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The Grey NATO – 385 – Dog Days Of Summer (New Doxa, Big Swims, The Odyssey, & More)

Published on Thu, 06 Aug 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Grey NATO (episode 385), hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton reconnect after a couple weeks off. Jason recently completed a challenging 2.1-mile open water swim called Point to La Pointe across Lake Superior in Wisconsin, battling cold water and a nagging shoulder injury. James shares his trip to Glashütte, Germany with the Hodinkee team to visit A. Lange & Söhne's manufacture, where he explored traditional watchmaking techniques, tried his hand at engraving, and attended the opera in Dresden.

The hosts discuss their current watches - Jason wearing his Sinn 144S Jubiläum and James sporting the new Doxa Sub 200T Army limited edition he helped develop with Hodinkee. They cover various adventures including James attending the Hodinkee happy hour in New York, driving vintage Alfa Romeos with Thomas Holland, and seeing Christopher Nolan's "The Odyssey" (twice, though he slept through most of the first viewing). Jason also got several watches back from service, including his Blancpain Bathyscaphe and vintage Omega Speedmaster Mark III. They preview the upcoming Toronto Timepiece Show in September and wrap up discussing recent media they've enjoyed, including season 2 of "The Agency" and recommending Speed's "Rookie's Guide to Watches" video.

Show Notes

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of the Great NATO. It's a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 385, 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 thegreynato.com for more details. My name is James Stacey, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, Jason Heaton. Jason, how's it going, old buddy? It's been it's been a few minutes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. I've got to remember how to how to work this thing, how to how to do this. Yeah,
James Stacey you take a couple weeks off, you get rusty.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I know. It's uh yeah, it was it was kind of a tiring, but also a rejuvenating break, uh for me. And I know actually the as timing works out, you're actually just embarking on a on a couple of weeks of your own vacation. So um yeah, we're we're kind of w overlapping in the middle here.
James Stacey Yeah, due to the not unique but special way in which I've structured my work life, uh, it made more sense to take some time off due to some other commitments. Uh take some time off from TGN due to some other commitments in the last couple of weeks, and then I'm on vacation with my family starting yesterday. Um but uh you know, TGN I you know I don't see as the same type of work uh otherwise, it really is a delight to do. So here we are recording an episode before we uh head up to the cottage for the better part of a week uh to hang out up there, hopeful for good weather and that kind of stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah, well the weather's turned for the better here. It uh it was pretty hot, you know, the past few weeks, uh actually really hot. Um I guess the the couple of weeks that we were off and then it's just kind of turned over the past few days and yesterday was lovely and today looks like about the same. So I hope that's kind of moving your way or you've got it hanging over you. Um Yeah,
James Stacey it's sunny sunny here today, not too hot. Uh so we'll see how that works out. Looks like there's rain in the forecast, but hopefully that blows by uh and doesn't present a major problem as we've got most of my sort of extended family showing up to the cottage, which is a a big group of people. They do it about once a summer. Everybody shows up. So
Jason Heaton with should be good time. With that number of people, um I think you told me it was a few couple dozen or more, like um where does everyone stay? I mean, do you all is everyone do tents or is the cottage big enough for everyone to sleep? No, the
James Stacey cottage is probably big enough for maybe two families and then um maybe three if the weather was bad and and you really didn't want to be in a tent, but there's you know se,veral houses on the property owned by my aunts and uncles.
Jason Heaton I see and some of those have some spare
James Stacey rooms. So we're just kind of taking up all the free space we can.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Hard to believe it's August. I I just you know, we say it every year. I we could probably go back to every every early August episode we've done since twenty sixteen and we probably always express our shock and and surprise that that here we are with with, you know,
James Stacey yeah. a month or two left of of good
Jason Heaton summer fun weather and and that sort of thing. But uh yeah, here we are once again.
James Stacey Yep. And uh yeah, yeah, exactly. August has come very quickly. Thankfully it is the start of August, uh not the end.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh we've got a solid month of
James Stacey uh summer break left with the kids, and then we'll be staring down the barrel of September, which means the Toronto Time Peace show. Uh we're going to be doing a live episode on the Saturday. Stay tuned for timing and scheduling for all of that. And then Saturday evening we'll be doing our annual marathon party. It's not one to miss if you're able to make it to the city. We should have room for pretty much anybody who would like to join in. Um so stay tuned for the RSVP for that. I'm sorting out some details and the next couple of weeks. Uh so I would expect to have the RSVP up um, you know, end of August, early September, which is plenty of time to sign up for a cool party. Yeah. I'm look I'm looking forward to uh the time piece show. There's some folks coming into town that'll be fun to hang out with, obviously uh some of the usual crew, but also an extension therein um should be a good time.
Jason Heaton yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to it. It's always a good time and boy if the weather holds like it did last year. I mean it was it was it was beautiful to just be out walking around the city late at night uh after the show and
James Stacey just hanging out at your place and and going for
Jason Heaton sushi and you know, here we go. Rinse and repeat.
James Stacey time together, but it's a great weekend and one that I look forward to. Um I know that uh uh this year they are charging for the show. Oh
Jason Heaton I think it's twenty, twenty five bucks or
James Stacey something once you do all the ticketmaster fees and the rest of it. If that's a deal breaker then, I'm not I'm not super sure that we're on the same wavelength that twenty five dollars for a weekend of stuff to do in Toronto is as close to free as somebody can put a number to.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, and the show is a really good time.
James Stacey Certainly, even if you only came in for the day to check out, you know, our live show, some of the other live events um on the stage and do a lap of the show, that still feels like good value to me.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And uh and if it makes you feel better and
James Stacey we're not, you know, there's no uh no cover charge for the uh for the marathon party. So certainly not uh we should have a good time doing that as well. But look, I think the point of today's show, we don't have like there's not a ton going on in the watch world. There's not something we feel like we absolutely must speak about, but it's been a couple of weeks, we've had a few adventures, and I think today she'll just be kind of catching up on that kind of nice part of the summer where you feel maybe less inclined to make everything a piece of content,
Jason Heaton um, but at the same time doing some cool
James Stacey stuff and uh some stuff that we're happy to chat about. Before we dive into that, and I guess really to bridge us into one of the first things that happened in the last couple of weeks, do you want to dive into some risk check?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. Um I am wearing uh and have been wearing for several days, um the Zinn 144S, the the Jubilom, um the all black one. I you know, um you you'd written a review of this one. I I I've referred to it a couple of times back in your blog to watch days. Um, this is the the watch I actually bought last year in Toronto from Tom Place. And I'll be honest, you know, I I love this watch, but I struggled to find just the right kind of strap fit for it. And I mentioned this on a previous episode and I got a lot of ideas and I'm still kind of making some decisions about that. Um the the bracelet, you know, Tom sold it to me on this lovely vintage Porsche Design bracelet, black bracelet, kind of the rolled bullet style bracelet, if if if you want to call it that, as well as the the H-Link Zinn bracelet that came with it, both really spectacular and a great look for the watch, but I'm just not a twenty-four-seven bracelet guy. a lot So I was looking for the right strap and I was kind of struggling to the point where I thought, yeah, maybe I'm not, you know, maybe I can't keep this watch because if it's not something I want to wear regularly because of the, you know, bracelet uh conundrum. Um, you know, who who knows? So um, but I I put it on the uh the Ericas. It was a gray Erikas that I forgot had a loomed center white stripe till the other night when I was,
James Stacey you know, lying awake in the dark and I looked and
Jason Heaton I was like, striped glow. It was really, really bizarre. Um and it looks great on that. And I you know, the only quibble I have with it is that it I I'm kind of a nitpicker about matching uh strap hardware to the watch case and and this doesn't have black hardware. So I'm still on the hunt for something kind of perfect and I've got a few ideas, but uh stay tuned for that. And yeah, you as you kind of hinted at um this watch played a role in something I was up to over the past couple of weeks. So we'll leave it there for now. But uh what do you have on? You've got something pretty pretty special on today.
James Stacey Yeah rocking something new that Sarah and I bought um last week when I was in the city we launched we being Hodinkee launched the Doxa Sub two hundred T Army L E. Uh I can now say that if you've been keeping track of all the stuff I said was coming from Doxa that would make for an exciting summer. I hope I hope it's now clear that it was the T graph, the titanium custler, and now the 200T Army. Um, this was a 250-piece LE, it was sold for $2,000. It is essentially a rethinking of the standard army, but in the 200T case, so 39 millimeters. I'll be honest, I'm pretty sure this watch wears like 36. The watch wears very small. Um, I think it wears even smaller than my yellow, and I'm not entirely sure why yet. It's probably the coloring. Um, so it's all this kind of gray taupe tan sand color with orange accents. I really like it. It's something where I can't take any credit for the design, but over time I I kind of weighed in and helped provide opinions. Uh whether those opinions necessarily made it to the final model, not so sure, but definitely the the impetus of like the starting point of going um we'd like to do a smaller army in the hoodinky color spectrum. Uh that just was an instant win for me. And as an already fan of the two hundred, uh, I thought it was quite exciting. Um so yeah, Sarah and I bought one uh and I've kind of been wearing it ever since. I I don't really want to take it off. Um, you know, I'm on record and and I don't want to be unfair to Doxa, certainly uh not on the the you know the honeymoon phase of a brand new watch that they made with Hodinkee. I don't really like their rubber strap and I don't not a huge fan of their bracelet either. There's nothing wrong with with either of them. They're very popular with the majority of the audience. They just don't work for me. Um
Jason Heaton so I have it on a very similar
James Stacey strap. I wore my two hundred on, which is a uh sort of nylon two piece military style strap uh from Alley fit. I'll put it in the show notes. People have asked. I think it's a really nice match. It comes in several colors. So if you want to tone it like more for the dial center, or if you want to tone it more for the bezel, like in a darker taupe, that you could do that as well. Um, but these are like twelve, twelve, thirteen dollar straps from Amazon.
Jason Heaton Oh wow, yeah, nice. And then it
James Stacey came on a gray NATO also, it came with a Grenado also that that is quite nice. So that that's a good option as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And being 18 millimeters, I
James Stacey don't have a ton of straps. Um I still have the mesh, like the shark mesh that I I kind of piece together and ground down with a grinder uh for my other for the diving star two hundred T, which I sold a little while ago. Um and I could fit that on as well. But I think right now and and for the summer, I think this is the right the right look. Yeah.
Jason Heaton But I'm I'm absolutely loving the watch. Yeah, that's great. It came in came at just the right time for uh the remainder of the summer because it just seems like that sort of watch. It's uh that's great. Yeah, it looks tremendous. And boy dox has been on a roll lately. It's uh it's pretty cool.
James Stacey Yeah. The topper edition that I had and
Jason Heaton uh you know for a short time. Incredible. And um yeah and the
James Stacey custler. But
Jason Heaton um yeah, yeah, yeah. Docks of summer for sure.
James Stacey Yeah, and we've got over uh over a thousand messages, I think, in the slack thread for this watch launch.
Jason Heaton Wow. I'm I'm pretty happy with how it went and I'm just pumped
James Stacey to have a Doxa that I'm like really excited about um after selling the two hundred T and uh and yeah, so
Jason Heaton yeah rocking the new army and enjoying
James Stacey it very much. Amazing. and I suppose that brings us into like one, you know, we I was down in in New York last week. We also did uh a hangout at uh Watch of Switzerland in Soho. Uh we did another one of our happy hours. It was very well attended. Saw some really cool watches. Met some folks that I'm sure are listening now. And uh you know a big thank you to everybody uh for coming out to for all of that. But to be honest, like I I'm I'm essentially uh just rambling on here, but I I'd love to hear about uh what you recently what kind of cool achievement you recently wore this in for and then we can get into other stuff that we've gotten up to the last couple of weeks.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's um so it's fresh in my memory because it was just done Saturday, just about three, four days ago. Um I had been training all summer for this uh long distance open water swim uh that that they conduct every year. Apparently this was the the 20th anniversary of the swim. I didn't even kind of register that until I was there and they were kind of celebrating that. But it the the race is race, I guess some people race. I wasn't racing. Um the event is called Point to La Pointe. And it it goes from this small, really kind of beautiful touristy coastal town in northern Wisconsin called Bayfield that uh uh there's a regular ferry service that takes um people, tourists and cabin owners and things, uh from Bayfield Harbor across a stretch of Lake Superior to uh one of the Apostle Islands. The Apostle Islands are um, you know, in biblical terms, I I think, you know, some people might assume there are 12 islands. I think they're actually more than that. Um, but uh Madeline Is Island the closest one to the mainland. Um and I believe it has the most kind of population density. I mean if you can call it that, it's a lot of cabins and kind of people go there to hike and sit on the beach. And uh the so the swim goes from Bayfield across to Madeline Island. And it's a it's a two point one mile swim um in in Lake Superior. So you know those familiar with the Great Lakes or have heard me kind of waxing uh nostalgically and poetically about the the Great Lakes. Uh you'll know that it's a huge body of water, um, quite cold and uh kind of with capricious weather. And so all of those factors were a little bit daunting, but as it happens, fortunately it turned out to be a really great day. And I I did it. I did it very slow. I was about uh you know I got some advice that the towards the end there was some current that uh you want to save some strength for and then I don't know about two thirds of the way across. I I've got this nagging um I don't even know if it's torn, I've never really had it officially looked at, but my rotator cuff and my left shoulder um which shell swimming will certainly aggravate as you might imagine. And boy, but yeah, yeah. And by the, you know, by about two-thirds of the way across, I was really feeling it. Like I could get almost no power out of my left arm. So um I kind of gut itted out and and finished. Um and you know for for me that was a that was a big achievement. That was my goal. I wasn't out for any specific time. But uh it was it was great. It was a really well-run event. They had, I think they said 75 kayak kayakers, like volunteer kayakers, uh, as kind of a safety team, as well as bigger boats, like you know, power boats that were even further out uh to be available in case people needed help. Um, but the kayaks kind of created this corridor and and just kept an eye on all the swimmers. And there were, I believe, five or six hundred swimmers total. So a lot a lot of people that's been sent off. Did
James Stacey Christy get in uh get in a kayak to support?
Jason Heaton no, she she um she saw me off at the beginning at the beach in Bayfield and then she hopped the ferry and it's about a twenty minute ferry ride across and then walked to the end and and met me there so I saw her when I got out of the water. But uh I did also at the beginning um saw uh uh a T GN listener. I I knew he was uh actually participating in this, Taylor. Um Taylor if you're listening, uh shout out to you. Uh thanks for coming over and saying hi shout out at the beach. I was uh pretty impressed and amazed um afterwards when I was kind of looking at the that the results that Taylor finished like second or third
James Stacey like in the in the non-competitive division so
Jason Heaton he wasn't with the the the racers you know the triathletes and the guys that were headed off at the very beginning but regardless he he set a very fast time I think he was an hour faster than me um which tells you something about his abilities and and also mine um, but uh yeah it, was good to see him. And uh yeah, it was a really fun event. And you know, other than my my shoulders are still quite sore, I can kind of barely lift my left arm over my head right now. But uh we had a a nice relaxing end to the weekend. we kind of broke our journey back to the Twin Cities by stopping at uh Christy's family cabin in kind of northern Wisconsin and just relaxed there for a night and a day and and did some non-swimming lake time. So just kind of floating around in that lake and uh and then came home on Sunday. So it was uh it was it was a good adventure. I'm I'm you know, these things that it you know, we talk about type two fun, the kind of fun that is fun after it's over. And I I would say this is that. I I had been training probably not enough. I was swimming, I kind of worked my way up to two miles of open water swimming in the lakes uh around the cities here. And uh you know, when you when you have something on the horizon, you know, you might remember this from Baker or if you you know if anyone's done any kind of five K's or marathon training, like when it's out there in the distance and you're aiming towards it, even if you might be enjoyinging a relax summer or a few months, like it's always in the back of your mind that, you know, this is looming, this is coming. What's the weather gonna be like? Am I gonna be fit enough? Have I trained enough? Do I have the right gear? Et cetera. You know, to to say that sounds like you're like, why do you even bother doing these things? Like these are optional activities. Why do you put yourself through it? But I will say that first of all, it was very satisfying, very happy to have done it. Also, happy it's over. Happy to have the month of August to you know swim if I want to, but if I don't want to, I don't have to. So
James Stacey yeah, of course. Kind of nice to have that behind me. But
Jason Heaton uh rehab the shoulder a little bit. Yeah, exactly. Right.
James Stacey Yeah, there you go. Well that's awesome, man. That's great. Yeah. I uh let's see. What else is I've got a list. So we'll I'm in no specific order, but definitely high on my high on my measure of excitement. I have uh I I took a trip to Germany, but you know the I I just can't imagine swimming that far if I'm honest. Like I'm not a bad swimmer.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. But I don't think I've ever
James Stacey enjoyed it like the way I used to enjoy running or would love to enjoy running again.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Where the idea
James Stacey of like, oh, it's going to be an hour and a half, and I know that like the first five minutes,
Jason Heaton mm-hmm, my blood's not gonna feel quite
James Stacey right. But after that it's gonna be like a a flow state sort of thing, like a I'm I'm cruising.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And y and there's a moment
James Stacey somewhere in the middle where you're like, you know, maybe we could go for two or three hours, you know. And then of course the last half hour you just like start to fall off a cliff or at least that's how it was for me. I never I never trained up to a marathon or anything. Yeah. So yeah, I I definitely respect the the drive, but at the same time, like it's now behind you.. That's awesome You have the achievement. That's a big swim.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And also just to reprise
James Stacey like getting in the water, you know, year how long has it been since you did Alcatraz?
Jason Heaton That was, you know, I looked back. It was 2009. I mean, that was a young much younger man at that time. I think I was gosh, I would have been younger than you at that point. and it was um that was tough. I mean, that was uh up to that you know point. I mean or it was the toughest thing I'd done and and sure this kind of brought back some memories. I would say this was like the conditions were easier. There wasn't kind of the waves and the strong current and the prospect of a great white shark below me. Um but still, you know, it was the this was a this was a further distance. Um I'm a lot older. Um and I would say this was colder water. But uh yeah, you know, you talk about it's kind of swimming that distance. I I like to swim. I can swim a long ways, obviously. Um but and and I do enjoy it. But there's something so different about the exertion level of swimming. Where you know, if you go for a run, you like you start to feel it in your joints, or you start to feel like oh, I didn't or I ate too much or whatever. With swimming, you're horizontal, gravity isn't a factor. There's something weird about your I don't know. Well it's also
James Stacey I think much diff much more difficult because in running sorry to interrupt, but in running like you're you're you're you understand your progress because it's similar to walking.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. Yeah. Right. In the water,
James Stacey I just don't know how far I've gone. You know what I mean?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And sometimes you
James Stacey can go like, oh, I'm gonna swim from this dock to that dock, or I have to swim from the dock out to a boat.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm right? And that's easy. That's you know, maybe
James Stacey it's a hundred yards, maybe it's two hundred yards. When I used to do a lot of diving in Vancouver, we'd go to Porto Cove and you'd have a fairly long surface swim, but you would know like I'm getting down at the steps that they built.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And then I'm just going to that buoy. Yeah.
James Stacey That that's my distance. Whereas like swimming like it genuinely into open water, you're just kind of it'd be like walking without without the ground really moving below you.
Jason Heaton Right.. Necessarily And there's nothing to look at. I guess
James Stacey for me it always yeah, there's nothing to look at. And even if you can like
Jason Heaton reference. Yeah. Like even even my experience,
James Stacey you know, if you've ever lost something in the water, a pair of sunglasses, a flashlight, whatever. Yeah.
Jason Heaton And you go like you immediately look like oh
James Stacey okay, I'm straight off of this dock and this is just on my left. And you're trying to like triangulate where you are, it's hopeless.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Everything's moving. Everything's
James Stacey moving all the time. Yeah. Um, and you know, like don't get me wrong, I'm sure th there's some way of understanding like if you're running, you yeah, the world is spinning and all these sorts of things, but you're really just moving yourself.
Jason Heaton Right. And the world is going past you. Whereas
James Stacey if in the water, that that whole environment is moving around you.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Which I think I've always
James Stacey found to be a trip when I have like when I know I have to swim pretty far.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I I think I really noticed this during the training. During the swim there were kind of kayaks and and other swimmers kind of around the whole time, which was some level of diversion. But when d during my training over the past few months, I mean I'll admit it after a while it gets kind of boring. You know, it's like I'm swimming for ninety, a hundred minutes and you're not you can't really see anything. And then um, you know, I I know there are you know waterproof headphones that you can wear or earbuds that you can listen to music, but I I haven't done that. And so like you're kind of alone with your thoughts. It's very meditative, uh as well as being exertion. Um and then all you're seeing is like the end of your arm over and over again. It's just nothing to see. And so to to your point about telling knowing your distance, um when I did Alcatraz, you know, there there weren't weren't uh as far as I know, there weren't like GPS watches, maybe there were early ones, but like having the Garmin for training and then for this, I was actually able to pause and look and say,, o I'kayve I'm a third of the way. I'm a half half of the way, you know, um, which was really helpful. Or
James Stacey have it do that thing where it beeps at every di whatever interval.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Or vibrates so you
James Stacey would know. But yeah, I I guess the closest I could imagine is like the few times that I've walked in the desert.
Jason Heaton You can look at something and go like, I I
James Stacey feel like I know how far away that is, and you start walking and you're just like, Nope, I was wrong. I'm yeah, this is taking way longer than I expected. Something about the, you know, the ground the relationship to the to your ability to move through the environment for sure would be would be a trip for me.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But yeah, man, that's that's very impressive. I'm
James Stacey I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm you know, I hope hopefully the shoulder uh a couple of sauna sessions and and some stretching maybe maybe gives you that range of motion back.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um well yeah that's awesome. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. Um and then you mentioned your your Germany trip. I mean that was that was going on what two weeks ago or whatever and it was two weeks ago. It looked amazing. I mean you had the whole team over there and uh you know, that part of Germany I've been there a couple of times and it's uh it it it's a really magical place. Um
James Stacey yeah, it's it's my it was my first time in Glashuta and uh so many months ago started kind of to sketch out a project with Longa where instead of doing a press trip where they bring in a bunch of people for one one watch, it was if we could pitch enough stories that we were interested in doing, things that we wanted to discover or shoot or um you know build out as far as you know, stories for the magazine, stories for the site, video, that sort of thing. That might be more there might be, you know, ability to go deeper than you would go if you just went out to see a watch or if you went to the Audrain and you had an hour with a watch or something like that, like I've done in the past.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So we worked as a team,
James Stacey uh, the Hodenky team to come up with, you know, the better part of like twenty different story ideas and pieces of content and that sort of thing. And um the majority of the edit team, and including Ben, went out and we had three full days in Glashuta kind of exploring all the various elements of the way that Longa makes watches. And I was you know, to be clear, uh already a fan of this brand, those listening to the show that that know me well know I'm not exactly an active participant in high-end watchmaking, uh, but I'm certainly a fan. Yeah. And I like the way that the brand comes to things. I also like that, you know, if you compare them to their quote unquote peers, you know, maybe maybe that's Patek, maybe that's uh AP, maybe that's Vacheron, they're making five thousand watches a year.
Jason Heaton A P's making fifty. Yeah.
James Stacey And so it's a whole different scale in terms of the watch making and so much of it is just like exceptionally hands on. Oh
Jason Heaton yeah. So we saw some of the some of the usual machines
James Stacey where they're they're developing base plates and things like that. And then once they're developed, they're essentially doing the rest of that work by hand or they're building you know, we workshops for chronographs, workshops for uh zeitworks. Uh we we saw the engraving department and I got to try engraving my own like balance cock.
Jason Heaton I saw that. You did really well. I thought
James Stacey it was a little bit like Yeah, we we got a lesson from this uh really, really nice lady named Julia. Uh she was a former dental hygienist, which of course feels like a great choice, um, in terms of uh or a dental technician, uh, in terms of you know the hand eye coordination and the the comfortability with you know scratching hard surfaces and that sort of thing. And then they have like a program for people who visit where you get um like a German silver balance cock, but it's five times the size of one that would go in your watch.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And then they teach you this technique called
James Stacey trombage, which is essentially like a back and forth motion with a very sharp flat edge similar to taking the the wide profile of a screwdriver and rocking it back and forth on a piece of wood would give you immediately the so you're making little zigzags as as the the tool rocks from one edge of the blade to the other.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And she
James Stacey gave us a two minute to five minute sort of explanation and and kind of handed it off and I went to town and after a few minutes she said I was doing very well. So uh it's exceptionally difficult to be clear, and mine looks like trash. You can see it on my on my uh my Instagram, but it it went pretty well and my only goal was to be better at it than Tantan. And I and I think I achieved that. Uh Tantan and I did did it together. Um, but man, we got to see, you know, where they do the handwerkskunst, uh, which is the the the fully hand
Jason Heaton oh sort of crazy dimpled
James Stacey pebbled dial. Yeah. And we watched somebody work on that. We watched each one of them kind of create their own expression of the balance cock. So any one of them can kind of take a watch and look at it under a loop and go, oh, you know, so and so made this one.
Jason Heaton Wow. Yeah. And each one has sort
James Stacey of like very clear markers if you're part of the team to know who did which one. Um, which was cool. And yeah, we saw their their whole production facility, we saw where they develop movements, we saw where they uh do after sales service. So they had some very interesting you know watches from twenty years ago that were in for service and you know get entirely pulled apart by a specialist who knows the watch inside and out. And um, and at this level of watchmaking, a lot of the watch when it's put together is custom where they everything is made to a certain specification, but the watch itself has to run a certain way.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So it's similar to the way like a uh
James Stacey a motor might have been made in the seventies or maybe even into the eighties where it's hand tuned.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm and they're not all gonna be identical.
James Stacey and you know, there's very little about it that would be the type of watchmaking that like a Rolex or a tutor is taking part in, yeah, which is very much industrialized to get to a certain end goal. This is industrialized to get to a point where somebody takes over and builds the functioning watch, and is fine-tuning various elements for that one watch, whereas the next one they start building might not require the same tuning. It's that sort of thing. It's a very traditional sort of scope.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Had ate some
James Stacey ate some great German food. We went to uh an opera in Jesdown
Jason Heaton nice at at the yeah the Semper. The Semper where the the clock is, right? The uh
James Stacey Yep, exactly. Yeah. So we got to go inside there and see the clock.
Jason Heaton Wow. So we got to see it.
James Stacey it's an electric clock that uses a a dual sort of day date display or a a dual digit but grand date display similar to what was eventually you know this is what inspired the uh the display on a on a longa the, grand date display on a longa. and so we got to go into that little tiny room and see how that's done. Exceptionally cool.
Jason Heaton Wow. Um, and then we saw uh
James Stacey we got a whole tour of the building. And the tour of the building, of course, me um we the joke at Hudinky now is that James doesn't actually like the arts. I'm I'm maybe not so much for operas or dance retrospectives and that sort of thing. I really enjoyed the building. It was very cool. Of course, it had burned down at least once before, maybe twice in total, including during uh the bombing of Dresden and then the um when they when they rebuilt it, they built the most of it out of plaster so that it there's no wood involved. Mm-hmm. But there's these huge there's this huge area, you know, wherever the what you might call I guess a mezzanine, you know, the area outside of the performing space where you might hang out or, you know, go get a drink at intermission. All of it looks like oak and it's all plaster that somebody painted to look like oak.
Jason Heaton Wow. Wow. It's an I've never
James Stacey been in a building quite like it at all. And I mean it's it's absolutely I don't know the right word resplendent on the outside. I'll I'll include a photo for sure. Or a link, sorry, in the show notes to uh to the Semper. Um they were doing um a sort of dance retrospective thing about Frida Kala, uh the uh the Mexican artist. Uh so we watched that the one night and then otherwise, yeah, a couple of great meals. It it's it you know, it's in a bit of a remote spot, so you you have a drive from Dresden into Glashuta each day, uh which was quite lovely. Uh I had a chance to walk around Dresden for an afternoon. It's absolutely gorgeous. Um, yeah, it was it was a really, really good trip, very enjoyable. And we shot some great stuff, so I'm really excited to see the content, kind of hit the magazine, hit the YouTube, all that kind of stuff in the future. Um if you're following along, some of that is hinted, but I certainly wouldn't want to give anything away. Uh but we have some cool stuff coming on that front as well. So yeah, that was a that was a good one. And then I guess on the
Jason Heaton I I saw some cars in there too. Some uh I'm sure Wilhelm had something to do with that.
James Stacey Yeah, Wilhelm, you know, lives not super far from the manufacturer. Wilhelm is the Wilhelm Schmidt is the CEO of Langa. Um, and he's you know has a uh career history in cars and also is a an avid sort of fan of vintage cars. It's why the brand's involved with uh you know Concorso de la Gantz and uh the Audrain and and all these, yeah. Um and so yeah, he had come out one day, uh he came out with a handful of different cars, kind of a different one each day depending on the weather.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um but it was fun. He brought out a a
James Stacey lovely old 356, quickly becoming kind of my favorite thing in Porsche's lineage are these these really kind of old, simple, fun little sports cars. Um you know, much less serious than what the brand or maybe not less serious, but l much less um intense than what the brand is making today as far as a modern modern cars go. Just older cars really are doing it for me these days.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And so he he had he had one of those.
James Stacey Um and I like the stuff before the nine elevens. That's exciting as well. Uh so yeah, we we got to do a little bit of car stuff, film some stuff out in the wild, film some stuff at the at the manufacturer. So that should it it should be good. Yeah, I'm I'm looking forward to it. But it was fun and I hadn't been out to that part of the world before. They're right literally like right across the street from Nomos.
Jason Heaton Oh sure. Um and uh and uh Mula
James Stacey Goshuta and uh uh Goshuta Originals just down the street, you know, there's probably like seven or eight manufacturers, Tutima and and that sort of thing, they're all kind of tucked in that area.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Did you get to the museum? The uh the glassuta watchmaking museum there?
James Stacey I uh did not, no. Oh yeah. For another one. We had
Jason Heaton worth it on another trip, yeah, for sure. Oh,
James Stacey I'm sure yeah, I'm sure I I you know um Tim Jeffries is working on like um more of a tourism piece, like a watch tourist piece
Jason Heaton for the area because not everybody's gonna be able to
James Stacey see what we did and then go to Longa and get the same experience.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But there's a lot of stuff in
James Stacey that area and in Dresden that's devoted to German watchmaking. So there's a chance that he he got there as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Cool. Nice. But yeah,
James Stacey uh that that was one I you know, I've got a few other things on the list, but that was like the major one But you know, seeing watches in service and that I can see a note here on our on our uh kind of show notes here what uh you you've got some something to do with service as well
Jason Heaton yeah I got uh got a couple watches back in the past few weeks uh from service one of them was uh you know I guess this is a bit of a full circle moment back to the the the Hodinkee Doxa LE and and I I had to send off my blanc pan bla bathiscaf, the Hodinkee edition from years ago that I got for my fiftieth birthday and it was just kind of running erratically. And so I dropped it at a local retailer, BlancPen retailer, and they sent it off to Blanc Pen service center in Florida. And it took boy, took three or four months. Um, and they did a full service on it, and I got that back a couple of weeks ago. And then I guess, you know, that that's great. I'm happy to have it back. Um but more significantly, if you remember, I have that uh Speedmaster Mark III with the blue dial, the big helm helmet case. Yeah, I I that was running really poorly. I got it at an estate sale several years ago and I was kind of I wasn't sure what to do with it. It wasn't run greningat, but it was running. Um, you know, the the minute center minute chronograph hand was dragging um and it would stop occasionally and it looked pretty crusty around the the gasket uh around the crystal. Um so I kind of bit the bullet and sent it to um Garen Fraze, who's a watchmaker and an educator in uh I'm f I think it's a pretty small town down in Texas, but uh he was c popped up on the Slack as someone who actually he wrote to me and said, look, I I kind of specialize in vintage chronographs and I'd love to take a crack at it. So I sent it down to him and and that one took several months as well. And he sent me progress reports along the way, you know, did a full disassembly, had to order parts and um kind of f fashion, you know, kind of as you will with fifty year old watches uh kind of make on the fly decisions and adapt things as he was going and and uh got that back finally and uh and it's working great and it's it it he said he tested it out to thirty meters of water resistance but as a good watchmaker will cautioned me not to get it wet um so I have really no plans to do that with this watch, but it's uh it's fun to fun to get back and and just like with my Zin, you know, it's on the the original Omega bracelet, um, but it's uh it it it's just such a top heavy watch that I'm kind of looking for the right strap for it. So again, if anyone has ideas for that, that's that's a weird one to fit on a strap. So we'll see. It's not really a NATO kind of watch. So we'll we'll see. No, maybe
James Stacey more bund. yeah, maybe.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I wonder if that would work on that. Boy, that would set it up really high on the wrist, but you know, whatever.
James Stacey Yeah, it would for sure. Yeah. You'd be yeah, you'd be you'd be uh you'd be doing a little um uh what's the uh Bert Burt Reynolds with the company Oh yeah
Jason Heaton right yeah. Deliverance, thank you. Right. Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacey My brain was stuck on uh a bridge over the river quai.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right. That's great. Yeah.
James Stacey Uh well look, hey look speaking of movies, that gives us at least a sort of uh uh plug. And you know, I actually we didn't talk about this, so this is a a genuine fresh question with no plan. Uh do you have a do you have an affinity for the Odyssey? Do you have a love of the classics?
Jason Heaton Uh not so much. No, I'm I've been debating whether to go see this or not. I uh you saw it, right?
James Stacey Uh w one point two five times, I would say. Uh oh boy. So
Jason Heaton what does that mean? Uh yeah. So
James Stacey I went uh the one night my my daughter, my oldest daughter's twelve, she's very much into movies. I'm trying to I'm trying to like you know, steer that into to really find the zones that she likes. But that includes, you know, we'll we'll see new movies as much as possible. And we don't live far from a theater. Uh it's just down the street. And one night we really had very little going on and it was kind of one of these y that happens in in households with lots of kids, but like a low wavelength sort of afternoon.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Everybody was kind of down down. Not sad,
James Stacey just like you know, introverted for the
Jason Heaton day. Yeah. Um, and it looked like it was gonna be
James Stacey an early night. And I had I had I thought I had plenty of energy, so I was like, oh, let's go see the Odyssey. It was the opening night or the night after.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So we went to like a ten o'clock
James Stacey showing, and I think I was asleep by ten forty-five.
Jason Heaton Like just gone. Oh, that's great. Like sleep through the movie.
James Stacey The whole thing. Like, well, I'm like, I think I saw the first thirty five, forty minutes.
Jason Heaton Wow. And your daughter saw it though. she
James Stacey watched the whole thing. And then like you know, there's a very it's got it's quite loud at the end and I woke up and saw the last thirty seconds. Oh, that's
Jason Heaton great. That is and then walked home at one you know,
James Stacey it was like one thirty in the morning when we strolled home.
Jason Heaton Wow. Uh so I just I I used to like I
James Stacey remember back in the day, and I think I probably talked about it on on the show, but like when B Blade Runner came out, I I saw that a couple times at like midnight showings with Jason Lim in Vancouver.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh and I just I don't have it like
James Stacey that anymore. I thought I did. I th I thought a movie would keep me awake and it's just like nope. I was out, gone, full dad style. Uh no chance, no chance of me staying awake.
Jason Heaton Oh man. So then this weekend,
James Stacey um, Thomas Holland and I were hoping to go diving.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. Um, and then I had this
James Stacey week in New York. I had my gear mostly sorted, but it like I had kind of wanted to get the the rags and BC just in the pool at Scuba two thousand nearby uh just to make sure that there wasn't like something that needed a quick service.
Jason Heaton Yeah. So I didn't get to that. And then
James Stacey I texted him, like, hey, you know, what do you what are you looking to do this weekend? You still want to go diving? He's like, I haven't had any time to figure out my gear. Um, you know, and you know, he like me is maybe diving once or twice a year currently, unless there's a vacation dive to happen. And so he's like, let's let's pivot and maybe you want to go see the Odyssey. I said, Yeah, I gotta I gotta probably check that box before it's too embarrassing that I slept through it. So I went I went out his way and we actually drove a couple of his cars and like had a nice little thirty minutes, forty minutes or hour in um in a couple old alphas. Oh
Jason Heaton nice. Uh which was delightful. Um
James Stacey he recently got back one that I won't spoil for the audience. There'll be a video about it soon. Um that was a delight. And then I drove uh spaghetti his uh his uh uh spider um both absolute blasts. Now I've been looking at spiders every night on auto trader. Uh nowhere to park it still, but man, it was a nice thing to drive, and I think it, you know, probably the right sort of tone for Sarah to get in it and go to dinner and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. So we did that and then and then
James Stacey hightailed it out to an IMAC showing not, IMAX 70, but an IMAX showing of the Odyssey. And I'm, you know, I would say I enjoyed it.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I would caveat because I know
James Stacey I saw it on the Slack, like people were really nuts about it and enjoying it. I would caveat a few things from from my review. I'm not like a huge classics nerd. I'm not a um swords and sandals epic movie guy.
Jason Heaton Yeah. That said, hugely
James Stacey ambitious and visually an absolute knockout. Um I think it will go down as one of the more important films of the decade in terms of what they achieved and the clash, the continued clash between you know, to to be clear, like obviously this is based on previous IP being the Odyssey, but you know, the the continued clash between autour filmmaking and like the Marvel stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Now again, I
James Stacey say that somewhat ineffectively because whatever the Odyssey did in seven or eight or nine days, the new Spider-Man movie did in two.
Jason Heaton So yeah, yeah. Maybe not
James Stacey winning that fight necessarily, nor do I think that that fight has to be a this versus that.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, Spider-Man has always been an
James Stacey incredibly accessible, hugely popular franchise. Again, not my circus. Um, but man, there there are elements of of the Odyssey that I absolutely adored. Um and then there were other stuff where it felt like maybe the adherence to shooting it on cameras the size of you know giant you know restaurant fridges maybe maybe hindered some of the action and the rest of it. But yeah, I I would say it's definitely worth seeing, especially if you enjoy like a spectacle.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um and and and if like
James Stacey me, you kind of a lot of the last ten, fifteen years of spectacle movies were either Marvel stuff that I just I don't feel any way about at all or um what are the ones with the blue guys? Avatar. Oh I just I actively dislike.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Um, and it bums me out
James Stacey that like such an incredibly talented director is making movies that to me look like a tech demo for a new G Force card or
Jason Heaton something. Yeah. I just like like you
James Stacey go back and watch Terminator 2 and you go like why do why couldn't I just had 10 more of these aliens too alien to aliens whatever
Jason Heaton yeah uh you know Cameron is incredibly
James Stacey talented but they we've devoted a lot of his career now to these movies that I just don't feel anyway about at all, kind of didn't enjoy. But yeah, I I highly recommend going to check it out. And I mean, within that vein of Nolan's doing this, I liked it more than Oppenheimer for sure. I'd liked it less than Tenant if that's helpful. Probably isn't. And uh and then with Dune on the horizon in December. Some cool big movies, you know.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Hmm. That's great.
James Stacey And then the other one that I don't know that we talked about in totality like we had both finished it. And maybe we did. We so maybe we don't take too long, but did we talk about the agency season two? We definitely spoke about enjoying it, but I don't know if we were I don't know if we had finished it. It was man, it finished real good. It's a great season.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I know. I I no sophomore slump at all. I I really was
James Stacey lot lot I would say a lot more gas pedal in this season.
Jason Heaton Yeah. and that was concerning to me because I thought in s in some of the promos um ahead of time, I you know, there was kind of like
James Stacey an action throw action stuff. You know, there's fastbender
Jason Heaton in the desert with a gun, and I thought, oh boy, you know, are we are we headed in that direction? And but boy, nothing, nothing wrong with that. I mean, it was it was spectacular. And I loved the cranked up uh presence of Richard Gere in this one. Jeffrey Wright was spectacular. It I think he Jeffrey Wright's the highlight. I that that guy is Jeffrey
James Stacey Wright's the best. He can do anything. He is so
Jason Heaton good. So good. As I said way
James Stacey back in our still exceedingly popular episode about how we would cast a bond.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh they absolutely nailed
James Stacey it by having him as Felix Lighter. Yeah.
Jason Heaton And if I ever if I ever if
James Stacey there's a if there's a a multi, you know, multiverse war strategy in which I'm out there as a movie director and not a podcaster, I really hope I'm working with Jeffrey Wright.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Because he just whether it's um
James Stacey whether it's uh the the agency, whether it's uh James Bond or or whether it's um what was a uh a Westworld he's just he's so charismatic and you can't look away.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It doesn't really matter. He's always I like
James Stacey an actor that's always kind of playing themselves a little bit. Like I feel like I we always get 5% of Jeffrey, kind of like you always get 20% Denzel in any Denzel
Jason Heaton role. Yeah. Yeah. And I think that's one of the great
James Stacey things. And I think Tom Hardy does the same thing. You're never not getting Tom Hardy in in the role. He never like fully disassociates. And like I think Brad Pitt has become that kind of guy. If you watch early stuff, he kind of disappears into some of the roles and now now you know you watch Cliff Booth and it's like, is that even fifty percent Brad Pitt? I don't know.
Jason Heaton I I do enjoy that sort of that
James Stacey sort of way of being. Um but yeah, Jeffrey Wright's just
Jason Heaton yeah he's and this season's great man
James Stacey this season I thought the writing was really sharp. I thought the storyline was like complicated, but not not impossible to follow at all.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And uh it yeah, I
James Stacey just I really liked it. And then if if what you do want is just action from the fourth minute to the last minute, um the first episode of season three of Lioness came out on Sunday.
Jason Heaton Oh right. That's right. It's nuts. Yeah. Very different kind of show. but uh
James Stacey totally different show. very Taylor Sheridan.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Um but yeah, that's I think I think
James Stacey that kinda like breaks down what I got into. Uh I I've I'm not I I have it and I've now made maybe t 15 cups of coffee with like a new grinder.
Jason Heaton Oh. And it's completely
James Stacey overpowering my coffee machine. Uh so I might have slipped my way down a rabbit hole that I've avoided But uh I think that can be I I think I want to make more coffee with it before I I kind of give a review on that
Jason Heaton front. Sure. Yeah. But I'm
James Stacey I'm very caffeinated at the moment. I'm making coffee just to like try new settings and stuff. I probably shouldn't drink all of it. I don't know.
Jason Heaton Yeah, right, right. That's great.
James Stacey And then you know, speaking of st speaking of stuff in the house, you you're how's the move going? Because you're recording this at the at the new the new studio if you want to. The
Jason Heaton new workstation, the new desk here. I'm I'm I'm just sitting here. I feel like uh Don Draper. I've got this mid-century.
James Stacey Absolutely gorgeous. It's I I think the
Jason Heaton the term for this desk is a floating desk. So it has this beautiful huge top panel that um is just uh um kind of it almost gives this optical illusion that it's it's just literally floating above the the drawers, the set of drawers in the front and or on the sorry, on the back side, I guess where I sit, and then on the front side. This is this was probably an executive desk designed to have someone behind it and then a chair across from it where you're grilling an employee or something because it has these kind of open shelves in the front um where you can put stuff as well. And I've got it set up in such a way that you can see both the front and the back. And I I just I love it. And um I've set up this nice office in the basement. Very quiet and it's cool. It's perfect for recording. I I don't know people probably didn't know this. I didn't say it, or I don't know if you could tell, but for almost the past six months I've been, you know, kind of in transient state recording, like just kind of either hand holding the mic or sitting in a corner at a table. Um and it's just it it you know,'s been fine, it's worked, but uh it's really nice to just have my stuff organized and all of my ephemera, all of my kind of inspirational stuff around me and hanging on the walls and things. it's just
James Stacey it can't be underestimated. So it's uh it's great.
Jason Heaton And I'm I'm still in the middle of moving. I've got a few things left, but uh uh the home stretch is is definitely underway, so it's uh it feels good.
James Stacey Fabulous. Well, that's great, man. Uh you sent me a few photos. Looks like Smitty was very much enjoying the desk as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh which I like. And yeah,
James Stacey the desk is absolutely gorgeous. I'm excited for you to have sort of a locked in spot to uh to do the show and and you know, who knows, maybe uh start working on a new book, that sort of thing. Look like a really nice spot to crank out a book.
Jason Heaton Absolutely. Uh over the next little while. We you know,
James Stacey I I'm not gonna step on what you wrote about in a recent uh sub stack, but people should check that out as uh as that story develops. So really good stuff. But hey, you've got a heart out. I've got to get to cutting grass and prepping for cottage and that kind of thing. You want to uh you want to jump into some final notes?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. I've got a quick one. Um and probably one that uh almost everyone listening has has seen or heard about, um if not on Slack or social media, just um through our association um in the TGN community with our good buddy Tom Place. Uh great story that popped up in my feed just yesterday, I believe it was, um, on GQ. Uh you know, GQ does this this kind of regular column called Box and Papers, and this was a special edition titled His Rolex Submariner Fell on a Lake thirty years ago, he's still diving for it. Stuntman Tom Place bought his dream watch when he was just eighteen years old and lost it the same year. Writer Austin Rogers waited out to look for it with him three decades later. Um, just great. I mean, so many of us are familiar with Tom's story about losing his Rolex. Oh, sure. Hiving adventures looking for it. But it was cool to see these photos and especially some of these old photos. There's Tom actually holding his watch. Um as a kid um some some diving photos some just great shots of tom and and really a a a lovely story and and really um nice to see tom getting some some more attention i i think he's popped up a lot lately in in various places. But uh this this was a particularly personal story I know it is for him and and it was just uh kind of fun to kind of read some of the details that I wasn't even familiar with uh about him and uh kind of the community where his his cabin is and and his search for the watch
James Stacey Yeah, I don't uh I don't have a subscription to GQ, so I'll have to fix that to uh to get into this story for sure. And uh just a big shout out to Austin. Uh he does a great job with his uh Instagram uh presence and uh you know we uh occasionally cross paths in uh in New York when he's uh at various events. Uh good dude and and happy to see him cranking out stuff for GQ as well. And look, Tom's one of our absolute favorites, Tom. I know you're listening. Uh love you lots. Love to see the story get to get some shine. and it's gonna be it's gonna be quite an event when that watch you know is pulled out of the pulled out of the mud uh some someday in the future, I belie.ve
Jason Heaton If you imagine, yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's gonna be great.
James Stacey That's great. Then he has to start his own book.
Jason Heaton yeah. And
James Stacey uh mine this week is is a fun one that came out kind of just as we went on vacation. So it's a couple weeks late. Um, I saw it on the Slack, so I know at least some people saw it. Um, but this is uh uh a recent video from Speed that with three E's. This is James Pumphrey's channel. I've talked about it a ton on the show. It shouldn't brand be new to any you know frequent listener. Um but obviously this is a channel that uh James and and some buddies um started post Donut um in which they you know they describe it as sort of a a men's magazine but, for YouTube and uh and they do deep dives on various topics. It could be Hi-Fi, it could be Leica or Levi's or Stussy or Nike SB. Those are all some great examples that they've done in the past that I've talked about. They just did a great video on the right formula for modifying and updating an E30 BMW. So I'm deep in. I really like everything they put out in the world. And a little while ago, uh they dropped the rookies guide to watches. It's like watches one oh one. Um most people listening to this is this is a watch themed podcast. This will be too basic of an explainer for a lot of things, but I think you should watch it just to support what they're putting out into the world. And then bookmark it for friends that are getting into watches. This is a very realistic, very low pretense, very fun um sort of video uh that uh both myself and Cole Pennington make appearances in um helping to explain some of our perspective on watches and and the watch world. Um Cole has gotten to know uh James over the last little while and and you know had him out to do some tutor stuff and that sort of thing, which began this sort of snowball effect, uh bringing out this video. So and yeah, just a huge shout out to the team at speed. Uh had a nice phone call with them a little while back uh to to for to weigh in on on some questions that they had, and I think they did a really lovely job. I I'll do what I can to see if maybe we have James on the show in the future. Um I think it could be a lot of fun. He but he also does a fair number of podcasts. So if you want to hear him talk about speed or other stuff, uh Google it. Uh I think you'll find lots. Uh he's he's out there. And I think they're just doing a lovely job. And it was fun to see them kind of touch in on our world with uh with watches.
Jason Heaton That's great. And I I I haven't watched this yet, but um I I definitely will. And I I I'm just amazed that through all these years how whenever I get cornered, you know, at a party or with somebody I don't know or a family member or something is can you explain what it what it is about watches? And I I still struggle. So I'm I'm I'll be curious to watch this and then uh nice to have this in the pocket to say, don't listen to me, just go watch this. Um that's great.
James Stacey Yeah, for sure. All right. Well,
Jason Heaton uh fun episode. Good to get caught up. Uh welcome back uh from our break. Uh hope everybody had a nice couple of weeks without us. Um, we do have a QA episode that we recorded recently that'll that'll pop up in your feed too. So TGN is uh is back in business. Um so yeah, welcome back. And as always, thanks so much for listening. If you want to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or consider supporting the show directly, and maybe even grab a new TGN signed NATO, please visit thegreynato.com. Music Throughout is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive.
James Stacey And we leave you with this quote from John Steinbeck who said, What good is the warmth of summer without the cold winter to give it sweetness?