, the work that Citizen has done with Miota and things like the 9075 and all that. And I think that's easier to understand, but taking something from an enthusiast level is so specific, right? Like, I don't know that Honda or Toyota or any of these great Japanese legacy brands necessarily know, without a shadow of a doubt, what will... become crazy popular. Like, did Nissan know that the GTR would become a half a million dollar car at some point in America? Like, it is kind of an interesting thing. And I think it helps to have brands that have these multiple wings where you're able to explain or inform certain cultural footnotes in the States. And then, you know, I think it probably takes a lot of time and effort to bridge those cultures. and find the sweet spots in what is, you know, a huge and varied lineup of watches. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, I mean, I give the team in Japan a lot of credit, too. We're in constant communication. There's new blood over there as well. They recognize the need to have a younger, kind of more diverse... train of thought over there. I love my team that I speak to week in and week out in Japan. I love going over there. I love interacting with them. I think our communication is better than ever, if I'm being honest. And the process of kind of working to what we know works our market, what Japan is doing and how we can bring into our market, I think is getting more seamless, which is great to see. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. I think, um, I remember when we were in discussions with you a couple of years ago about the JP 2007, the loomed dial Aqualand. And, you know, we were just almost, I think we sourced, I think I sourced mine from Italy and James, I don't remember where you got yours. Yeah. And, and, and they weren't available in the U S but I remember, you know, in this discussion of like, can we get this in the U S and I remember you telling me it's You know, it kind of runs counter to Citizen's strategy to kind of push EcoDrive as the kind of the main messaging, as opposed to a watch like this one that says Quartz on the dial. We're kind of getting away from that. And it was a little frustrating, but I get it. But then your earlier comment just now about... embracing more of an enthusiast crowd i think that has been the real key and i think that's something that we talk about a lot on tgn is is the paying attention to enthusiasts because although it's can be a smaller you know minority of buyers as opposed to as you said you know mall patrons, et cetera. It's such an important piece to kind of building that image of the brand. And I think, and also going back to what James was saying about just interpreting things for the American market, you seem to have some level of autonomy when it comes to choosing to sponsor an event like Wind Up in a Lake, which is such a quirky small event, or do a show like Wind Up for such a big brand like Citizen. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, I'm really proud of that. I think when you go to wind up, we're, I think, objectively, one of the biggest brands, if not the biggest brand in terms of volume. And I think it's really important to show up there. I think the purpose of wind up, it's not a big selling show for us. Just being frank, we don't sell a ton of watches, but I think the message that we provide is really cool. And to show watches that, you know, you, a patron of wind up wouldn't normally go to Macy's. And they can see that, you know, we have some pretty cool stuff. And we also have some cool stuff that we don't offer at those stores, whether it's a Series 8 or a Tessa or higher end ProMaster stuff. So I value the wind-up relationship a lot. I think showing our product in that light is very important. |
| James Stacey | I'm curious on that extension, and not to rehash the same, but it's something that we talk a fair bit about, the idea that brands have to maintain kind of two worlds. A brand as big as Citizen has to. We talk about this a lot with Omega. Actually, I think you and I have spoken about this, about this exact issue where... You want to be a major brand because that's what works. Economy of scale means you can keep your prices reasonable, all that kind of stuff. But at the same time, you want to have that enthusiast footing. And they're often two entirely different buyers. Like, you know, we push back on brands with 45, 46, you know, very large watches. But that's because that's what the average non-enthusiast is going to immediately still go for. Like you talk to these brands and they go, yeah, but... We understand you may want a 38 of a watch that we make in 44, but the 44 sells constantly. I think this is something Breitling has shown us for a decade, 20 years, 30 years, something like that. And I have to wonder, do you have these conversations where you go... this is a great product for this type of buyer, this is a great product for this type of buyer, and then try and make sure that you balance it out across your lineup? |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, I mean, but to the consumer's credit, I think, I do think everything is shifting down a little bit. We had a watch release a couple years ago worldwide called Siosa. It's probably the biggest watch really citizens had in the entire company's hundred year history. And it's a 40 millimeter watch. It's become our number one watch, which overtook a 45 millimeter Skyhawk. It's... it's it's really kind of a breath of fresh air in my my point of view because it's it's a very you know classic looking three-hand date sport watch if you will at 40 millimeters um and when you look at our demographics our average size went from like probably 45 a few years ago and i think it's down to like 43 and that's a two-point swing is a huge shift in our company. Um, our, our age demographic is also shifting way down, which is amazing. We were above 50 just a few years ago and now we're below 50, uh, which again, with the size of this company is a huge shift. Um, I think the watch where are the consumer watch consumer is starting to, you know, not gravitate towards that 47, 48, 46 millimeter. Not that they still don't sell. We have a watch coming out this spring that it's funny because I'm in market right now and it's 48 millimeters and the buyers are kind of like, whoa, what? And like, well, you know, it's 48, but it wears really well. The lug to lug is about 48. We still have a consumer that wants that large size watch, but... 40 to 42 is still very important. And next spring, we're kind of closing the loop on my idea of like, we just celebrated 35 years of ProMaster last year. So what's the next 35 years of ProMaster? I kind of see it, you know, we've really nailed down the large, super spec heavy, quirky ProMaster. Now it's like ProMaster meets kind of like Sport Lux. It's the same spec heavy, you know, can do anything watch, but it has a little more refinement to it. I don't know if you've seen, we had a 40 millimeter Navahawk launch earlier this spring. And then we had the 41 millimeter or 40.6, if you're being exact, dive that came out this fall. And we're kind of closing that circle with a land watch next year that I'm very excited about. |
| James Stacey | Well, look, that's lots of business side there. Let's go back to the Neil of it all. Easy starting question, our standard question. What kind of got you into watches in the first place? Like even assuming you were into it before it became more of a career path. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, so I was always kind of into watches. I know I had like fossils and... middle school or whatever it was. And then, um, high school through college, you got really into those J crew time X collaborations. Um, we kind of started wearing the weekend. It was a lot. And I'd wear that NATO death where it like became just gross. I had no idea what I was doing. I didn't watch it or anything, but, um, I really love those like simple white dial field watches. Uh, and then about halfway through college, my dad decided to give me his, uh, It's a really quirky watch. It's like a 39-millimeter at a base to Mont Blanc diver. It has, like, Breguet numerals. It's Idris Dara Breguet numerals on the bezel. It's a super quirky, fun watch, but I didn't really appreciate it at the time. And there's a funny story where I was really getting into watches a little bit later, and I wanted something what I thought was, like, more top-tier, so I wanted a Tudor Black Bay. And this guy offered me his original rose dialed red bezel Tudor Black Bay for some cash and the Mont Blanc. And I did it. And like a year or two later, I kind of read it. I reached back out to the guy and I was like, hey, would you sell me that Mont Blanc back? He's like, no, I love it. I was like, OK, whatever. I put it like a watch recon alert on it. And they're really they're kind of random. So I never thought I would see it. But when I sold it to him, it was just the watch head. And one came up on bracelet. And so I reached back out to him like, hey, would you trade me the watch straight up with this one with bracelets? It's the exact same watch, but you get the bracelet now. And he agreed. So I actually got my dad's watch back. So that's pretty awesome. I kind of love that story. And that's kind of my first foray into a watch regret selling kind of movement. |
| James Stacey | I just dropped a link into the chat there in Zoom. Is this an example of the one you're... Let me see. |
| Neil Brick | Where is the chat? |
| James Stacey | A Meisterstruck Sport. That sounds right. That's it. What a cool thing. It's pretty cool, right? Yeah, hit the show notes. We'll include this link. It's somebody selling one for $361, apparently, on Best Buy, but it's not that Best Buy. Goodness sakes, this website. |
| Neil Brick | So this one is quartz. Mine's automatic because it says automatic on it. Yeah, so if you can see. |
| James Stacey | Oh, yeah, that's sharp. Yeah. |
| Neil Brick | So it's not going anywhere now. It's like a quirky little watch, but, you know, it means something. |
| Jason Heaton | So that was your first serious watch. That was kind of like your high end, so to speak. Yeah. |
| Neil Brick | That was the first serious watch given to me. The first serious watch I bought was, you know, it was before that. It was the Hamilton Khaki Field Powermatic. |
| Unknown | Yeah. |
| Neil Brick | AD, whatever they call it. Yeah. So that was like the first kind of like Swiss watch I bought with my own money. I got really into Hodel's article, I think, about like Hamilton's past. I was like, this is really cool. And that was really the slipping slope. After that, it was like I went to Laurier, which is not like a high end, but it was kind of a really enthusiast kind of purchase. I had a Glycine Airman 1, which is really cool. The combat sub is still a sleeper. Underappreciated. Then I got like real deep, real fast. I went like Tudor, Black Bay, Black Bay 58, Black Bay GMT. I had P01 at one time. |
| James Stacey | PO1. Yeah, that was pretty cool. |
| Neil Brick | I put a metal bracelet on it, which is awesome. |
| James Stacey | I think we're very slowly becoming the podcast of record for the oral history of the PO1. Someday we'll find out maybe how many of those they made. But talk about making a niche play that so much of the market and the coverage of the market did not understand at first glance, at first pass, right? |
| Neil Brick | It's such a quirky, fun watch, and the history behind it is kind of cool, and I don't know. I loved it when I had it. And then I got my first Rolex. I got a 14270 Explorer with trim dial, and there's also a kind of funny story with that where... I was working at Ralph Lauren at the time and I got a job offer in February of 2020. It was like my first like big, like a monumental salary kind of a thing. And I was like, I want to get something special. And I got that watch before I started the job. I was supposed to start April 2020. And something happened in March of 2020 where... I got a call a week before I was supposed to start and they were like, yeah, we can't do it. And I had already put my notice in with Ralph Lauren and I was like, oh my God, I just got this watch and now I'm unemployed. But I kept it and I wore it every day during the pandemic before I started working again. And it's kind of the watch of the pandemic now where I got to spend every day with my girls, which, you know, working five days a week, you don't get to do. So it has a special place for that reason now as well. |
| Jason Heaton | That's great. Well, I think it brings up a question for me, and we can get into how you got your start at Citizen and your work there a little further. But one thing I've always kind of liked about you and admired about your feed and just chatting with you and whatever is a lot of people, when they go to work for a brand, they kind of get lost in – I don't want to say they drank the Kool-Aid. That's a bit harsh. But you're someone who's appreciative of all brands and have kind of kept your enthusiasm for watches you've had in the past and other brands. |
| Neil Brick | um pretty equally um while still being a great champion and ambassador for citizen as well um is that a difficult thing for you is that or not so much i mean it's difficult in the fact that i can't wear brands to work so i mean if you look at my feet it is 99.9 citizen which you know i don't have a problem with but you know sometimes i do miss those tutors or i had uh you know, the Hamiltons or I had a Blancpain 50 fathoms for a hot second. Uh, so that was fun. But, um, I do, I mean, the citizen watches that I've been, I wear and I post, it's not, I don't post just because they're citizen. I do love them and I have a lot of fun with them and I think they're really cool. And I try, I post some stuff that you can't even get here sometimes. So it's not like I'm, I'm trying to sell product. Uh, but I still have my two, two, five, four. Oh, great. Uh, Seamaster and, uh, I have a watch from Ken coming, James, that I met in Chicago. So that'll be fun. I had a Marin for a little bit. You know, I walk wind up as an enthusiast and I'll talk to them and, you know, I'll usually spend a little bit of money at wind up where I probably shouldn't be. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, right. Yeah. Now, how did you get your start at Citizen then? I mean, how did that come about to move from after Ralph Lauren? You said there was that bit of a lull or kind of some time off. And then when did Citizen come on the picture and how? |
| Neil Brick | So after Ralph Lauren, I had a lull. And then I worked for a company called One Jeanswear Group, which is like a private label jeans where they do private label for like Belk and they do like the Jessica Simpson line, whatever. It was an interesting step in my career where I was used to selling premium denim at Levi's that was like, you know, Levi's vintage clothing and mancrafted that are retailing for, I don't know, anywhere from $225 to $500. And the one jeans wear stuff I was selling, I was like sourcing product for a dollar and selling it to the brand for whatever it was and out the door for $20. It was a complete different world, which is fine. But it was not something I knew I wanted to do long term. And so I was always kind of looking around at jobs and I loved watches. I had my Instagram. I had my buddies that, you know, you have these watch group chats. I was at watch time, and I was talking to the brands. I was like, how do you think I could work here? I remember talking to Bill and Ross, and he was very nice. I forgot the gentleman's name, and I was like, I wish I could be here next year. And it was just a cool kind of thing to think about. And on LinkedIn, there was a citizen posting for a sales job. And I applied because why not? And I didn't hear anything for a couple of weeks. And I was like, you know what? Let me check citizens LinkedIn page to see if I have a connection. And I didn't have any direct connections, but there was someone with the same title as what I was applying for who went to FIT. And I went to FIT. So we were both alums of FIT. And I was like, you know, let's take a shot. So I was like, hey, you have no idea who I am, but we both went to FIT, you know, FIT alum, brother, sister, whatever you want to call it. I would love to just to talk to someone. I applied for this job. Would you give my resume to HR? And she replied immediately and said, sure, why not? So I'm immensely grateful to her. I actually never met her. She was on maternity leave about to start before I started. And then she actually stayed being a mom, which is great. So it was kind of weird. I never even met her face to face. But she gave my resume to HR. I had a few conversations and I applied for the role. And I actually didn't get that role. But the person I interviewed with liked me enough to say to her boss, who kind of runs a sales organization, hey, you should probably talk to this kid. I think he's pretty good. So I talked to her. And on the same kind of timeline, I'm interviewing with a company called Happy Socks. which is, you know, the fun sock brand. And the day of the interview with the person I have the conversation with, I get a job offer from Happy Socks. And I was like, oh, here we go. So on the phone, I'm like, you know, I would never say this normally, but if you think there's any chance you could give me a job, I would probably need to know like over the weekend, which is ballsy of me, I guess. And she's like, OK. And I get a job offer from Citizen about three hours later. And I've come to find out on my first day that there really was no true role. They just knew that two girls were going on maternity and they'll need some help. So I really kind of lucked out in that way. And I started working in the sales division and my first meeting ever was with the Teddy Baldessar group, which is like really fun. I thought that was kind of a cool way to introduce myself. And I guess they found out that I had this connection with, you know, the enthusiast group and. because there was no real title for me. They had me doing the Teddy. I was starting to work with Tantan, you guys at Hodinkee. And I was working with the windup group because no one had really established that connection. And that was kind of my role was like, let's figure out this enthusiast market. So that was kind of my start with the sales team. And then to kind of fast forward to where I am now, after about 10 months in the sales role, the director of merchandising who had the job currently or when I was in sales had decided to leave. And Susan Chandler, who's our chief merchandising officer, kind of always, I guess, saw me out of the corner of her eye and like, you know, I think he could do product. And she just had a gut instinct. I had never done merchandising before. I've always been in sales. And I talked with her for a few weeks and we thought it ended up being a good fit. And I started in November of 22. Wow. So it's been pretty fun. |
| Jason Heaton | You're specifically focused on Citizen. You don't cross over with Boulevard and Frédéric Constant and others, right? Correct. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah. So on the sales end, I was All Brands. But now with merchandising, I focus on Citizen. We do sit next to each other. So I overhear and we kind of... You know, it's we call it the power of one. So we try to help each other where possible. And, you know, we don't want to overlap either. So we know what we're doing on each brand. So we don't want to like if you're creating this, we don't want to create something that's identical. We want to keep our brand separate. And we think Bolvin Citizen is pretty easy to do. |
| Jason Heaton | I'm curious, you know, I mean, TGN, I'm actually looking, we're on video now, which our listeners won't see, but I see our TGN Promaster tote bag hanging on your doorknob behind you there. And that was such a great collaboration and great kind of mixing of our logos. But I mean, TGN is really all about Promaster. I feel like we're heavy into that for obvious reasons. That's kind of our thing. But your work goes well beyond Promaster. I mean, you're all of Citizen, I presume. And I'd love to hear your recommendations to us and to our audience. What's a watch that we're overlooking by being so strictly focused on ProMaster? What's a sleeper watch that you think would appeal to us and to the TGN crowd in Citizen's lineup that maybe isn't ProMaster? |
| Neil Brick | Totally. Well, I think the first kind of low-hanging fruit would be our, what we call, these are more internal terms, but we have pillars within Citizens lineup. So there's ProMaster, there's Dress Classic, which is kind of like basic stuff. We have Modern, which is kind of like your, you know, museum dial look. But we have something that used to be called Weekender is now called Sport Casual. And when I present the line, I call Sport Casual ProMaster Lite. Because it has all the aesthetic aspects of ProMaster, but maybe not the specs. So, you know, we have like desk divers, we have pilot watches, we have field watches that, you know, there aren't 200 meters of water resistance. Maybe they don't have screw down crowns, but they have the look and feel of what maybe a ProMaster would be. They're meant to be ward like on weekends, if you will. So there's a watch called Bryson titanium that came out last year. It has a bi-directional bezel. It was one of the first watches that I kind of had my fingerprints on. So I'm really proud of that watch. There's a gray dial and orange dial and a blue dial on leather strap. 41 millimeters, titanium, case and bracelet, milled out clasp, metal dial. So the cool thing about EcoDrive is there's so many different movement variations. There's ring solar, we call it, which allows us to have a metal dial where the light can enter through the ring of the watch, like the chapter ring. And then we have all of our other dials that are plastic that the light enters through the plastic and... next year is actually 50 years of eco drive technology and there's some amazing things coming out next year to celebrate that but the advancement in the technology is just second to none and where you know we used to have you know milky-ish white dials or you could see kind of like the purple through the black and it's really come such a long way uh you can really see that in the e365 movements which is the new one year power reserve um The cool thing about those is not even the one you're power reserve. I think it's the, we can have a more opaque dial and we can have heavier hands. So one thing you can notice, but you could drive to is the hands can seem quite stumpy sometimes. And this allows the, the hands to look more like a traditional watch with a metal dial. |
| Jason Heaton | What, what do you have a favorite citizen? Like one that you, I mean, just on top of everything else that you either wear the most or that you just, if you had to only choose one, which would it be? |
| Neil Brick | For sure. Are we talking vintage or in line? Well, give us one of each. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. |
| Neil Brick | All right. So for vintage, I think my absolute favorite is something I can't even like afford because it's gotten crazy. But there's a 1969 Chronomaster 500 meter. Fertello did a great article on this. And I saw one in Japan last year. I think they wanted like nine grand or something. I was like, I can't do this, but. I love this watch. It's such like a cool throwback. It's got the huge Mercedes hour hand. It's got this big chunky look to it. And 500 meters in 1960s is pretty awesome. |
| Jason Heaton | It looks like the Fujitsu bow, right? It kind of looks like the challenge diver. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, it's got a little bit of that origin to it. And then we did the Challenge Diver about a year later, 10 years later-ish. And that's what really the Fujisuba was. This is kind of like the first version of. It's really cool. So that's probably my favorite vintage. And then currently, Fujisuba is up there. I don't wear it as much now because I try to like- I can't get Robin back from my dad. I love that he loves it. Oh, adores it. It's so good. And then that line is continuing to some exciting, probably moments in a couple of years as well with maybe a new movement. So that's pretty cool. Besides that, I think my absolute favorite I have right now is maybe my The Citizen Caliber 210. I got it for my 10 year wedding anniversary last year. It's our higher end line of The Citizen. It used to be GDM only, but I've made a point of bringing everything at least into our .com and flagship. So it's a white dial, has this beautiful movement, beautiful dial, integrated sport watch, 100 meters water resistance. It's just kind of like the perfect everyday, our version of that higher-end integrated sport watch, if you will. |
| James Stacey | And is that the one on the strap, or do you have the bracelet, or...? I have the bracelets. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah. Yeah. They're next level. And I think they're, they're a bit of a sleeper too. And we don't make a ton of them. The movement is, you know, really hand touched. There's one old lady that finishes all of them. That is the nicest little woman in the world that I met in, uh, the factory. And, uh, she was so cute. She's like, go sell my babies. Pretty much. She was like, she, she really takes time and care into each watch. And, uh, they, they really mean a lot. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. While we're talking about watches, let's segue into this 40th anniversary Aqualand. And I'm curious, the little bit of background that I brought up earlier about getting the Aqualand into the US market in the first place, this relic, this watch that really hasn't changed much since the 80s. What's the kind of the backstory of the move? And are these Aqualand 40s, are they being sold with as much enthusiasm and gusto around the world? Or is there just sort of a shoulder shrug of like, well, we've always had these watches. What's the big deal about this one? |
| Neil Brick | Yeah. So like you said, the Aqualand was something that the U.S. market didn't really have in plans to have in the market. I kind of like heat and hot until we got the loom dial in in a small way. And then about a year and a half ago, I was like, oh, my God, it's going to be 40 years in 2025. Like, I'm curious if they're going to do anything. And I reached out to Japan. We had a meeting and they're like, well, you know, we don't have any movements or anything like that, but, you know, we'll probably do a colorway. I was like, okay, that's good enough. So I started talking to them and they asked me like maybe what we should do in a colorway. And I was like, you know, the black and gold is like the coolest version of it. So maybe a version of that. And I think what they came up with, with the kind of like gray IP with the gold accent really is pretty amazing. And because it's the 40th anniversary. I think it was an easier sell to my management to bring it in. And we've kind of looked at it as almost like this archive version of our website. You know, it's not going anywhere. It's pretty much only on our .com and select, you know, independent field retailers. And it's more of a story play for us. It's kind of a marketing angle. But they are doing extremely well here, more than we probably would even have imagined. And worldwide, they're also doing really well. I think Italy had a really cool activation and they used the deepest pool. Maybe it used to be the deepest pool because I think Dubai now has the deepest pool. But there's a deep pool in Italy that they did this kind of event over there. And, you know, the Aqualand is still, you know, 40 years. It's still going strong, I think. It's just such a cool, unique watch. And it lids itself to, you know, the 13-year-old saw it for the first time and absolutely loved it. So that means a lot to me. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah. It's just such an iconic watch. I mean, it's just, it's, it's so perfect, um, in its, in its quirkiness and, you know, just this past episode, um, James and I were kind of talking briefly about opportunities for evolution with, with the Aqua land. And we both thought that maybe eco drive in the future, but I mean, is, is this watch even worth evolving? I mean, you might almost just keep it the way it is. I mean, it's just, there's no reason to change something like this and keep, keep cranking out other interesting eco drive watches, right? |
| Neil Brick | We've had the exact conversations and still are having the exact conversations of like what should be the evolution of Aqualand. It's such an iconic brand name. And we've had debates whether like the Aqualand watch needs to have an external depth sensor or can it, you know, not or... Is it always Anadigi or what is the future of it? So we're still tinkering with that. Obviously, James, you had a really good review of our LAN U822, which is kind of like our new version of Anadigi. I'm not saying there's an alkaline with that coming, but I could see that being the... |
| James Stacey | kind of like easiest way to maybe bridge that gap eventually um we just we just introduced a sky version of that actually like just a couple days ago which is pretty awesome really cool watch yeah that popped off on the slack and i you know just because i'm i'm keeping a lower level these days with the with the baby but i i instantly clicked in and was looking around that thing looks rad |
| Neil Brick | It's pretty cool. And it wears a little smaller than the land, so it has a little more of a dressier vibe. But I'm actually interested in your opinion, because Pelagos was always kind of like the 500-meter super dive watch theme escape valve. And then they did Pelagos 39, and there was this mixed reaction, like, should Pelagos have done this? Is this kind of like too... normal dive watch yeah and then like so i i brought that up like you know could we have aqualand 2 or aqualand 40 where you know you have the main aqualand with the depth sensor and everything and then you have you know you bring the dna of aesthetics down maybe to a normal 40 millimeter case or whatever it is and you leave the depth sensor out it's still just a really cool dive watch but I think we had this conversation on the War and Wound podcast when I was in Chicago, and they were all adamant, like, no, it needs to have a depth sensor. We'll be sure to link to that. That'll be great. True diver opinions. But I think there could be a place for it. I don't know. We'll see where the future takes us with Aqualand. |
| Jason Heaton | Well, I think, you know, for a while there, Aqualand evolved. I think it was in the 90s and early 2000s where we got some strange Aqualand. There was one with kind of an asymmetrical, almost backwards D-shaped case that had... Yeah, the JP. And they moved really a lot to this sort of analog representation of depth. And I felt like I don't want to diss anything from the brand because, you know, I love... I love citizen, but I just felt like that was a step in the wrong direction to kind of go to analog display of depth. Whereas the, you know, the, the anti-digi thing was just so, um, user-friendly and intuitive, but I kind of get why they probably moved in that direction. I mean, this is arguably, this is still a very niche quirky watch and it probably. didn't necessarily fit the direction the brand was going at that time. But to their credit, to Citizen's credit, to keep this watch in constant, you know, in the lineup for now 40 years is pretty, pretty remarkable. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, I think the analog thing was they were trying to make an EcoDrive version. So some of those analog depth sensors are EcoDrive, which is pretty cool. But I just don't think they hit the right note that the original Aqualand does. And like you said, I mean, there's not many products in the world, I think, that can go 40 years unchanged. You know, very few things that are kind of iconic in their look. So it's a pretty cool testament to the original designer of the Aqualand. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, and I mean, I know that maybe these watches weren't necessarily the most popular or they didn't persevere, but my first... Aqualand was a loom dial eco-drive model with a little tiny hand for the depth that would essentially tell you the max depth once you came back up. And I distinctly remember very, very early on in my sort of watch interest, this would have been 2006, maybe 2007, maybe even earlier than that, I was on a cruise to the Bahamas and we went on a snorkeling trip out to the reef. And I, like, the DM, the guy on the boat who clearly was bored because he was a diver and he was just leading a bunch of kids to flip around in the surf, he had, like, the full fat Aqualand with the full digital display. It was the JP version with the red. So it had the... digital and analog indications, very cool watch. And I remember being like, maybe he'll notice mine. It had the little ND, the ND chart on it. And I kind of wish I still had that watch. It was really cool. I remember I sold it to buy a citizen SST, which was like the, the super accurate, like, I think it was a one, one thousandth of a second chronograph. And like when you were running that, the, you know, it spun like crazy. It was a really cool watch. And I was just in that mode of flipping watches to get another watch to write about very, very early on. This might even have predated my time with with watch report. I'd have to go back and check some notes. But, yeah, I remember really liking that watch, but definitely thinking like, well, I don't know. How would you read this necessarily? Whereas the digital display like I had this in the water at the lake last weekend and you put it in dive mode and just dive down to the bottom and you can like watch it drop to two meters, three meters, like however deep you can get. And it's super easy to read, even, you know, with a dive mask and the rest of it. So, I mean, there's pluses and minuses, but I like the idea of there being an ecosystem of Aqualands with these, with the quirky, coolest, you know, we've said this before, this in my mind is Citizens Ploprof. It's the, you know, if we had a Cousteau today and he was wearing a Citizen, it would undoubtedly be this one. But maybe some of the guys on the boat would, you know, some of the crew hand, that kind of thing might have something that didn't need all of the features, right? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, totally. Speaking of that, speaking of crew and divers on boats, I want to give a quick lowdown on how Wind Up in the Lake went. We've linked out to Chris Soule's story in last week's final notes, so people can read that, certainly. What were your impressions of the outing this year? |
| Neil Brick | I mean, I thought it was really cool. It was a little different than last year. As the article stated, we had a little bit of an audible with, I guess it was like an engine trouble or something like that. So I think we all made the best of it. Having the 80s theme was such a cool vibe and having everyone have fun with, you know, their outfits. And there's a lot of short shorts on the boat, which was really funny to see. I think everyone really enjoyed it. We had the Aqualand. We had the other new 40 millimeter diver. We had the new E365 diver. The dive went really well. I mean, I'm not, I'm not certified. I didn't go in the water at a dive aspect. I did swim around. The water was insanely warm, much warmer than it was last year. I was able to just kind of wait in the water for the whole time. They were down under 45 minutes or so. So that was a lot of fun. But yeah, uh i think the crew had a really good time and uh i really love the 80s theme and i i brought a film m6 on board uh and that was really kind of cool to capture the dive in film uh to kind of give it that 80s vibe which was a lot of fun it was so fun to see the pictures i mean yeah it was uh people really really really took it seriously and and tom with his painted on mustache was fantastic yeah he's one of a kind what a dude he's awesome But yeah, it was a good trip. |
| Jason Heaton | So what are the... I'm curious, you know, in a past career, I was kind of the American outpost of representing our Japanese crew over in Japan. So I kind of can sympathize with you a little bit on kind of that. The difficulties and fun of working with a kind of a Japanese outreach or whatever. And I'm curious what they think of all this kind of quirky, weird stuff. I mean, do you share the wind up in a lake thing and guys with painted on mustaches and short shorts with them and they just scratch their heads and think, what are you doing over there? |
| Neil Brick | A little bit, but I think they kind of enjoy it. I think I share as much as I can of what we're doing, and I think they're really valuing it. It's something that, like you said, a couple years ago we weren't doing, and we're doing really well, so maybe they can put two and two together, and this is a reason why we're doing well, or maybe it's not, and it's just kind of a fun way to showcase the brand that's not a three-hand dress watch in a mall kind of sliding visual diagram. Yeah. Our Promaster line is like authentic dive watches. And then our QC is, I think, second to none. And we really, really value ourselves in how we put together a spec-heavy watch. So when we build the watch to spec and we see it in its proper use, I think everyone is very happy about that. Yeah. Yeah, I can imagine. That's great. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it's got to be a source of pride. I mean, these are... 100%. Yeah, it's great. So kind of closing things out on those kind of citizen discussions, what are you the most excited about that you can share for the rest of this year and maybe into next year? |
| James Stacey | Yeah, some more anniversaries coming up, you mentioned. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, so next year is the 50th anniversary of kind of like our solar EcoDrive technology. It's going to be dubbed like 50 years of EcoDrive innovation. And, well, I can't share the exact models yet, but there'll be some really cool limited editions that come out in the back half of that year. It's really cool, kind of the first time using some materials in the front half of the year. So I'm really excited about a couple of those things. And then later this year, no huge kind of releases. There is a variation of Siosa that will come out later this year that I'm really excited about. So you'll see that maybe in a month or two. But, you know, we're constantly evolving and constantly bringing out, you know, what I think is is the right assortment. And, you know, just because it's not for the enthusiast doesn't mean it's not really cool. You had mentioned some super watches or one I did want to mention, too. It's the Roland. We just introduced it on bracelet and it's a five link bracelet. There's a root beer colorway that is amazing. It's the brown and rose gold and stainless steel. really cool there's a blue dial stay in the still option this is kind of like my first foray into really making ourselves you know a little unique into the dress classic category so you know there's if if you're only looking at a promaster product please you know look at the whole line in general because you know just because it's called dress classic or sport luxury we we still try to make everything as cool and unique as possible |
| James Stacey | And we'll include a link in the show notes, of course. But if you're listening, Suyosa is T-S-U-Y-O-S-A, if that helps. If you're sitting at your desk and you're Googling around for that word, that's a strong pronunciation of a word that's a little bit misleading in the way that it's spelled. But those are great looking watches for sure. How about some final notes? You want to dig into everyone's picks for the week? |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, let's do it. Neil, you want to take the honors and take the first one? This is a good one. Speaking of anniversaries. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, speaking of anniversaries, I'm a big movie fan. And Jaws had their 50th anniversary this year. And one thing I thought was really cool I did was on the anniversary weekend it came out, I put a projector out by my pool. And we watched it on the pool. So that was kind of fun. Except you broke your toe, you said. Yeah, I think I broke my toe. I don't know. Well, it might have been just a really bad stomping, but it hurt for a couple weeks, so it might have been broken. But it was all part of the process, right? But a part of the anniversary is Disney Plus and Hulu came out with a Jaws at 50, the definitive inside story. And it's an amazing documentary. If you don't know, the production on this movie was very difficult. The shark rarely worked. There's a really cool... or off-Broadway play called The Shark is Broken that is really, really cool. It kind of gives another inside scoop onto how each actor kind of dealt with waiting for the shark. But hearing Spielberg's side of it, Spielberg reaching out to the Blue Water White Death kind of dive team is really cool to hear. That was kind of fascinating that he wanted live footage of a great white and he went to the right people. So it's just a really cool, interesting story. I'm not sure if either of you have seen it yet, but I really loved it. I haven't. That's great. |
| Jason Heaton | I mean, it reminds me when you mentioned the difficulty of production of the Hearts of Darkness, the documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now. I think I think these films that we now look back on is just such classics. Some of them had such fraught histories of their of their production and. I'd love to see this one about Jaws and your mention of that play on Broadway. I think that was Robert Shaw's son, Ian, I think is his name. And he acts in it or he wrote it or something. But yeah, he did both. I'd like to see that as well. That's really cool. Did you see it? |
| Neil Brick | We did see it. I saw it when it first came out before it became hyped up, I think. My wife was really cool. I think it was my birthday present two years ago. She knows I'm a big Jaws fanatic. I'm so happy that she was able to do that for me. |
| James Stacey | It's a funny thing because I think people forget one, and I'll give credit to Rewatchables. They have a great Jaws episode if you want to get another side of the oral history. I don't think it's going to be as complete as what's in here because so much of Rewatchables is just kind of a... fun convo but Spielberg was 27 when he made that movie it's crazy wow and like I've been showing speaking of Spielberg you know my daughters love E.T. I don't know if you've gotten there with your daughters Neil I think they're a little younger and then recently I took my daughters through the entire run of Jurassic Park and when you tell them like no the same guy made E.T. that made Jurassic Park they go like that's a lot of good movies. I'm like, he's got about 25 more that people really, really genuinely love. So we went and saw the most recent Jurassic Park, which is Jurassic World Rebirth. It's now another storyline, a different, same timeline, same world, different storyline, different main characters, that sort of thing. And, you know, the movie was, you know, it's not the first one. And I still have a soft spot for the second one because of how old I was when it came out. And early Vince Vaughn and the Mercedes ML launched with it and all these cool things. But I digress, of course. The the interesting thing here is we're sitting waiting for the movie and they have like they're going to do a screening of Jaws for the 50th anniversary. And I don't remember the last time I saw it look that good. So I'm kind of sitting there with my jaw on the floor watching this Jaws trailer. And both of my girls are like, is this that scene? That's real Jaws? It's in the theaters? It's a new one? I go, no, this is the one from 50 years ago. And they're just getting to the point, like we watched Sandlot this last weekend, where they can tell a movie made earlier versus now. And they're a little bit sensitive to that. And they're like... wow, that looks really good. You know, is the shark animatronic? I go, it is sometimes. Sometimes it just sat in the water. Yes. So I can't, that would be, I think that one would cross the line as far as, you know, appropriate things to show my young daughters. I like trying to push that limit a little bit, but I don't, and I don't want them to be scared of water or sharks. Yeah. So we can wait on that, but definitely when we get to it, we'll also watch the, this documentary. That sounds awesome. Good pick. |
| Neil Brick | The book is pretty good, too. I read it for the first time recently because I was like, I'm in a Jaws mood. And there's something that happens in a whole different thing. Something happens in the book I was devastated by. I was like, this is not in the movie. What are we doing? And it was just a complete blindside. |
| Jason Heaton | One of those cases where the movie's better than the book. I just... |
| James Stacey | Rarely, right? And the movie is, I mean, Spielberg doesn't, you know, doesn't love sex scenes and that sort of thing. This isn't a common topic on TGN. The book goes in an entirely different direction almost immediately. I remember being in like grade seven, seeing it on the shelf, grabbing it. My dad being like, you know what? Let's go with a Thomas Harris or a Jason Bourne or something. |
| Unknown | I was like, all right, sure. Yeah. |
| Neil Brick | Yeah, it blindsided me a little bit, for sure. |
| Jason Heaton | All right, James, why don't you take number two? All three of us have things to watch, so yeah, go for it. |
| James Stacey | Yeah, so we're between film club episodes, and I feel like every time I watch a movie now, I'm kind of assessing, will this make the film club? I spoke about Midnight Run a few episodes back, and if you haven't watched that, do it this weekend. Incredible film. But one that I watched kind of at the behest of my brothers that I just kind of missed, like totally... Totally went over my head is a movie called Black Bag. It's now back on Amazon Prime. So if you have Amazon, you can find it there. I saw it in a couple other spots for a few bucks if you just want to rent it. So this is a spy thriller, but very tight, very small, almost at moments like with a level of like Hitchcock brilliance. to certain sequences. I would say it's weirdly edited, and I think if you watch this, the pacing, you might realize this, the ending kind of comes out of nowhere, but there are moments that are jaw-dropping in this movie, and it's Fassbender, you know, an absolute TGN fave, and Cate Blanchett, also a TGN fave. It's just a really, really good cast. And then it's Steven Soderbergh, so if you've ever seen Oceans 11, 12, 13... That's kind of the slick Soderbergh. You get the really cerebral Soderbergh with things like Syriana and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind or the somewhat slept on but I think largely appreciated Michael Clayton. If you like any of those and you want all of that kind of, especially those last three, but tuned towards... like spies spying on each other sort of film. I think they could have presented this as never leaving. Please watch it and then you'll understand what I mean. And Jason, I know you've watched this. Neil, I don't know if you have. It's on my list. Watch this and then you might understand there's a version of this where they could have told the entire story without leaving the dinner table. And that would have been... It would have felt more like Rope, one of my absolute favorites, my favorite Hitchcock. |
| Neil Brick | Love Rope. |
| James Stacey | Incredible film. And this movie had that... that sharp almost terrifying edge to it at times it's just really good it's not wall to wall uh an a plus but there are moments of it that are so good that it covers up some of the other stuff |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, it was good. And it reminds me, like your mention of being able to do it without leaving the dinner table. It felt like it could have been a play. It just had that sort of good dialogue. |
| James Stacey | Fastbender. Not playing Martian. It's a whole different vibe that he's pulling in there. And I'm never upset to see Blanchett, especially in a powerful role. Yeah, it's really good. I highly recommend it. Solid spy thriller that doesn't feel like... Like it's trying to be. You know, it's not a Bond, right? It's closer to a Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy. That one's going to be hard to beat, let's be clear. That's the A plus cream of the crop. But this is really solid stuff. And I just love seeing Soderbergh make movies that, you know, continue to kind of explore other spaces with his level of slickness and the cinematography is ridiculous. The architecture is amazing. Everything's great. pretty fun. |
| Jason Heaton | Cool. All right. Well, I'm going to close it out with, uh, with another movie recommendation. Um, this is also a documentary booking book ending with Neil's, uh, choice. Um, this one's called becoming Led Zeppelin and it's on Apple TV. Um, you know, rockumentary, um, kind of a behind the music ask sort of course sort of thing. And it's in that genre. If you've seen these kinds of movies, you know exactly what they're like. um, lots of interviews with, with old rockers kind of recounting their glory days and how things started and some really great archival footage. And I think that was my favorite part is like seeing Jimmy Page playing. I didn't realize that both he and John Paul Jones, the bassist for Led Zeppelin, both played on the theme song for Goldfinger behind Shirley Bassey. Like they were in that orchestra. It's just like one of these kind of weird little trivia pieces that, that, that came out of that movie. And, um, it was, uh, Yeah, it was good. I mean, I'm a huge Led Zeppelin fan and I think this probably is a little bit watered down, felt a little bit like might have been sanitized a bit, you know, getting rid of some of the sex and drugs part of the rock and roll stuff, which is fine because it was really focused a lot on the music and it was just great to like... hear them they just let them play full songs like a lot of times documentaries they just play snippets and they cut away but this one like they they kind of went on with it so uh if you're a zeppelin fan check that out i think uh it's really cool i think between our final notes here i think we got a pretty solid trio we've got you know kind of a spy cerebral spy thriller uh and two documentaries one about jaws and one about about zeppelin so cool |
| James Stacey | Jason, I'm curious, what's your favorite Zeppelin album? Do you have a fave? So many albums. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, I think Led Zeppelin 4, I think, stands out. I mean, everything from the cover art to the story behind the recording of it. You know, just... i kind of feel like they reached their peak with that one before they kind of got further along into the 70s and started making some new stuff but yeah i mean it's just it's it's just all so good like just pick like the best of album and just go through them and i think some of even the songs that everybody knows um you know, like a lot of times there'll be a popular song that is good for a reason and everybody likes it. But when it comes on, you're kind of like, okay, I've heard this so many times. I don't want to listen to it anymore. Like if I hear stairway to heaven, like I'll listen to it full all the way through all the way up, you know, volume all the way up. Like it's just that song never gets old. And that's the case with almost every Zeppelin song. They just, they knew how to jam, which I loved. |
| James Stacey | Yeah. I watched a guy on Instagram play Comfortably Numb, which is probably my favorite guitar solo of all time. Pink Floyd on a lute, I think it was. |
| Neil Brick | It was like a medieval. And it was gorgeous. |
| James Stacey | It was like Sarah even saw what she was doing. She's like, it doesn't know. I don't think she knows the guitar solo from Comfortably Numb. But that one's great. Yeah, for me, Zeppelin's probably Zeppelin 3. I just, Friends is such a song. Yeah, yeah. Such a big fan of that. And Tangerine will never kind of lose its luster for me. Neil, are you much of a Zeppelin fan? |
| Neil Brick | You know, music is like my crux here. I'm a little bit naive on some music stuff. So I probably know songs if I hear them, but I couldn't tell you names and albums. Sure, sure. Yeah. |
| James Stacey | I mean, to be fair, these are also pretty old albums. If you didn't grow up with like, in my case, with like a classic rock dad and that sort of thing, then... yeah then you don't you don't necessarily to be fair my father's not a huge zeppelin fan that came to me probably through my brother actually who is obsessed with four and remains obsessed with four for sure uh great great stuff some really good stuff to check out there and yeah if you don't know the albums go back and listen to three and four and then watch the watch the doc i don't have to do that down yeah cool This has been super fun. Thanks so much. |
| Jason Heaton | Yeah, thanks for coming on. What an absolute treat. Yeah, this will be our second in a row with a really fun and great guest. So Neil, thanks for joining us. And you're going to close us out with a quote, but before that, as always, thanks to everyone 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 thegraynato.com. Music throughout is Siesta by JazzArt via the Free Music Archive. |
| Neil Brick | And we leave you with this quote. A gentleman's choice of timepiece is as much about him as does his Savile Row suit. Ian Fleming. |