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The Grey NATO – 389 – Geneva Watch Days & More New Watches!

Published on Thu, 03 Sep 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In episode 389 of The Grey NATO (TGN), hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton discuss their recent travels and upcoming events before diving into an extensive review of new watch releases. Jason recounts a quick trip to Chicago for a car handoff and mentions meeting TGN listeners, while James shares updates from New York and his weekend at the cottage with his young son. The hosts announce details for their upcoming Toronto Timepiece Show appearance on September 26-27, including a live show, gear swap event with RZE, and evening party with Marathon.

The bulk of the episode focuses on new watch releases coinciding with Geneva Watch Days. Major highlights include Tudor's new North Flag with GMT functionality, the Strom Expedition, Breitling's Miles Davis Navitimer tribute, and the comprehensive relaunch of Glashütte Original's Galais brand with multiple chronograph and automatic models. They also discuss new releases from Oris and a puzzling new Sinn EZM 19 mission timer. The hosts wrap up with varied final notes including book and movie recommendations for "The Dog Stars," the return of The Grand Tour with new hosts, a YouTube cabin restoration series, and new music from Medium Build.

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 389, 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're listening to the show and would like to support us, please visit the Grey NATO dot com for more details. My name is of course James Stacey, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host Jason Heaton. Jason, how are we doing tod
Jason Heaton I'm doing well. We've got our second episode in a row where we're talking about new watches. It's uh yeah, we've got a trend going here. You
James Stacey know, d of of all the logical times to launch a ton of new watches, why not do it in the very last week that we have to enjoy the summer.
Jason Heaton There's definitely Geneva watch days couldn't
James Stacey be in like ten days, and then it would be you know just suit the back to school season and the rest of it, but whatever. Uh at least there's some pretty exciting watches coming out this week. I thought some of the stuff we chatted about last week was pretty fun as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It'll be a watch-packed episode. Uh
James Stacey so why don't we kick it off with a little bit of uh housekeeping, if you will.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Well let's uh let's let's talk a little bit about um we always kick off at the Toronto Time Piece show, but let's uh hold that and talk about the strap habit uh tgn ten strap which uh we you know if people remember we did uh kind of a limited drop of that uh dazzle camo uh NATO strap courtesy of strap habit um a couple of months ago, and it sold out immediately, much to our surprise. And so Nick was kind enough to order up a new batch and he's uh offered them. We kind of announced those to our crew first, and he's got uh a good number left over, which he's uh now selling on his website directly. So go and check that out. We'll throw a link in the show notes. Um this is a strap that uh the the Dazzle Camo pattern was inspired by the packaging for our crew watch number one which uh we released with CWC and um has a little kind of Easter egg on the back with the the TGN 10 kind of uh integrated into the the camo pattern. So uh we're really pleased with this strap and it seems to be quite popular. So if you do want one, they're not going to last forever. Um, but they are currently available on Strap Habit's website. You do
James Stacey it. That's a good one. And yeah, nice to see those. I've been getting a ton of wear it of mine as the summer heat and sort of bright colors and all that sort of thing continues. It's nice as a as a guy who doesn't wear much in the way of bright colors to have a little bit of an orange accent. And uh I've been enjoying uh mine quite a bit. Uh they it they do suit a wide range of watches, but you can't go too orange on
Jason Heaton I tend to get compliments from people that you know, they they almost don't even notice the watch. They kind of ask about the strap and have to tell the whole weird story about Dazzle Camo and about TGN and all that kind of thing. But uh it's uh yeah, it's a cool thing. Exactly. Right. Yeah.
James Stacey All right. We do have the Toronto Time Peace show com coming up uh September twenty sixth and twenty seventh. We will have a live show on the Saturday, the twenty sixth, that'll be from noon to one thirty, and then we're working on a gear swap with RZE. So if you're in town and can bring around your pens, your other gear, your things that you might want to swap, your fidget toys, your uh your EDC nine cents, your bags, that sort of thing, uh, we did some of that in Vancouver um with revolver coffee and it was a really great time. So we're gonna do that sometime that afternoon. Details uh forthcoming as we're trying to find a home for it. And then in that evening we will have our party with marathon. So this will be what the third outing uh for this party. Uh it'll be at the same location as last year. If you came last year, it's going to be a very good time and the RSVP will be out uh next week. Um so by the time uh we get to episode 390 you should be able to find the RSVP in the show notes and if you're Slack you'll have a crack at it a little bit before that which should be a very good time. Uh one other thing to add is uh the organizers of the show have offered now VIP tickets which offer you which include additional access to brands and activities, and I believe the um opening Friday night event, which is more of a mingle, you know, rub shoulders, elbows, that sort of thing, have a drink or two. Um, those tickets are on the site. And I did ask and and Jason Hutton confirmed that if you had a standard ticket and you wanted to upgrade to a VIP, you'll get a credit for the original ticket as well. Oh, nice. We'll put that link in the show notes and we hope to see everybody there. we're it we we are recording this inside of the same month that is September first.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I c I can't tell you um how excited I am for that Saturday. I think that's gonna be just like a day when I'll be buzzing all day from from our show and then a gear swap. I mean I I hadn't really thought much about it. You've been talking about it for a while, and I didn't get to the one in Vancouver, obviously. So I'm I'm really curious about this. And as as someone who just moved house and and kind of was calling things and kind of looking sideways at stuff that I ended up uh transporting from one house to the other. I'm I'm thinking might have to pack an extra bag with some some gear to shed and and hopefully not come home. I know. Yeah.
James Stacey But yeah, the one in Vancouver's cool. There was was there sort of a collection of, you know, little pocket knives, um, other sort of EDC stuff, bags, uh interesting clothing, like some cool jackets and like just people had some neat stuff that they brought out that was good. Yeah.
Jason Heaton You know, you end up with in this world you do kind of
James Stacey end up with that stuff where like it's good but it's not I've never really found it to be needed in my life.
Jason Heaton But it's way too nice to take to say goodwill. Um
James Stacey but you'd be delighted if a friend was like, Oh, I'll take that. I would wear that every day, or I would carry that or whatever. Like that's always great. Um and it's that kind of a thinking, but we'll do hopefully a uh somewhere that does food and drinks and we can have a nice little hangout for a couple of hours on Saturday. Yeah,
Jason Heaton I'm gonna have to start making a pile and uh pack a bag.
James Stacey I think it's gonna be really fun. Uh stay tuned for that kind of stuff. That'll be very casual. Um it'll be a drop-in, hangout, that sort of thing. So no don't be super concerned. And then we believe there'll be plenty of space for the party that evening. Uh certainly for TGN listeners. Uh so uh stay tuned for the the RSVP for that, but pretty straightforward. All right, with the housekeeping out of the way, what have you been up to the last week?
Jason Heaton Yeah, it was uh it was kind of an interesting week actually last week. Um I you know hinted on on last week's episode that I uh had planned a very quick turnaround trip uh back to Chicago, uh, you know, within a month or well, five or six weeks of going there for for wind up Chicago and um it was an interesting trip. I I Christy and I flew down there. I had a couple of free points related tickets on Delta and wanted to spare us the uh the the the 12 hours of driving um over a twenty hour four period. And uh we flew in uh the night before, this was last Wednesday, and then got up on Thursday, and I actually went and met a very kind uh TGN listener, um, David. Uh David, I hope you don't mind me mentioning. I David's a a fairly common name, so you know, if you want to remain anonymous, uh there are a few other Davids certainly in our crew. Um met David for coffee in the morning and then um we were there actually to do a a car handoff. Uh he um had a uh an old Prius that he was uh looking to shed um and uh uh Christie's daughter was looking for a new car. So um it it was kind of a a really uh fortuitous kind of connection and uh and David really offered a very nice deal on that on that car and uh it went to to Christy's daughter who had taken the train in from Detroit. So it was kind of this weird confluence of all of us getting together in Chicago and did the handoff. Got to have coffee with uh with David and his lovely dog Fig, and um and then we parted ways. So it was uh it was a quick trip, but it was really satisfying and perhaps best of all, well I shouldn't say best of all, 'cause all of it was good. Um I I took Christy to Tenoshi um for sushi the night we arrived. Oh yeah. For those not familiar, Tenoshi is the the sushi place on Randolph. I I I learned this time that it was it's actually called um Tanoshi Sushi Mike's um is is actually the name. Okay. I don't know who Mike is, but um maybe the founder. Um and I actually had the same uh server that you and I had. I think his name is Dave. And uh very
James Stacey nice. And it was great. he greeted us at the door
Jason Heaton and I said, Hey, I was just here a little over a month ago with my buddy James and and we had this lavish, wonderful meal and you were a great server and he said, Oh yeah, I remember you guys, the watch podcast guys. and I said, Yeah. I don't think we mentioned that to him. Maybe we did, but he said, um, we've had a few visitors um based on your podcast, so thank you um for for mentioning us on the podcast. So uh he gave us a free uh extra free uh sushi roll um along with our other big order. And uh we just had a lovely time at Toshi. So that was great. And then I got home on Thursday and then Friday uh I went for lunch with uh a couple of other TGN listeners who happen to be um members of uh a popular band Vertical Horizon. They were in town to perform at the Minnesota State Fair and they reached out to me like the week prior and said, We're gonna be in town. Do you want to come to the show? And I couldn't because of this Chicago trip and some other things. Um, but they said, let's meet for lunch. And so we did and had a great time. It was Matt and Wes. Um, Matt, I believe is the founder, um, lead singer, songwriter for Vertical Horizon, and then Wes um is the the guitarist and he he's also done some work with a band called um Porcupine Tree, which I had not heard of, but um he turned me on to Porcupine Tree. And if you haven't heard of Porcupine Tree, uh check out the song, I think it's called Anesthetize on YouTube. It's a 17-minute jam, the live version. Uh Wes plays the guitar in this. Uh, it was from I don't know, a decade ago or so. Um, sort of uh in my reading, Porcupine Tree was inspired by kind of the prog rock scene, sort of Pink Floydesque, um really popular in the nineties and two thousands. Really great music. It really uh turned me on to a new band. Um so that was that was fun and just they couldn't have been nicer guys and uh um wes was wearing a a a uh black on black uh current gen uh gmt master two and uh and and matt was wearing um a vintage uh seiko diver uh which was really, really cool. I think it's a 6215 with the monoblock case from the mid-sixties and um oh nice. Just good stuff. And we we had a great lunch and good chat and uh made a couple of new friends. So that was that was a it was a fun week. Really a fun week.
James Stacey That's great. Yeah. I've uh I've met Matt uh a couple of times at various Hodinkee events. I remember very early on in sort of my time being officially uh kind of linked with Hodinkee, we did this UTA event in LA in in Beverly Hills, and Matt came out and uh and we chatted for some time for uh uh podcast recording and just uh an absolutely lovely guy. So I'm I'm glad you got to connect with both of them. That's great.
Jason Heaton yeah, it was fun. How about you? You were in a different big city for a social event?
James Stacey Yep, yeah. Went down and did my usual couple of days in New York. Uh got to do the uh got to do an absolutely fantastic outing of the Hoodinky Happy Hour at the Soho Watches of Switzerland store. It was rainy, so maybe ten, fifteen people didn't come that we'd planned on or thought would come, but there was plenty of beer, there's plenty of pizza, got a chance to hang out with a a handful of folks, including, you know, big shout out to uh Alec and to Tom Place. Uh always nice to see you guys, uh, which was a delight. Um and then as I hinted in the previous one, I'm not going to um I'm not going to get too deep into it as I am absolutely in the weeds of trying to decide if I want to import and transport a vehicle uh from the the New York area. But I was able to catch up with uh Tom the next day over some coffee and then he was kind enough to take me to the airport after I'd gone for a little test drive. So uh yeah it was it was a great outing. I got back in time for uh dinner that evening here in in Toronto and then we were at the cottage this weekend. It was another sort of rainy, slow weekend. Uh only real highlight for me would be we got um uh through uh through some cousins, we got like a a bike seat for my son so he can sit kind of between me and the handlebars.
Jason Heaton Oh, I've seen those, yeah. Um I d did I did
James Stacey I send you a photo of this? No.
Jason Heaton Uh you'll get a you'll get a giggle out of the photo. Let me send it uh
James Stacey while we're recording here. So it's it's kind of uh an earlier generation of that idea of like with the kids ride shotgun. And like my son's a year, so he it's not like the little floating seat. It's more of a bucket, like with leg control and and all that sort of thing. Uh but there's the there's the picture of 'em on my on my nice large bike. And uh and so we've been we've been riding uh a fair bit and we did a couple of rides around the cottage. Oh
Jason Heaton there it is. Yeah. Oh that's great. Yeah. Uh so yeah,
James Stacey there he is. he just fits. he's a big guy for for a year, but he likes it a lot. And we got him a pair of sunglasses because he was just squinting the whole time. Uh so yeah, we we've been having a good time with that. Um and that that's that's kind of a delight. So, you know, in the last few weekends we've had space in the van to to throw the bike in. So when we get up there, uh we'll go biking. And my my parents have been at the cottage for the last couple of weeks. So uh we've got someone to bike with and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Wow, nice. Yeah, squeezing the last bit out of summer here, huh?
James Stacey For sure, for sure. Yeah. Uh I'm just deep into Claude recommending checklists of things you have to do to import a vehicle uh to Canada. I'm I'm not convinced it's something I'm capable of doing all on my own uh at this point in my life. But um it it doesn't look incredibly complicated, but I'm not sure it's something with someone in the two jobs needs to be getting into. So uh if you're listening and and you're on the Slack or whatever and maybe this is something you you've done before or or have some some feedback on, let me know. I'm uh I'm kind of we're kind of in the deciding phase of these things. Um you know, storage, uh transport, import, and storage is a way bigger issue than the vehicle and its price.
Jason Heaton Oh. Yeah. Well I hope you get it, because I've seen pictures and I think uh after the after the headaches, uh, you know, hopefully uh it'll it'll give you years of enjoyment. It's uh you sent me a picture and it's uh it's pretty awesome. So
James Stacey it's a very pretty thing for sure. And if uh if it becomes real there'll be an episode about it, of course, 'cause I I might have to drive it back up at which point it'll leave me on the side of the road and I will uh I will record uh an episode while we wait or call you or something on your FaceTime.
Jason Heaton There you go. Oh my god.
James Stacey That's all the catch up I think we need. Uh we've got some wrist check and then we've got a ton of new watches to talk about. Do you want to dive into uh the wrist check?
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. I can be quick about this. Uh got my vertex mono pusher MP45 on. Um I picked up uh interestingly, um uh you know, do you remember, this was a long time ago, um uh you had sourced those um kind of woven I don't know, I suppose they're kind of a sailcloth adjacent canvas looking textured fabric strap off of Amazon. I think it's called the T strap. It is called the T strap. I know that now. Yep. Um with a black buckle for the the Aqualand back in the day. And I I've always liked that strap, but the 24mm only works on the Aqualand, basically. But I really like that strap and I wanted something for first of all, I wanted one for for my Zin uh 144 with the black case. I you know told you I'm kind of picky about hardware matching the case, and I wanted something with a black buckle and I just thought uh kind of a green or gray version of that strap with a black buckle would look fantastic on that watch and I can now say that it does. Um I had to dig back through our text message exchanges, our history, and kind of Google Amazon strap or something like that. Or not Google, but search in the messages, and I found your link. And so I I ordered a couple. I ordered the black uh buckle version for the Zinn, and then I also got um one with a a a silver buckle that I now have on the the MP forty five and it just uh it looks great. I l I love the strap and it was ten dollars, you know, so I don't feel too bad about that. It was great.
James Stacey Nice. Yeah. I I'm a fan of these um not all straps need to be a fortune. You know, there's there's a time and a place for the the handmade Nick Gabaro stuff and there's a time and a place for your strap habit stuff, you know, the the TGN straps thirty-five bucks. And then for me, uh definitely there's a time and a place for like fifteen dollar, ten dollar
Jason Heaton yeah uh like nyl nylon straps
James Stacey from from Amazon and that that's what I've had been wearing the Doxa on quite frequently, uh was just a cheap strap from uh from Amazon. I did sometimes it's not worth overthinking. You know what I mean?
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. You got something fun, which I can't wait to see in a few weeks.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean this might be the thing that you take home from the gear swap. I don't know that's kind of why what I put it on. I haven't really connected with it. Um and I think it's a strap problem. Um, but also there aren't that many options.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And this is the Bell and Ross BR
James Stacey O three ninety-two Aviation or Avia. Uh, it's the full size, you know, the O three ninety-two sized anti-digi bell and Ross.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I traded my two hundred
James Stacey T diving star for it. And I'm while I'm you know f fine with that outcome. I now have the Hodinkee two hundred T army. Um I've worn this a bit and I I I it's not that I don't like it. It's that it every time I look down it, it's like I'm not looking at my wrist.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I don't know how else to describe it. I've
James Stacey got it on the sort of like Bell and Ross style leather, which is like gotta be twenty seven, twenty eight millimeters wide beyond the lugs. Oh my
Jason Heaton gosh. So it's this big chunk, and like
James Stacey I I have a seven-inch wrist, but it's you know, it just maybe doesn't quite look right. Yeah. And the watcher came with a lot of different strap options, including these sort of hook and loop, nylon, and those those work okay, but I wanted some rubber, but then I, you know, the the two or three places I was looking to pick up a rubber strap, like they either didn't have the they only had like the bright orange or like a weird camo one in stock. And so I just I haven't really um bonded with it is maybe the right way to say it. Yeah. It's a very cool watch, and when I see it on a table next to uh the other watches I have, I'm like, oh that thing's rad. Um but then I put it on and I go like I don't want to wear this for more than a little bit of time. So yeah, I I haven't quite linked up with it. Maybe it'll end up at the at the um at the gear swap here. maybe it's something that you end up actually liking or or maybe somebody from the Slack is keen. I I'm open I'm open to options. You know, I definitely am not in a place where I need more watches and I definitely don't need any whether I'm not wearing or that don't, you
Jason Heaton know. What does that lady say?
James Stacey Um Spark Joy. Oh, yeah. Uh Marie Kondo. And uh and so yeah, that's uh that's my update on the Ballon Ross. But I've wearing it, I wore it all morning, just got back from a very infuriating dentist appointment for my
Jason Heaton daughters. Good angry watch. Oh
James Stacey yeah, while cranking out like multiple stories for embargoes for Geneva Watch Days. Uh this episode comes out after Geneva Watch Day's main embargoes run. Uh so we're able to chit chat about these sorts of things uh a little bit ahead of time. And I think that's as good a bridge as any to jump into some of the new watches that have come out. I I don't know exactly the the route I'd want to take through all these watches, but I do think I want to start with the new tutor.
Jason Heaton Oh I think that's a good place to start. It's very TGN. Yeah, I would say it's my favorite of the bunch, I think, that we're gonna talk about if as I scroll through the list here.
James Stacey It's definitely feels the closest to something that I would want from a lot of these. There's a couple others that are actually very similar in idea that I like a lot. But yeah, what we're talking about is the morning that we are recording this, just a few hours earlier, Tudor launched the second generation of the North flag. I I believe you can call it a second generation, even if the first generation was discontinued. A few notable differences. It's a little thinner. It's definitely shorter lug to lug. North flag is now one word. And instead of having, you know, the integrated bracelet and a power reserve, it's integrated bracelet and now has like dual time. I lament to call it GMT because I'm a picky jerk sometimes and GMT typically requires some sort of a uh ro rotating bezel to augment for GMT. I understand that that's maybe too picky for most folks. I would call this a dual-time watch. Tudor calls it a GMT watch. I I suppose it doesn't matter one way or another now, does
Jason Heaton it? I am quite smitten with this watch and I it makes me I think you and I were just chatting well, I guess it was yesterday. Well it wasn't exactly a big surprise when when Tudor posted on Instagram. They said where it began and they posted the old uh I think it was the Ranger Two with the integrated brace. Ranger two included bezel and kind of those big um blocky numerals on the dial, and I thought, hmm, maybe a new a new North flag or maybe they're gonna do something like a Ranger too. Um and I think I wrote to you and I said, Do you think there'll be a new North Flag? Which of course you didn't 'cause Tudor keeps their cards close to their chest.
James Stacey Don't know anything advanced. But I I'm I'm
Jason Heaton really smitten with this. I I really loved the original one, but at the time I remember, you know, this was way back in you know, late twenty teens or twenty twenty or twenty twenty one or thereabouts, and it was just um it was just a watch that was kind of the early days of Tudor using the their in-house movement that they developed with Kennisi and it was kind of an oddball, right? I mean it was the integrated brace had that kind of cool fabric strap, which I kinda wish they would have with this one, and maybe they will someday. Um it had that power reserve which I kind of liked. I like the little flash of color. Um I like this one quite a bit.
James Stacey So I mean uh just on the basics, there's still it both the first gen and the second gen R4 were and R 40 millimeter models. The new one is twelve point seven thick and forty eight point eight lug to lug. Also, moving forward, just just of little bulletin, I'm rounding to a single decimal point when it comes to th to case dimensions. I'm getting I'm getting you know, press releases this week there were the the cases thirteen point oh nine millimeters thick and you're like guys
Jason Heaton come on come on so yeah twelve
James Stacey point seven and forty eight point eight for the new one uh, comp,ared to forty by thirteen point three by uh fifty millimeters. So it's noticeably more compact on paper. I have not seen this watch in person to be clear. I believe uh the folks from Hodinkee who are in uh Geneva for Geneva Watch Days will get to see it, and I'm hoping I can see it in the next couple weeks around Toronto if we get lucky. So it's a little bit thinner, a little bit less lug-to-lug. Water resistance is 100 meters, and then it uses the same movement as the FXD GMT. So you have local jumping, and that is going to be coordinated against a 24-hour RIUT, which I think the between the RIUT and the deletion of the power reserve really does make this look like if you put them next to each other in photos, very different watches. This new one is much more conventional, much more uh middle of the road, whereas the the old one really had a character that was all It was really beloved or derided for its design language. And if you really compare the two, there's just the the original is much more stark. I would say in many ways, what I'm saying is almost like what I would say between a 500 meter Pelagos and a Pelagos 39.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Yeah right. They made a more
James Stacey conventional model with more conventional finishing with the brush to this and the sunray that. And here you kind of have the same thing where they've preserved the colorway, but the hands are a little bit more delicate. You have the 24 hour Rhea, you have a more standard sort of take on a minute track, and that sort of thing. I think this watch will be very successful, but I can also fully understand people who are like, I really liked how specific the first one was. At the same time very similar things. And if you're really nerdy about these things, they're very different.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. I agree. I I I think it'll be popular, um, and and maybe because it is more conventional, um, they'll get a wider audience. But um if I had to choose I mean I it kinda makes me start looking around at at old ones and and you know see what's around because uh it sort of rekindled my my interest and actually I'd I'd kind of forgotten about the old North flag. I do wish they'd kind of kept them as separate words too. I like the North Flag as two words, but yeah it's a minor thing. Um cool, cool. Yeah, I I'm'm not
James Stacey not sure I'm in I'm not sure I'm in the zone of being that picky. You know, the original one launched at thirty-six seventy-five USD in twenty fifteen, and that's fifty two hundred bucks today. And this one launched at fifty five twenty five. So we're I still think we're within the ballpark at least of inflation.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um and I think this is also
James Stacey right in what we would call like the meat and potatoes of of Tudor's price point these days. You know what I mean?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah, for sure. Yeah.
James Stacey But uh not a limited edition is available theoretically immediately, but only via tutor boutiques. Yeah. So uh a solid thing. I'm quite excited about this. Obviously, big fan of GMTs, less a fan of integrated bracelet sport watches, which we actually talked about just recently. But I I think this works pretty well. Um, and I think it, you know, with the last one having been gone since 2021. I don't think you can say that this one is taking anything away if you preferred the last one. It's been, you know, five years since you had a swing at one of those.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um I'm surprised that this isn't
James Stacey the North Flag two, two time zones?
Jason Heaton Oh, yeah. That sort of thing. Um, rather than
James Stacey just another North Flag. But yeah, you know, this is this is Tudor doing it again. We're seeing uh they like yellow this year. 2026 is a very yellow year for Tudor, and they also like single skews. This is offered as one skew. You get the bracelet. It has T-Fit. Uh it's mostly brushed. There's little polished accents on parts of the links and little elements of the case. But otherwise, I think nicely executed and one I'm I'm pumped to see in person.
Jason Heaton Bravo. All right. Good place to start. Where
James Stacey do you want to head next? Hmm. Well,
Jason Heaton I I mean uh you've got it on the list next, and I think it kind of makes sense because I think it uh we mentioned before we started that the Strom expedition is kind of North Flag adjacent. It kind of looks similar, I I think in some ways. Um a little more I think we talked uh a little more kind of Scandinavian and it's uh got a little bit more I would say a youthful um look to it, but uh largely kind of the same formula.
James Stacey Yeah, certainly not dissimilar, a sort of sport forward. Obviously, it's called Expedition. Uh, it is far from the only watch to use that name, but from the moment I got the press release for this watch, I I was interested. This feels like the sort of watch that maybe isn't for everybody. And I don't think Strom has to make hundreds of thousands of watches, of course. Um, but it definitely feels like it's for me. Um, you know, I've seen some of the Strom stuff in the past at the Toronto show, uh, you know, the um the previous models that they've optioned, like the uh Jan Mayan and some of the special editions under within that vibe, I really liked, especially when they started to offer the option of switching the bracelet to the rubber strap. And now we have the expedition, which comes in either a loom dial, a gray dial, or a limited edition uh to like grade five titanium dial. And yeah, so on the rubber pricing's $2,750 and it's $3,100 on a grade 5 titanium bracelet. If I was buying something, I would be wanting to get both of those options to switch between them. Assuming that's available in an option. This is a time and date watch with the Le Joupre LJPG100, which is sixty-eight hours and four uh hertz. Uh it is not a chronometer, which feels like it could be at this price point, or it's something they should look into. Uh 100 meters of water resistance and then uh the case is thirty eight point two by eleven so very nice sizing I think. Uh I know Griffin um one of the the latest editor to be added to the Hodinkee roster, uh Griffin Barh, shout out Griffin. Uh he's got uh one or two of them in for review, uh, so we'll have more sort of hands-on look in the future. But I'm hoping these are the sort of thing I see either at Toronto Show or at Wind Up in New York, yeah, um, because they speak to me in sort of in a similar way to um the laventure stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah, definitely. Yeah. Yeah, I mean there's th there's elements of of several watches that I see in this. I mean I even look at the the profile view and it does have that same downward sloping, kind of integrated lug design of the North Flag. I mean, very much, and that's fresh in our minds now, obviously. Um, from the front, you know, there's a little bit of uh kind of nautilus in that uh crown guard. Um it's it's it's just uh and and then the strap definitely conjures the the laventure as well that uh sort of interesting rubber strap but it's uh it's a cool watch. I would love to see one of these in person and I do hope they're in Toronto. I guess we'll find out. Um yeah,
James Stacey fingers crossed. But uh we got two we'll be at two shows in the next little while. I uh ideally they're at uh at one of them. We've definitely seen them in uh in Toronto in the past. So a big shout out to Strom and their continued work. I think the expedition looks quite good.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um and and definitely something
James Stacey I want to see more of uh in person in the future.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Right. All right. Moving on
James Stacey from there, we get into stuff that ha like literally is launching in the next couple of days, I guess, for the most part. Um do do you want to start with uh with a little Miles Davis? I mean can't use any of the music in the background. Just imagine. Oh yeah, right. Think about it.
Jason Heaton Oh, there we go. Yeah, right. Well I'm a I'm huge Miles Davis fan and I'm also a a Navitimer owner and Brightling fan, so I I can take a swing at this one. This is the the Nava Timer B09 chronograph 41 tribute to Miles Davis. There's certainly a long name for this watch. Um it uh kind of looks like uh, you know, big surprise, an Avatimer. Um it's got the contrasting white subdials. Uh in this case it's using the the twin jet brightening logo on the dial, which I love the twin jet logo. I think it it just looks
James Stacey very cool, super sharp. It
Jason Heaton uh comes uh with um what I think quite cool is the air racer bracelet, which you you know, see historically, I don't know that I've ever seen one in person, but it's that um I think um you know I've seen people like uh Serge Gain Gainsborg who was known to have worn, I think it was a navitimer on this kind of bracelet. Um, I've seen them on some other watches over the years. It was a very kind of 50s, 60s look. It's almost like a cuff, almost reminds me of like the Olongapo, you know, kind of dive bracelets from the Vietnam era, but it's got these big rally holes, but it uses these kind of hinged links for a little more comfort um and adjustability. Um also comes with rubber, uh also comes with a leather strap, um, and it's uh it's got the the brightling, you know, the that in-house uh B09 uh hand won chronograph movement in it. It's limited to five hundred pieces. Um and uh yeah I mean other than that I I'm to me it's it's it's an avatimer. I mean with with kind of a limited edition kind of hook to it. Um related to Miles Davis, of course. Because Miles Davis wore one, which I think is cool. I mean you see old pictures of him playing the trumpet wearing wearing an avatimer, which I think is a a really neat choice.
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah. Forty one by thirteen by fourteen uh by forty seven point one. The five hundred piece L E, like you said, is one option and then that gets you two years subscription to this Brightling Social Club thing. If you want to go hog wild, you can get the three-piece box set, which comes in like a trumpet box, and then it gives you a steel with the black, so the standard black version, um, a yellow gold with a black dial, 18 karat yellow gold, and then a blue dial in platinum. So you get three versions of this watch, which is inspired by that 806 Mark V that Miles wore. But this would give you all three in one box to. be clear, whether you buy one or you buy the box set, I don't know the pricing. That's the one thing I haven't gotten back from Brightling. At this time I have the press release in the images. Uh I think this is an absolutely gorgeous watch. I think the bracelet looks really cool. Um, I I uh'm not not a fan of Miles Davis, but I'm not a fan. Like I don't sit and listen. It's not my my jam uh so to speak. Uh I do like the Nava timer. I like that they stuck to a normal style. I love or a normal size and in the 41mm, and I think that twin jet logo looks very cool and the bracelet absolutely rips. That said, uh not sure what the pricing will be on these. It's like you said, Jason, it's five hundred in the standard steel or uh fifty pieces total of the trio with the box set that also gets you a lifetime membership to this social club thing that they're doing.
Jason Heaton That's crazy. I just can't imagine buying three of the same watch. I mean regardless of the the the different medals and kind of subtle chang
James Stacey At least some of that market must be an overlap with like very hardcore collectors of sort of Miles Davis stuff.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Maybe. Yeah. Right. Yeah. Yeah. I'm
James Stacey not sure. Cool watch nonetheless and nice to see uh Brightling in the mix. And then kind of Brightling adjacent is the relaunch of Galais, which I think falls pretty squarely in sort of the upper end of the stuff that we sort of talk about uh with some frequency. So uh Galais is now part of uh the Brightling group of brands, um, the house of brands, and so you have the 200th anniversary, which is now relaunching the brand, and that is going to be um, I guess it's it's about uh it's four groups of watches and then a trio of watches that use different movements. So we can kind of move through these progressively, I guess. Um, the first one on my list, whether it's the first on yours, I don't know, is the Galay Flying Officer Chronograph. It's a 40 by 15 by 46.5 chronograph. It's 100 meters water resistance and uh starts at 4400. Uh, this is the smaller of the chronograph options in the core group, which go to 41 and 42 as well. Not sure why they wouldn't all just use the same case. Um but you know I'm not a watchmaker. 100 meters of water resistance, like I said, these use what's called the Galay 23, which is an SW, so a Solita 510 chronograph movement and these start at $4,400. Uh I actually rather like the black dial, especially with the red markings and then the 12 hour bezel around the outside. These look very, you know, that it makes sense that these are from the world and made by Brightling and now relaunched by the same people that are that understand Brightling and Galais histories, if that makes sense. So you also have Universal Genève, you'll have Brightling in the middle, and then you kind of kind of have Galay coming in at just under three three thousand dollars. So an any any specific notes on these ones that kind of have like a world time bezel uh or riut?
Jason Heaton Well, you know, I have a friend that has a vintage version of this. Uh he lives in Australia and I haven't actually talked to him about this, but uh I've seen his in person and I I'm just I'm happy to see Galay come back. I'm yeah um yeah it's it's quite a relaunch, it's an ambitious relaunch. I mean there's just a lot of watches here. Um and and kind of different levels and stories. I'm I'm happy to see these come in at a a a fairly affordable rate. I mean these these uh flying officer chronographs are are forty four hundred dollars so it's certainly not chicken feed here, but um you know if, you move on to like the automatic which at twenty nine hundred, that that becomes a little more accessible. It's probably my uh least favorite of the whole bunch, to be honest with you. But uh you know, there seems to be something for everybody here in the in this mix.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean predicting what what would be your usual comments uh on the internet, um I d at least from the from the staff at Houdinky, we were surprised at the price point being under five thousand dollars for the the the chronograph um in in forty millimeters, fifteen millimeters is gonna people are gonna say is way too thick. Look at the feedback that that thirty-eight millimeter speed speedmaster got, which I tried on and it wore fine, I thought.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um it it didn't wear thin, but it
James Stacey didn't work poorly either. Uh I think these are the kind of things that I would reserve a huge amount of my feedback until I see them in person. These are just little, you know, 2D renders that we have so far. Yeah. But yes, there is then the Flying Officer Automatic 40, which is 40 millimeters by 10.7 by 47.5. Also uses a get what they're calling a Galay 17, which starts as an SW200, 100 meters water resistance, and starts at 2900. There's sort of an orange and green model and a blue and white model. Um I neither I I think the chronograph for me is more successful. There's more to kind of fill it out.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, but I think those work. And
James Stacey then I think we get into towards what might be some of the more popular stuff. it I'm not really sure what we'll what will spark joy for folks uh waiting for Galay to come back, but we have a 42mm the Galay Multicron pilot chrono 42 by 11.3 nice and thin uh 45.6 millimeters log to lug. Uh that uses again this Galay 23, which is an SW510, also forty four hundred dollars and has a hundred meters of water resistance. I think the black one looks great.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I do too. Why do you think um it uses the same movement as the the flying officer. I'm curious why the the big difference in thickness.
James Stacey It's a great question. I don't yeah, I don't know. I mean uh let me let me double check my numbers just in case I wrote something down wrong. Um fift fifteen point oh two.
Jason Heaton Wow. So like I said, we're we're rounding
James Stacey to uh to a single to a single additional digit. So that puts us at fifteen. I'm not sure who knows the difference here. I'm just uh I do not know.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And then uh if forty-two
James Stacey is too big for you, but forty is too small, guess what? There's a Gala multicron sport chronograph forty-one. Uh this one's thirteen point nine millimeters thick and forty-two point nine lug to lug. So quite a square uh profile on this. Uh I think these are quite handsome, especially the black, orange, white option. Uh 100 meters water resistance also uses this Galay 23 and starts at forty four hundred bucks. Um of of the group, if I were if I were trying to call out what would be the most popular, it's I I would imagine it's it's probably going to be these the chronograph forty one, but I don't know, people m people may also bulk at thirteen point nine.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Thickness seems to be a real thing. Um
James Stacey and and it if it's a watch that I've owned before and I knew it was too thick previously and I have the reference, I get it. But these are brand new watches. It's hard to say how they will wear. So I I would say, you know, reserve some judgment for getting a chance to see them in person. But that's kind of the the the s qu quote unquote standard modern run. So they start at twenty nine hundred, the majority of the or all of the chronographs are at forty, four hundred, and then d it's a few hundred dollars more for any given watch if you want a bracelet.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um Jason, do you have a favorite among
James Stacey these eight? For sure. the pilot corona
Jason Heaton forty two. I mean, the to me that's a sweet spot of of size. It feels very kind of speedmaster, you know. You've got the forty two millimeter case with an eleven millimeters thick and and decent lug to lug and and I just I I'm a sucker for kind of a reverse panda dial and a twelve hour bezel and and those classic um mushroom pushers I think just look spot on to me.
James Stacey Yeah, I th I think it's a good looking thing for sure. I agree with the the black model with the twelve hour bezel and all that the in the prilate chrono forty two. It'll be interesting to see if they eventually can express that, you know, maybe do the same design but in 38, 39. Um, or if it's something where the flying officer chronograph at 40 kind of covers that base for them.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh, you know, launching a re relaunching
James Stacey a brand is a massive task. and you know, but follow this is the same group that relaunched Universal Genève last year, or I guess more effectively, fully this earlier this year. Um, so they have some experience with this, and I think these designs are largely successful, uh, kind of modern translations of Galay designs. So no problem there. And then I think where a lot of certainly the the Hodinkee audience and and probably a lot of folks listening here will be the most dialed in are this trio of the Galay Cslasics, which includes a tribute to the Multicron yachting Big Eye, a tribute to the Multicron 45, and a tribute to the Multicron Silver Light. All three of these are uh 38 millimeters by 12.5 by 46. So probably the most middle of the road sizing of of all these watches. And let me just double check they're all that size. 33, 12.5, for4ty6 six and all of them retail for sixty seven hundred dollars for the extra money you're moving to a Brightling manufacturer BO9 same movement that was in the Miles Davis we just spoke about. Um but otherwise uh Jason, I think these are gorgeous. I think my preference might actually be the multicron forty five, the sort of black dial. I figure you're in for the the big eye.
Jason Heaton Yeah, you're you're you're certainly right. I mean, I think um I'm a sucker for a regatta style um watch and and that flash of color just looks great. All three of them look good. I think just to kind of play against type, I think uh you know lighter dialed um kind of silvery chronographs I think um look great. So I think this this the silver dial one, um, the silver light looks uh would be my second choice in in these this trio. Um the black dial just kind of has a bit more of a I don't want to say generic, but it you know has that sort of classic kind of sixties chronograph look, sure. But uh yeah, cool pieces. And not a not a horrible price for for you know what you get with the Brightling movement and the great size and and kind of the heritage of Galais. These are great.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean it's like what are we t within twenty-five dollars of a Black Bay Chrono thirty nine.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Right. Which uses a a Brightling
James Stacey derived movement. Um its connection or similarity to the B O nine, I can't speak to without you know sitting down and doing some Googling. Uh, these come in at a great size. I think all three are quite handsome. All three are quite different.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Of the lineup, I think
James Stacey these should get and probably will get the line's share of the attention from like the core watch nerd audience. Not too thick, not too wide, three very different versions, solid movement. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. I think these are uh I think these are
James Stacey winners for sure. and I think these are kind of like I said, I guess get to be the flagships uh at for a brand that I guess is going to top out around seven thousand dollars, at least in the current context, which I wasn't necessarily expecting. Um, you know, I think a lot of people didn't know what to expect for the price when it came to UG and and now we now we see the the Gala stuff and I mean I'm not even that much of a chronograph guy and I I like all three of the classics.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Same here. Yeah. Cool stuff.
James Stacey Yeah. George Kern is no dummy. The guy
Jason Heaton knows what he's doing with uh no, I mean
James Stacey he's figuring it out. He's figuring out as he goes. I think you know m you obviously you know what I would like him to bring back and do more of is just more aerospace. But I it's my understanding that Brightling is sp quite specifically not doing a lot of quartz, which you know doesn't put me in a great stead, but that doesn't mean it's not been quite successful for them as they've uh as they've iterated upon those products. So uh yeah, should be a good one. Uh another one. I'd I'd be pumped to see any of these in person. So hopefully in the next uh couple months, uh I get some time in a room with a table and that sort of thing and and get a chance to try them on rest. Yeah.
Jason Heaton All right. Well we have uh two more brands to talk about here. Uh two very TGN brands here, Aurus and Zinn. Which one do you want to hit first?
James Stacey Our sin. Yeah. How about I'll do the Oris and you can do the Zinn?
Jason Heaton Sure thing. Yeah. All right. So the Oris uh
James Stacey Oris launched several watches, a new bronze propilot, a 29mm pointer date, and another of the uh Muppets themed watches. None of those felt super core to our world. Um, but the the last or or one of the other major launches they had uh did feel kind of dialed in, which is the Orish Social Club 2. And this is obviously the second edition designed with Orish's Social Club, which is an international group of Auris fans. This one is based on the 43.5mm Aquas relief as a starting point, and then gets sort of a silver-toned um shimmery sort of dial. One that in the renders, I'm not quite sure what it looks like in person, but I think it looks quite good with the kind of steel of the case. And then as an interesting turn, and and it's according to their press release, the first time they've done this in over a decade, is they fitted sort of a green NATO style strap to the Aqua. So there are lug adapters because the Aquas has proprietary style lugs that then allow you to, you know, slide a nylon strap in there. So it comes on a green, olive green sort of uh nylon strap, which I think is the part that caught my eye the
Jason Heaton most. Yeah. Um, you know, my experience with
James Stacey the 43.5 Aquas is it's doesn't wear as big as other watches at 43.5, but it's not a small watch either.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um I would compare it in
James Stacey many ways to the way that like a some of the larger Doxa stuff wears where you can tell it's kind of above maybe the core of what I normally wear. It's not uncomfortable, but it's big, if that makes sense. And uh I think this is a good looking watch. The theyy're're putting it on the market for twenty one hundred Swiss francs.
Jason Heaton Yeah, another I mean it's Oris continues to be a good value and uh and popular. I was not aware of the social club um myself, but uh you know, regardless, it's it it is a good looking watch. I think the the thing about that larger size watches um regardless of how they wear visually is um or comfort wise really comes down to the the weight especially when in it when it's a steel watch a. steel watch in 43 and a half starts to feel quite heavy, especially like a dive watch that has some heft to it. Um I think, you know, something like this in in titanium, you know, the titanium aquas or whatever is is just gonna be um would would just be more comfortable. Um but yeah, I I I was drawn to the the strap adapters with the uh with the NATO strap on the straight. I thought it would look cool. Really cool, right? Yeah.
James Stacey So yeah, my apologies to the folks at Oris. I don't know a ton about the social club either. Um if you Google it up, it looks like they did a diver sixty five as the or social club Canada at one point, a forty millimeter uh diver sixty five. Uh oh, it looks like they're all different versions. So there's a Beijing, a Bangkok. All right. So I I guess it's a it it's modified depending on on where you're buying it. Uh, but it looks like version one was a sort of white silver dial black bezel take. Actually, quite a handsome looking watch, to be fair. Uh, this is a good looking thing. Nice expression of the diver 65, but of a of a 40 millimeter diver 65.
Jason Heaton Fun stuff. Yeah, cool. Yeah,
James Stacey for sure. All right. Well, with the uh aura assorted, that leaves us just the Zinn. What uh what did Zinn pass
Jason Heaton Yeah, this one's a really oddball and it's ca ca caused a lot of head scratching in in early comments that I've seen today. Um this is their EZM nineteen. It stands for Einzatzzeit Messer, which means uh mission timer in German. Um it's kind of this is number 19, so they've done a lot of these over the years. Um they all have very specific functions to them or or audiences. Um and in this case, I guess what's what's most striking about this watch is so this is a 41 millimeter um watch, uh 11.4 millimeters thick um in bead blasted stainless steel. It's got a tegament steel black bezel and it uses an SW300 um automatic movement. Um you know a lot of the kind of the Zinn technology you you know about the AR uh humidity absorbing capsule in the side of the case, um the integrated rubber strap. Um and this one has this this I think the most kind of noticeable thing right out of the the gate with this one is this this dial with this giant four and eight on it. Yeah. Which I think has a lot of people kind of confused, myself included. the bezel itself is a it counts up. it's a time elapsed bezel from zero up to I guess you could say forty minutes um or thirty-five. Yeah. And then it's a countdown. Um they've got an STD which uh Stunden in German means hours um four three two one. So the the last what would that be third of the of the bezel is a countdown from four hours to zero. Um and the explanation that Zinn gives is that in many kind of command, you know, mission command situations, four hours is a is kind of a critical period of time for counting down. That's all well and good. I I'm still a little confused about the four and the eight on the dial, um because you know dial is not really as relevant when you're actually kind of timing something, um whether it's a dive watch or any other kind of thing. Um maybe it's just a stylistic thing on this one, which which strikes me as a little unusual for Zinn because it they tend to be more function first.
James Stacey Yeah, or or it's separating the hour markers into four hour chunks, which I guess then you could coordinate against the four hour
Jason Heaton uh sort of timer on the bezel. I
James Stacey guess I guess you're setting that to your hour hand. I'll be honest, I read over this a couple times, and obviously I love Zinn, I'm a big fan. I don't think I understand this watch, but I also didn't like they say there's lots of opportunities to use this four hour, 40, you know, 20 minute, you know, sort of slice of because 20 minutes of a dial is also four hours of a dial. And I just I would need an ex like one or two examples I think would have gone a long way for me understanding what they were shooting for here.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. Because there's there's definitely nothing
James Stacey lazy about this design. It's very specific to the point where like I almost feel like I'm looking at a like the first time I looked at a a Hamilton crosswind.
Jason Heaton Oh right. Or an avatimer and you go
James Stacey like, wait, what are what's all the what are all the bits for?
Jason Heaton Yeah. Yeah. And this is like there's less, but maybe
James Stacey at the same time more going on. And I guess it's maybe you maybe you think of a lot of it as like m the maximum of four hours.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. You know, you you think back to other
James Stacey EZMs, whether it's for helicopter pilots or firefighting or special forces, and they all had some some sort of explainer like, hey, these this thing does these three or four features or or the bezel does this for this reason.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I feel like a lot of this is more like
James Stacey we got a high level explanation of what what it it's capable of doing, but not how that's rooted in necessarily the real world.
Jason Heaton Right. And may maybe I just I don't I don't
James Stacey think it's in the press release, at least not that I noticed. All right. And it I don't believe we have a a price for this, but uh it assuming that hits Watch buys or or Zinn's website by the time this episode is launched in a few days, uh, we will add it. So just check the show notes if you're really keen on an easy M nineteen. I'm pumped to see what they do for twenty, that's for sure. They're always very distinctive and I think they nailed it here. Mm-hmm. I I I need to need to sit with the text and try and think of the ways that I could use this bezel to help with various things. Like my first thing was like, oh, maybe like Pomodoro timer, but that's too short. Uh that sort of thing. Like, you know, I I'm just not I'm not doing mission briefings and
Jason Heaton that sort of thing. Uh perhaps thankfully I'd
James Stacey come up with any of that. For sure. I mean it it it you know it it does something for Pip at eight. There's a giant 8 to help. Oh, there we
Jason Heaton go. Oh, yeah. Right.
James Stacey Uh it's a cool looking thing. the giant eight and four will make it one of the most distinctive watches uh sort of in their in their catalog for a while. And the E ZM stuff is always just so specific to a given task or or need. So yeah, cool thing. good on Zen for that. And yeah, I think that rounds up uh all the all the new watches that we wanted to cover. Uh obviously there's maybe some that we missed or or some that come out shortly after this episode and we'll catch them on a future one. And if you're listening and you think we missed a watch that you're really pumped about, let us know in the Slack. We'll have the conversation there. Uh thankfully this is just sort of the first wave of new watches, which is you see them in digital form, uh press releases and images and that sort of thing. And then the next couple of months hopefully we get to see stuff hands on, whether it's Toronto or New York or otherwise.
Jason Heaton Yeah. All right. Well uh let's dive into uh to final notes. What do you got for us?
James Stacey Yeah, I've got two this week, so I'll I can bracket yours. Sure. Um actually you know what? Let's make it three. Let's have a little bit of fun. I I can eat a little bit of crow here. I was chatting with uh Tom Place about uh a movie that came out last Friday, and that's uh The Dog Stars. Um and then he goes, Yeah, you know, because Jason recommended it on uh Book Club
Jason Heaton a long time quite a while ago, and I had
James Stacey no memory of that. So I haven't seen the movie yet this week, but I did read the book in like twenty four hours. It's very good.
Jason Heaton Mm. So good. It's so good. Yeah. So
James Stacey that's Peter Heller, the dog stars. It's now been turned into a movie from uh Ridley Scott, one of our favorites, um, with uh several great actors. I mean, we're talking uh Guy Pierce and uh Josh Brolin, Jacob Alordy, and and Margaret Qually. And I mean, really, the book only has about seven people in it, so that's a pretty stack cast to begin with. Um I love pretty much every page, every turn of this book. Uh and and if anything, it was so good in the first two thirds or even th three quarters that I'm not sure how the ending would have made me happy and and it I they got as close as they could. They did a good job. Um fantastic book and hopefully the movie will be good. I'm not that worried about whether the movie's good or bad because the book is so good. So uh uh consider it now co-signed, uh you know, well over two years later or something, uh, from one of the book clubs some time ago. But that's the first one. Uh the next one, a really fun. I have two heads up for September 4th. And the first one, if you're in North America, I believe it's actually late on September 3rd, and that's the return of the grand tour. Uh, one-third of the hosting contingent is Thomas Holland, who's been on the show a couple times. Then we have James Engelsman, who's uh his co-host on the great YouTube channel Throttle House. And then finally, we have uh Francis Bourgeois, who you'd know from train spotting and lots of really fun car videos with Chris Harris recently. And if you're unsure of his automotive bona fide, you can definitely check out uh the recent episode of the intercooler with all three of the of the new hosts. I'm exceptionally excited for this, and I think it's gonna be an absolute blast. I don't know that they could have picked better hosts at all. The three of them seem to have really good chemistry and are really funny. And I I'm hoping that people give them a chance. I'm I'm certainly prepared to. And uh I know my daughters are very excited to have the kind of big car adventures back. My daughters have seen all of the uh the original trios, sort of big adventures through uh Top Gear and then the Grand Tour. Uh so I'm super pumped for that. That's on Prime. Uh if you don't have a subscription to Prime, this is one awesome reason to get it. Uh and like I said, I believe uh all six episodes of the first season drop on the fourth, which may or may not be to my understanding from what they've said on social media, it'll be the evening of the third. So when you hear this later tonight. If you're listening early, you could watch it as many as your heart's desire up to six.
Jason Heaton Wow. Nice. Uh do you have any insider information as to whether uh Throttle House will continue? Uh with Grandma. Oh,
James Stacey Throttle House is absolutely continuing. still running now and is not going away. they've slowed their pace a little bit.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But the the show is absolutely
James Stacey still running and it's still one of the channels where uh anything they put out I will watch. They've done a couple more like podcasty episodes recently, including one where uh like Thomas, I got very angry listening to it about like the ten things you shouldn't do. Uh or ten things that if you do, you're a bad driver. But yeah, the channel's still going, and I think they're still producing some great stuff. They did a video just recently with uh Francis Bourgeois's uh Honda Jazz, which we out here we would know as a fit, um, that he has like all of it underneath is uh type R motor transmission, like it's the the most sleeper thing ever because it's like a pink Honda Jazz with this insane motor and transmission and suspension, all that. So a couple of great ones for sure.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And then I'll I'll share my my
James Stacey third and final after uh after you've gotten to yours.
Jason Heaton Yeah, sure. Well um sticking with uh videos and YouTube and whatnot. Um I was recently turned on by Brad W on Slack to um a series, a YouTube creator named Martin Dullard, um a Dutchman, um who is a graphic designer by day and a photographer. Um actually I don't know if it's by day anymore. He might have given that up given his success on YouTube. He's got Yeah, he's got maybe he moonlights as a graphic designer. I don't know, but his um he's got this great playlist on his YouTube channel and he's got eight hundred and thirty eight thousand subscribers, so chances are anyone listening here probably already knows about him, or you've heard about him on Slack. Um this uh specific playlist called Life at the Cabin has is a a series of two hundred and twenty videos um that that uh Christy and I started watching just this last week. And every night now we sit and watch like three or four episodes. And uh Martin did some research and found uh an old kind of duo of stone cabins in the Italian Alps, and set out to restore them and kind of make them his home. And it it it's you know, there are plenty of videos like this uh on YouTube, you know, people kind of building cabins in the woods. We've talked about a few in the past. Um I would put this kind of in a an elevated category. I would almost say this is kind of almost a modern day Dick Prennicke version. Um less Spartan um he's not making his own tools necessarily, but his kind of consideration of things and kind of the patience with which he does his tasks um and takes the time out to go on hikes and visit with some neighbors and there's a there's a certain quietness to the videos um and it's beautifully produced and and shot. He clearly knows what he's doing. There's some good drone footage and just kind of wide angle stuff of the Alps and and I I just love watching him work. I I think it's kind of a genre of video that I just like, whether it's somebody rebuilding an engine on a car or or building a cabin or whatever. Um and it's really great. And I I did happen to kind of cheat and skip ahead and kind of look at thumbnails of of future episodes and lo and behold, I don't know, must be like a hundred and thirty episodes in, he he actually buys uh an old Land Rover series three with a with a little truck cab on it, which I was thrilled to see. So I haven't I'm gonna be patient and wait to get to that episode. But um highly recommend this um as did brad w on slack so thanks brad for for bringing that up on on slack and uh i can't recommend this enough it's just a tremendous tremendous viewing and if you're just looking for something quiet in the evening to kind of calm you down uh from a busy day. The episodes range between you know twenty minutes and forty minutes. So good stuff.
James Stacey Well that sounds great. Yeah, I uh I pulled up the the page while you were chatting there and uh immediately subscribed. Brand new to me, but uh sounds like a great recommendation and I'm I'm always in for yeah like you said a little bit of calming Dick Prenicky esque content uh to end my day. Uh Sun I end Sunday nights with lioness and it's kind of like going to bed with two clenched fists
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. Uh so yeah.
James Stacey Uh m m maybe I should change my speed on that one. But yeah, that looks great. And uh for my final uh this week is an album that comes out if you're listening to this right on Thursday, it comes out tomorrow, September fourth. Um, it is called King of Having Fun from uh a band called Medium Build, which is uh this guy Nick. And I've been listening to Medium Build for I guess a couple of years now. I kind of found them through Instagram and I've been listening to it nonstop for about two weeks and I absolutely love it. If you're in the zone for I don't know, like um what would the vibe be? There's some there's some war on drugs in there for sure. There's some um there's some stuff that just kind of links back if you imagine the the soundtrack for like the first season of um Scrubs. If that sounds like you would like any of those songs, there's elements of that in there. Uh I think his songwriting is really lovely. There's definitely some stuff I'll be listening to on this album for a very long time. And then what's become a real favorite of mine is the ability to essentially listen to an entire album rather than jumping around or trying to get title to pick a playlist where one in every five songs are even close to the one we started with. Uh it's which I just find so this one you can just kind of put on and let it play through. And it it it's absolutely excellent. So if you're if you're a fan, I think you can pick up exactly what the album's about within one or two songs. But if you're looking for a new album, September 4th, King of Having Fun should be on all of the streaming services. There's also a few like teaser tracks or or pre-launch tracks on YouTube and then he also went on speed um which we've talked a ton about in the past uh and did uh a couple of uh or did a a live uh performance from the garage where they record the the podcast.
Jason Heaton Oh, cool. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
James Stacey Really good stuff. All right. This was uh
Jason Heaton great watches to talk about today and uh some good final notes. Some really uh really
Unknown for sure books and T V and
Jason Heaton YouTube and music to We go. got nailed
James Stacey it all. Yeah. All right. Well look, as always, thank you so much for listening. If you'd like to subscribe to the show notes, get into the comments for each episode, or even consider supporting the show directly, maybe even grab yourself a new TGN sign NATO or access to the TGN slide
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote from Mark Twain who said, Switzerland would be a mighty big place if it were ironed flat.