Watches of a Navy SEAL: Omega, Rolex, Tudor and More with Rob Huberty | Collector Conversation

[Music] thank you hi I'm Tim welcome to watch box and thanks for logging on this is collector conversations part of the pleasure of doing my job is I get to meet incredible people with unique stories and even when we're talking about the same watches no two people have the same stories about the same watches today we've got a real original he's a watch collector an entrepreneur and a former U.S Navy SEAL Rob welcome to the show thank you so much now tell me your origin story you're a superhero I need to know where you came from how did you gain your passion for watches first so I was a child of the 80s I think the first thing that anybody does is the uh the swatches so when I was a little kid you know for a a birthday or Christmas you get a Swatch watch and that was pretty cool but uh after that you know it kind of grew and uh I guess uh Catholicism fake Heroes real heroes kind of all combined and I guess you know James Bond and it it all started with uh believing movies and and those kind of things and things they were true you see James Bond look at his watch and that must do something more and then in the movies it did but I would uh going to Catholic School in the back of the room we had these piles of National Geographic and probably Highlights magazine too if you remember that one but the the National Geographic that would let us you know peruse and read because that was educational and and those were you know vintage in their own way they they had they sat there for many years from you know if this was in like the late 80s early 90s a lot of the copies were probably from the 70s and you would see uh the ads for Rolex and they were adventurers and there were Heroes and it was Sir Edmund Hillary and it was you know if you were a pilot you know doing what flying the Concord you wear a GMT and their marketing worked on me and it was rooted in truth but uh I grew up with that stuff and it never left me and I still you know I I like to say that I like tool watches um most all of you know my the watches that I wear and collect are and you know that's kind of where it started and never stopped it was a fascinating watch on the table and it's actually here alongside uh the seals Warfare device and these two things are linked I actually graduated under very different circumstances with a Seamaster tell me the channel of this watch because it's it's a standout so this is my first nice watch so this uh this was you know the era of the James Bond uh the Pierce Brosnan in uh 95 in Goldeneye so this is similar to that this is the chronograph version of it but when I was graduating from uh sqt seal qualification training with uh class 259 so Buds and sqt is the the culmination of it and you get to graduate and you get to invite your whole family to that and so my parents bought me this watch and this is a gift they have it engraved my name is on it and it's engraved buds sqt259 my class and so they gave it to me the night before I graduated and so this watch I wore during graduation day I have some pictures of it and I owe always wear watches on my left hand like I'm you know that's how I do it I think a lot of people do but I chose that day to wear it on my right hand specifically so when I saluted that the Admiral who pinned uh the tried not this one but I tried in on my chest that day I would see that I have a cooler watch than he does as a enlisted seal I thought that was pretty cool no no it's good you've got the attitude too so yeah I have a chip on my shoulder and it's never going away but I've I've held this watch and I've worn it um a lot it's all scratched up I've never got it refinished um you know this this is my first nice watch and I loved it I didn't really wear this uh I would wear this for special occasions anytime I put my dress uniform I would do that when I would go out um I would wear it but this was not necessarily a daily thing because I didn't want to damage it um but that that kind of changed later in my career as uh as as things kind of came through and I I wore the Rolex as a beater watch eventually what was the graduation rate in your buds class of people who started and made it through the hallway without rolling it was under 10 so I want to say that like we've graduated with like 35 and and of Originals it was like 10 or 12 something like that out of 300 and some odd starting people now it's fascinating to me because you said that there was a culture of actually of actual high-end watch ownership inside of the seals uh how did you kind of dip your toe into that and then I guess you dove in afterwards how did that start so I wanted to be a seal when I was a little kid and uh kind of went on and off of it but I read all the books and I believed that they were true and the Vietnam eraseals were known to where blue jeans they would wear tiger stripe tops and they would wear Rolex and use bar machine guns that was like the men with green faces and the books that I read and the uh dick marcenko the the Vietnam eraseals like Were Heroes to me and I thought it was really cool and I read all the books and a Rolex wearing seal was a thing and because they were issued for a while and if they weren't issued you would get them at the Post Exchange you'd go buy them for yourself because that was the reliable good watch and it was diveable and seals dive so the culture of that has gone on kind of forever and that's never really gone away and I would uh eventually they started issuing Tudor Subs and so that was for an era and then you know the the watch of today is really the the Casio G-Shock is the first watch you get issued so and that's an issued example this is the one that I got uh during sqt I think when you graduate buds you get it they give you your first issue you're good enough to get like the full kit as opposed you know we're going to spend money on you because you've made it through whatever I think maybe in third phase they give you like better equipment because you're you're dealing with like Vietnam era stuff initially and only the class leader and the leading petty officer get to wear a watch so out of 300 people two people got to wear a watch and they would you couldn't really wear G-Shocks you'd wear like Iron Men and I I grew up with Iron Man and Timex and stuff and I wore those as well but this watch was really significant that this was earned this is you know whatever a 50 watch but this one I earned and I wore it you know a lot of my career this was like a signifier and you were I was jealous of owning this watch it was like a mark of accomplishment you knew what it took to get that watch so it meant that much more absolutely it was earned and it was silly and you know if you saw people in town you could kind of Judge who they were on what was on their wrist just like would a seal wear that is that a thing and you know that's uh this is the original one I've destroyed many Casio G-Shocks but uh this one will always be special to me I'll always keep it and uh it was earned you're probably the only person I've ever met who's killed multiple G-Shocks without some sort of a dryer or a car tire yeah so one of the things that we would do is the the the Illuminator uh is too bright and see we would put red brake light under it so because underwater can surrender your position so you'd peel that up and they put like spacers in them and you would use uh attack boards when you Dove so you would die with a wrist on your watch on your hand and one on your a piece of plastic you'd have a compass and a a Casio G-Shock attached to it and when you're diving underwater you're dead reckoning so you're going in a distance for time and so you're just using that's how you navigate underwater when you can't see five feet in front of you so you you plan your dive and you dive your plan and so you would have these on attack boards and you would crush those and having that second extra G-Shock on that attack or would get beat up for some reason I I broke a number of G-Shocks that way you're not supposed to be able to break them but uh Team guys will figure out a way now it's fun to me because you had some stories about Old-Timers who really did have experience stretching back to that era when you idolize people in the military and you were telling me a story about one of your first Chiefs and his experience with Tudor watches and this kind of broke my heart and a little bit more actually I think it still breaks my heart to this day so the the Tudor watches that were issued for a while uh when I when I checked in the team you know I I was already wearing nice watches I was really into it I enjoyed it and I would when anybody wore something different I would ask them why they wore it hey where'd you get that why do you wear it and uh so I joined I was I probably checked in in 2007. so it was pretty far removed from whenever they issued that stuff and so I asked a chief who had been in for about 25 years you know he's at the end of his career it's like did they ever issue a Rolex and he said no no no that's ridiculous he's like but when I was a new guy right around the Gulf War uh they did Issue tutors and he's like but I was so new that like they were on their way out and uh they wanted me to destroy all of the Tudor snowflake subs and they said if I didn't do it like that I was going to get in huge trouble and back then a huge trouble was like physically probably getting beat up like you're gonna listen to your directions and he had to go to the beach and he said he took a a group of tutors snowflake subs mil-spec subs took a hammer and bashed them until they were destroyed and threw them in the garbage let that sink in for a few months you know I'd I'd love to have one I want to call like I'd love to get into vintage and pick some of those up but uh they were intentionally destroyed for what reason I don't know but uh that's military that's that's a common story you'll find that thread runs throughout history every military you should watch someone's got a story of the day that they were all busted up rolled into a can or thrown overboard but you created some new watch traditions in your military career and a particularly pointed one is this deep sea that wasn't your original choice was it uh no I think that you're supposed to get a Submariner that is the thing right that's the one that you get and that was when that was when you started in the seals yeah so you would go to the the reunions and you'd see what the old timers wear the guys who'd been there done that the Vietnam guys the the UDT which the precursor um submariners warn at those reunions is pretty ubiquitous I mean that's that is the number one watch they're the people I think that when other people buy a Submariner in the history and The Prestige of it where it comes from the SEAL Teams is a strong place of it and it's very real and people wear it and they're very proud of it and they engrave them and they have small tridents put on them and they look really cool so I'm gonna get a sub but the knowing that I had been issued a Casio G-Shock and other watches that were along the way were you know suntos and whatever it is these are really big watches and I got used to it and I put this uh the sub on my hand and it actually felt dainty and I actually walked out of the Reeds Jewelers and uh in the Lynnhaven Mall with the Submariner on for a day and I actually went back the next day and I I had uh it was time to get the deep sea just because I viewed it as more robust and it weighs a lot but uh it really feels to me about the same size like these are to me knowing that like one is replacing the other in terms of physical size to me those were the same and so that was actually on my third deployment right before it I uh I got a reenlistment bonus and I was enlisted in the the Navy and I couldn't afford nice watches and so on deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan I used to browse you know rolex's website I used to follow uh baselworld overseas when I had internet you'd use uh Skype to talk to your families and I looked at watches and I dreamed of buying a Rolex for many years and by the time that I could finally afford it with a re-enlistment bonus um I said that I was just going to wear it I was going to do my I was going to do my entire job with a Rolex on my wrist and I did so for at least two years of being a seal I I took this watch I went skydiving with it I went scuba diving with it I got into real gun fights when I've been through tragedies with this that was my daily watch for about 10 years I got married in that watch so I have four kids all four kids when they were born I wore this watch um there's no I won't polish it I just had it serviced I you know I broke pieces off I broke the PIP but uh you know that's uh that kind of got me into more watches but this is uh I like the tool watch thing you know I would carry a compass and a GPS on me you've actually got accomplishments yeah so these are really the compass and the GPS that I would carry with me in Afghanistan this is still this is a backup so when you're I was a I was a sniper I was a breacher I was a jtac so a jtac is people who talk to airplanes a sniper is self-explanatory but a lot of times snipers are the point man so I actually didn't pull out a compass this is a backup I use a GPS and I would use this GPS so knowing that like watches have GPS is in them I felt comfortable enough knowing that my watch is just going to be the tool that tells me the time nothing else and realistically I kind of viewed both of these as backup tools anyway the thing that you had to do is you had to prepare for the mission you were going and do a map study and look at the imagery and you should have everything memorized as you're going through it so yes I would pull out the GPS when it was critical but I actually didn't look at this very much and so it gave me confidence as I became better at being a point man and a lead Navigator so look at your GPS less memorize it picture what that world should look like and then go through it and they kind of became backups the the compass you always any person who relies on something that's battery is uh I think is waiting for failure Murphy's gonna get you so you always have this this you know a silver ranger in your pocket you always need it um and I would use the Rolex and I would use it as a tool and a little bit you know it's a little precious it's a little putting a square peg in a round hole but I romanticize the thing I grew up with my my real heroes wore them my fake Heroes wore them and you know I wore them and it's interesting too because you had the seal Warfare device which by the way is like a combination of everything awesome you've got an anchor a trident a gun and an eagle all in one place but you also have it on the back of the deep sea I did so there's a there's actually a watch dealer in Virginia Beach that that I had to do this um so it's it's just laser engraved in hindsight because it was uh Titanium on the back of this I said I shouldn't probably I don't want to take the Deep the the resistance you know I don't want to damage that at 12 000 whatever it is that I'll never ever ever No human can ever go uh although the new one is still cool and not really usable I'd still own it um but the I had the the same device engraved in the back and I know they have pictures of it but it's uh it's something that's special to me that I know that it's mine and honestly part of the reason I did it is so that I would never be able to sell it it would always be special to me and I did that before I experienced you know kind of all the triumphs and tragedies that I've gotten with this watch but there are some diggers in here that I don't think you can get out without you know at least laser well thing or whatever yeah you've definitely got a couple of dents in there now take me out a little journey through your Rolex collection because you have expanded to tutor you've got to Omega you've got Grand Seiko but Rolex is still sort of the backbone of your Luxury Collection you know it's it's tough for me to get away and a lot I mean a lot of them come from this the same place of uh the heroes that wore them and why they wore them and like my connection to that and that the Pepsi is one that I couldn't have uh I couldn't have wanted that watch anymore for as long as I did and it literally started not with the Pan Am Pilots but as any child of the 80s would with uh Magnum PI yes so uh Magnum PI was uh was supposed to be a seal and uh it turns out that like this watch a lot of the pilots in the military I would say that I saw this watch in the military the preview the five digit version which I'll probably go back and get that uh but this watch is something that's pretty highly worn in the military by by people who you know kind of do cool jobs that I respected and when this came out in the white gold version I I I couldn't have wanted that I don't remember what year that was but I followed it I followed it when this came out in stainless steel is that I needed to own this one day and unfortunately when that first came out I I was not in a position to be able to own this watch and uh and it is really difficult to get uh so uh this is a watch box purchase so well thank you when I could finally afford to get it I went to watch box and I could get a Pepsi or something that I've wanted since you know the 80s no the hero worship thing is definitely real I wanted my Omega C Master back in the next month it's James Bond's watching yeah you know as a young person you know that that's Inc it makes such an impact um even when they are imaginary Heroes right now you've actually uh you eventually did succumb to the Submariner yeah tell me a little bit about how that finally happened because the first time you wore a sub you exchanged it yeah I did so I so to me we'll say this I didn't say this in the beginning I'm so thrilled to meet you in person and you you know during times when I don't feel great I watched Tim Masa videos and you reviewing stuff and it I find it calming and I think that anybody who purchases a watch uh watch this video on your 16 inch wrist and if you'd like that watch everything is for sale contact team also you know like yes wow repetition Works repetition absolutely works and I I have wanted the Hulk a really long time and I'll tell a story on a really bad day of my life when I almost bought it but I didn't and uh there was a really bad helicopter crash that killed one of my mentors and along with many many friends it was the worst day in the history of the SEAL Teams uh with extortion one seven and so I met one of my mentors in the SEAL Teams his name was John Foss at sniper school and he was already at SEAL Team Six he was like a hero already coming in it's usually you're more Junior um and uh it was in 2011 that their helicopter was shot down and it killed 31 Americans and uh a lot of a lot of my friends and he was mentoring me and I knew everybody on it and the day that occurred um I was in crane Indiana going to the armorer school for Naval special Warfare and I was basically by myself and uh I had a really bad day you know somebody basically like babysat me I got drunk in Bloomington Indiana on Johnny Walker Blue Label and I did the only thing that made sense to me and I went into a watch store super drunk and like depressed and I almost bought that Hulk that day but I didn't um I couldn't really afford it I think it was I think it was 7 500 or something then and they were going to sell it to me at a big discount because green was not desirable at the time and uh I passed on it that day and I really regretted it and I was like am I doing this for the right reasons and uh when this one came out the same kind of thing I got this from govburg um they sold it to me and you know to some degree where I was in my mental place I look at watches when I'm not super happy I I find something about the movement something about time something about the repetition of it uh you know the oscillation of everything I find it coming I don't know what it is and it puts me in a happy place when I don't feel good and on bad days I look at it and I watched Tim Masa video like I don't know it's a thing and so the green sub to me ties me to that for whatever reason in my head has nothing to do with that the Submariner is the Seal team watch that's the thing that's the heritage of the heroes that went before me um you have to own a sub and the green one I just think looks good I know exactly how you feel I I go to watches too and it's the permanence of the watch that sometimes helps to re-anchor you and give you a almost point to Rally like when you're down because that is part of the appeal of a watch it's permanent it's it's Eternal and the world isn't I mean time is you know maybe fake or make-believe and how do we measure something that like we don't even know how to hold and it's a circle that's perpetual and it doesn't make sense and that's how we choose to do it it's some kind of weird vibration that we get to hold with us and keep it I guess I don't know but uh there's there's a romantic thing and you know the the Submariner to that is still to me I love it and the green one that's how it holds a special place to me now in time you expanded your Omega family you started with the Seamaster and you stayed with the Seamaster I'm such a curious how did you triple up like tell me a little bit about these uh so the seamasters I you know to me I I love Omega watches and I'll never start stop they're they're I hold them in kind of the same way and it's still you know the James Bond so this is actually the the no time to die one and I think what's really cool about it it's titanium it's the bracelet the bracelet is really what did it for me um it reminds me of I I don't have any uh vintage watches I'm just afraid of it I beat stuff up um I will break it uh and so like the Vintage the the faux if you want to call it I actually I like the idea that it's new and it works and it does really well the fotina that works ah yeah I'd like to think that this isn't photina but sure I I use those words but it has it's a vintage inspired um and then it's the broad arrow and they did you know they developed watches for uh during World War II that were they used really the British watches The Dirty Dozen whatever it was and I think that that's pretty cool and it's fake on this watch but Omega really did it they were really used by service members that's real and yes this is a movie prop or whatever it is but I think it's enough for me that I I like it and I love Omega watches I still love James Bond I'm not gonna no it's good you've got all of the James Bonds of your lifetime and a sub you've got Timothy Dalton and the diver 300 meter you've got Pierce Brosnan and then there you go right there you've got Daniel Craig yeah I I love it and uh you know Daniel Craig was was Bond as I was going through training and uh you know I'll never stop loving that the green one I never stopped loving green watches I don't know what it is this this one is special um this is a newer pickup um but they're fun they just wear really well the rubber strap feels still tooly to me still fun um and you can buy them you can you can find them in dealers they're available I actually ordered this one online so the uh this is hard to get but I literally just went to the website and I that I bought probably at three in the morning I woke up in the middle of night and I saw it and I said that must be mine tell me a little bit more about some of these pure tool watches your digital electronic collection I know the story behind the G-Shock or at least one of them but you've got four more and I'd love to hear their stories so these are watches that I actually wore from high school and college and that I was training with and I was doing actually this is the watch I was training to be a cln and I would timer runs with so it's a Timex tool watch I mean an expedition who doesn't love Timex watches I mean I kind of grew up with this and I used to time all my runs with this so I'd go out and it's not sophisticated you know I have apple watches I have garmins I have better tools now but at the time I thought that it was pretty sharp looking it had an analog digital thing going on a quartz watch I thought it was pretty cool it was probably 50 bucks at the time it had a bezel that I'm not sure does anything really for you on it but uh I never used the bezel as I ran but I would time on the digital and uh this was uh this was the watch that I trained for to get ready to go to buds knowing that ought to be in great shape I would go for runs in this all the time and you know I've I've always enjoyed that and then the same kind of thing this predates a little bit more a Timex Ironman that I probably had in college I'd go for runs with this is my exercise watch during college and uh actually in college I would wear a like a Fossil watch at that time that was you know that's all I could afford that was pretty cool but I don't I look for that one before I came here but I couldn't find it I have it somewhere it rotted off the uh the the leather band that I have but I still own it somewhere and you're probably like me back in like college swimming with leather bands absolutely I've did whatever it was that uh there was to do with that I didn't I didn't care or know that you probably shouldn't do that but that you know this this sunto is similar to like a lot of like probably very stereotypical of like a lot of what Special Operations were this has a compass and altimeter a barometer it does all of these things I would say are a little bit more toolish and then I have kind of like the the civilian use version of something like that more modern the Garmin Enduro 2 that is a computer can does all this stuff it's made of titanium it has a flashlight built into it this is really my exercise watch but like I I love wearing all different types of watches and you know I trade out all the time now once your career in service was over you went into the private sector you went to Wharton when you became an entrepreneur these days you're working on zero eyes which is actually very veteran friendly as a company tell me a little bit about that and then we'll sort of segue to the watches you've collected recently right so zero eyes is a company that we're trying to be proactive about mass shootings and it started after Parkland we noticed that the shooter was on a camera for a few minutes before we ever pulled the trigger and we said isn't somebody looking at that and nobody was so we created a company that watches all your video cameras and if a gun is exposed we send out an alert and we are trying to be proactive rather than reactive a little story about me I went to a middle school in Connecticut that was called Chalk Hill it was renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School um I want to do something that matters in this world and so we want to we want to do something about mass shooting in any way that we can um we're based out of basically Conshohocken which is about 15 minutes away very veteran focused we started the company with about uh uh you know seven people and now we're up to 140 people 85 percent of which are veterans right now and so this is done with a combination of human involvement but also AI so AI looks for guns initially and then we verify that with an operation Center so we built a talk of veterans that one is here in Conshohocken and the other ones in Hawaii it's because you get transitioning veterans we want to play a role to help veterans get job and find meeting and do something that we think makes a difference and so we want to be that springboard to do better in this world to do good and do well and so it's like sort of the it's got a mission on two different levels to try to help people transition from the military but also to provide a service that you know clearly we need at this point unfortunately we need it I would like if if I was doing I'd rather be doing something else if that wasn't a problem in the United States but it is so I want to do something that you know we we don't view ourselves as the only solution we are one layer that can help we want to be proactive rather than reactive we want it to make sense we want to do it without invading privacy so it's just your existing video cameras we're just processing that looking for exposed guns and so now that you are out of the service you're in the private sector you're an entrepreneur some of your Watchers are not so purely shall we say tool oriented right they're not necessarily the product of hero worship or utilitarian need tell me a little bit about the sky dweller because that stands out among your Rolex this is the newest watch box pickup yeah this is the least like it it's a Jubilee bracelet which I said I wouldn't do but I was really interested in it um I was looking to go up Market a little bit and go for a little bit of the other brands and it's really difficult to try on watches that uh that are higher end or different boutiques that you know I can't go to a boutique and necessarily see an AP or uh you know a Patek watch like you can't even try them on but if you have watch box you can so I go to governberg and they would actually let me try a bunch of watches on and I was looking at other brands that you know I would like to get into that I aspire to and just to go away from Rolex was too much for me I really just enjoy it so much and the idea that this is you know their their biggest complication it's it's the first step into that next level right and uh you know it does the month it has you know the GMT function I think it's pretty cool I'm trying to get into the the Jubilee and I actually really like it and maybe it feels a little bit more blingy and unlike me and uh trying to get used to it oh well you know it's we grow as collectors and still stainless steel though mostly well there's a watch in here that is very unlike the others and I'm not necessarily yep yeah yeah you guessed it yeah you guessed it so the uh I guess this goes to the the history of it so this is the Ed White this isn't you know the the run-of-the-mill Speedmaster and uh it's just perfect um this is I feel at the higher end I'm you know taking that first journey into the higher end I think it's beautiful I think it wears very differently um you know supposedly it's you know more handmade I guess or at least hand assembled uh biomega and it is more elegant more refined than what I have this is more of my dress watch I don't want to scratch this up the way that I'm unafraid to scratch others up um the the tie to NASA is I mean undeniable I mean it's named after an astronaut um actually the SEAL Teams used to recover the capsules so it would be a seal who was in the ocean who recovered the astronauts and the capsules and would pull them out so the UDT and the Frogman did that and so there's some kind of tie three seals have now uh become astronauts um I don't know and I think just the the Omega that's a little bit more beautiful a little bit more perfect uh I can dip my toe into what that next level could look like going forward and you're starting to experience the world now of display case backs yeah that you know it's not I guess the the Omega does that now too the uh sea Masters made that step as well and I mean this is to me is is very beautiful and I could put this up to you know some of the watches I got to try on I think that for the value of what this is even though compared to a regular Seamaster it isn't but the bracelet is elegant and refined and beautiful and uh you know it's evocative to the American Heroes who wore it uh and really everybody else but like the beginning of the the right stuff of what it is of what I would aspire to be and that I see it through the watch I mean whether that's true or not that's how I feel well reading those you know 1970s National Geographics who had been exposed to the late Apollo program you would have seen that as a kid I mean I reading reading the books about it seeing the movies and whatever it is and you know any chance I get I'm a little bit of a space geek uh you know I've met Buzz Aldrin and like because he talks and he's just incredible and you see these Heroes and the courage they had they weren't sure they were coming home every time that it went out and I find that pretty cool and this is a little bit of the history of that it's just elegant and beautiful and you know maybe a step up into what that can look like and I guess Grand Seiko how did that happen so Grand Seiko is something that I've I've always liked seikos I don't own any right now but the uh you know the dials are amazing and I I've always been into the Japanese culture and I I think it's amazing what they've been able to do and like the samurai tradition um since I was a little kid reading about Miyamoto Musashi um the book of the Five Rings he's the greatest samurai warrior who is 60-0 and his samurai battles and it was about being a well-rounded uh person it wasn't you you couldn't be a great warrior if you were also not a great artist and a great thinker and so that's something like the Japanese steel and swords when I go to you know to museums and they have actual katanas from Japan like you go to the Met New York you see it I'm inspired by that and I think the hand that made those swords and those Warriors and that uh that honor-bound culture that is in science fiction and like that's in Star Wars is incredibly Japanese and pulled from that that same thing is the reason that they say that you know all of their dials are made from you know in front of their Factory and it's from nature and maybe it's a little bit of a stretch but I I think there's truth and Beauty in that this is also a little bit more out of uh I put it on a leather strap I don't necessarily love their bracelets but uh that beauty and that precision and that attention to detail that the Japanese have um is inspiring and you know the credit sake you got to do that comes from a great craft tradition absolutely this is a fantastic watch and I gotta say actually this looks good enough to be Factory I've never seen this model on a strap so it's a grand Seiko strap yeah points for creativity because that combination just works beautifully and then I guess maybe you're sort of coming full circle now going back to the future with Tudor uh this one not to be smashed I understand right so the reason I got a tutor is I needed some kind of tutor in my collection right so the uh if I go vintage the first vintage I'm going to get is going to be the 1655. I don't know what it is about that watch but uh there there's something really cool but I'm afraid if I spent as much money it is I couldn't really wear it in the way that I want um the tradition of the tutor I I because of the SEAL Teams connection like I want to own tutor I've always wanted to own tutor so I took the opportunity on this for both kind of the you know the respect of the 1655 and and then just like the the Tudor history of what it is that I think if James Bond were really a guy going around this is probably the watch that he would wear it's elegant enough to go wear it out but it's you can beat that up and feel good about it that that's like the Kevin Bacon game you've got a Tudor that looks like an explorer two first generation that you think would have been James Bond's real watch and is apocryphally associated with Steve McQueen right so it touches everything yeah Steve McQueen never wore any of those and uh you know he wore a sub but it's a fantastic watch and you're absolutely right it's funny that these days if you want the best Rolex historic re-editions they all have tutor on the dial yeah and I you know I don't feel bad about it I would say that most of my watches are not uh they're not Tim mosso level watches I don't feel bad about it they're they're standard one you know their their entry level Rolex are not that sophisticated and they're not you know high horology but I still love them well you're wearing a more Tim Masa watch than I am so this this is definitely totally in your honor um I got the mil gaussy blue and it was from watching Tim Massa videos I watched it in 07 at basil world I think when the first one came out or the the reissue whatever the first of the modern the modern Mill gas right and I've always liked it you know the scientist thing you know whatever whatever that means I still kind of buy the same way that I still you know you're a pilot of the Concorde should be wearing a GMT for whatever it's worth I I like that and I bought into it and I was always interested in it and I kept watching videos of you like if I were to own one Rolex it would be this one and So eventually this was also another uh a watch box pickup um and I don't I think it's super fun I really love it and then they discontinued it which is uh I I hope they come back um with maybe an update of it but on whatever the the 60th anniversary but I would love to see a rotating bezel yeah the uh the honeycomb or the honeycomb dial you know you're really kind of like inflating my ego now you've said you wanted to own watches that were worn by James Bond Navy Seals astronauts and a Tim mosso favorite I don't I don't feel comfortable in that company ah it's I mean it's absolutely like it uh it brings me joy and pleasure to watch and uh I mean I I reached out in hopes that you would say yes to me coming on I mean it was it's been a lot of fun and it continues I mean you've got you've got the light side and the Dark Side of Rolex now with a uh a modern day Explorer too that you can beat on right and then a Daytona right are you a car guy at all so I am and I what I'll say is I don't own anything cool I've driven cool stuff I've gone to a bunch of car driving schools I've gone to car stealing schools I've gotten to all of this stuff but I can't afford you know the the stuff that I'd like to drive and so I live a little bit vicariously through Top Gear and you know I've been watching that my whole life and I would honestly say I'd live vicariously through you putting on your 16 centimeter wrists whatever these watches that are you know unaffordable unattainable for me but I still get to experience it through that lens and I guess that driving dream happened with the Daytona the Daytona is is uh I can't guess my I guess that's my favorite watch right now which is uh I would have worn that I I wanted to go against that I grew up actually living near where Paul Newman actually lived my mom would drive by his house every day on the way to work in the in like the early 90s and so uh there was always rumors of him like doing awesome things like did you see Paul Newman at the uh at the hot dog place there's this like Martha Stewart people would always say they saw and she lived in Westport at the time before she got arrested but uh the Paul Newman like uh I had a flat tire and Paul Newman helped me change it and whatever it was it was all fake I've always liked the watch I think that uh in college I saw a picture of him wearing it uh like with honors wrist and I saw that and like I wanted to own when I bought Fossil watches the Daytona uh and I wanted to put it on a leather Boone strap I thought that was pretty cool um and I didn't get a Daytona until fairly recently thank you gov bird the uh that's awesome I I think that I my dream watch would be a Daytona upon the midday time so that's that's the grill watch that was gonna be the next question I don't know if there is a Grail I don't think there's any such thing but that's that's uh that's pretty good and and then the uh I talked about this the tech uh 5326 is something that seems to scratch an edge if I get to go up to that next level that's that's where I would go where you've got pilot watch dual time an annual calendar all in one and in addition to that I still think it has a little bit of if it's too shiny too gold none of my watches are gold um I I don't I don't like yellow gold I don't want it to be as flashy there's something about that watch that feels subdued and correct and proper and then the the number of it is the same number as the Navy SEAL and listed code at the NAC which is kind of like a weird Insider baseball in the Navy 5326 is what a seal is that that is your designator as a seal it's an enlisted seal yeah Rob this has been an absolute pleasure thank you so much thank you so much it's a pleasure timeout Tim out Rob out thanks for logging on

Channel: The 1916 Company

Views: 279,378

Keywords: omega speed master, speed master, omega speedmaster, omega sea master, sea master, omega seamaster, rolex deepsea, rolex deep sea, rolex seadweller, rolex sea dweller, rolex sea-dweller, rolex sky dweller, rolex skydweller, rolex sky-dweller, rolex gmt master, gmt master, gmt master 2, gmt master ii, grand seiko gmt, tudor gmt, tutor gmt, tutor watches, tudor watches, luxury watches, swiss watches

Id: rqxQn6TUov4

Length: 40min 50sec (2450 seconds)

Published: Sat May 27 2023