The Grey NATO – 331 – Adventurous Women & Their Watches With Rhonda Riche

Published on Thu, 29 May 2025 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Grey NATO (#331), hosts James Stacey and Jason Heaton welcome guest Rhonda Rich to discuss her new book "The Wonderful World of Women's Watches, Beauty Beyond Time." The conversation covers Rich's background in watch collecting, which started with thrifting vintage pieces and learning from watchmakers and online forums. They discuss fascinating stories about women in watchmaking history, including Mercedes Gleitz (Rolex's first ambassador), Sylvia Earle, and Carol Diddesheim who redesigned the Omega Constellation.

The episode also explores the historical significance of women in watchmaking and timekeeping, from early tide-tracking devices to the adoption of wristwatches before men. Rich shares insights from her book about notable women who wore interesting timepieces, including actresses Raquel Welch and Farrah Fawcett. The hosts and guest also discuss current developments in the watch world, including Tudor's recent promotional video featuring firefighter Asha Wagner.

The episode concludes with final notes from each participant, including discussion of a Tudor marketing campaign, a Blancmange concert review, and James's return to using paper index cards for task management.

Transcript

Speaker
James Stacey Hello and welcome to another episode of The Grey NATO, a loose discussion of travel, adventure, diving, driving gear, and most certainly watches. This is episode 331, 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 and would like to support the show, please visit thegreynato.com for more details. My name is James Stacey, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host, Jason Heaton. Jason, how are you doing? Pretty good, but where did May go? I mean, the month just blew by, at least in my world.
Jason Heaton Gone, man. Crazy.
James Stacey Gone. We're recording this on the 27th, and I now have to keep thinking about June.
Jason Heaton I know. I know. And June's a big month for you, and it's just a busy month. I mean, summer, as we've discussed, well, in your case, this is a different sort of year for you, but in the past, we've talked about how... you know, summer's the time when you want like free time to kind of go and chill and spend time at the cottage and just do adventurous stuff. And that's like, it seems to be this busy time, like when stuff just bubbles up and it's, it's kind of crazy. May was... May was, for me, was largely defined by this Scotland trip, which was like the 8th through the 18th. So it was kind of dead center in the month. And then I sort of define my weeks by TGN, basically. So it's like now when this rolls around, it's like this will be going live within like two days or so of the end of May, which is just crazy to think of. And then the year is half over, which is just wild.
James Stacey Anyway, it's definitely cooking along. And I really start as well. I mean, obviously, with a kid on the horizon, probably less than a month away now, almost certainly less than a month away. You know, you just feel this pressure to like, I got to get some stuff done. Yeah, because I am I'm going to be I'm going to force to be slowed down to slow down quite a bit. at least for the rest of the summer. And look, I think I probably need that in general, like just for myself, but the kid will need that and Sarah will need that and all that kind of stuff. And I know I said on the previous episode that at some point we'll have an update on what the schedule flow will look like. My guess is now that we'll probably end up needing to take a couple weeks. for me to kind of catch back up, and then we'll just pick up again with the show, probably some guest-style episodes. We always tend to do more guests through the summer. There's kind of less going on in watches, and it's a nice time to kind of connect with people and that sort of thing. So I think that's probably going to be the plan, but, you know, stay tuned for more updates on that as it kind of comes together. Uh, Jason, I know you got back from, from Scotland and you weren't feeling that great. And I was checking in on you for a couple of days and finally you said like, yeah, I think I'm kind of back together. Uh, you feeling more yourself?
Jason Heaton Yeah. I mean, it took, it took the better part of last week to get back to a hundred percent. I, you know, when we recorded last Tuesday, I was, that was an absolute zombie. I, I think I clocked off from recording and just went back to bed and I was, I was in that mode for a two or three days which fortunately coincided with some kind of cold rainy weather here then once it got a little warmer by the weekend I was fairly out of the woods and then you know I just had this you know as we were just talking about like I get to this point in the year and it just feels like I'm a little behind the eight ball on, on like yard work and that sort of thing. And, and I realized that being gone much of May, um, you know, I, I like to have the garden up and running. I mean, it's such a short growing season here anyway, that I wanted to get a bunch of, uh, vegetables planted and kind of get stuff going because it, you know, by late September, October, it's time to wrap things up. And I, you know, want to give the tomatoes their their ample time to to ripen and so that's what i did i kind of spent a few days getting plants in the ground and putting compost down and doing some weeding and run into the garden shop and it's it's all fun i think what i find really pleasurable about gardening which is something i've only gotten into in the past five years or so is you're kind of forced to realize that it's a project that's never done. And so you can only do it in kind of bite-sized episodes. And you can just do a simple task like weed one corner of the garden and then be done for the day and then come back the next day and do something different. And I find that helpful because I'm the kind of person that likes to do things, you know, start to finish all the time. And you just can't do that with gardening. So it's kind of healthy to be forced to not do that.
James Stacey absolutely yeah it for sure is and it is that nice time of year to try and get some of that stuff established and then you get to just enjoy it yeah yeah as you kind of move through the rest of the year you know with with what we have on this summer and the amount of time that we're hoping to spend at the cottage uh post arrival of a future baby um we're not like sarah didn't set up the the garden uh beds this year so we might transition some of that up to the cottage but we'll we'll have to see i mean it's you can only you can only have so many things to focus on and And, you know, that gets a little bit more complicated when you're adding to the family. But, yeah, I'm glad that you're able to get the garden going. I think it's one of those, like, things that really defines a certain part of the year. Obviously, spring has been important to humans forever as long as we've been, you know, agriculturally active. And I think it is this kind of great time of year where you kind of reset and kick things off with a plan for what you'll be using and need and all that kind of stuff for the rest of the season.
Jason Heaton yeah yeah i this year i for the first time i put um i planted uh a pumpkin plant which i'm pretty excited about because the pumpkins are kind of this dramatic whenever i see people with pumpkins in their garden it's like they just they have these huge leaves obviously the pumpkins themselves are big and they just kind of sprawl and take over an area and i'm kind of excited to see if that that happens here so that'll be fun
James Stacey A pumpkin. I mean, man, of all the things that I have been around for Sarah to plant, I don't garden that much myself. A pumpkin. Yeah, that's fantastic. Would you eat the pumpkin? You do the pumpkin seed thing? You just wanted to grow a pumpkin to have a pumpkin? Pumpkin pie? Maybe a jack-o'-lantern?
Jason Heaton Maybe all of the above. I mean, they're so versatile, right? And I think I'll get more than one on this sprawling, big, giant plant. I put it in its own dedicated little bed. And I guess you scoop out the meat and you can... cook with it or you know break it into chunks and roast it whatever and then i love the something with the seeds and then i can do a jack-o'-lantern i mean i'm optimistic about all of it so and you've been doing some spring-like projects as well yeah we we're under the gun uh to try and get some stuff done at the cottage just so that we can kind of enjoy it to its fullest potential
James Stacey and we needed at least one dump run, so we did that in the rain. God bless the Wrangler. It is so dirty after going to the dump. I think it rained for almost a week up at the cottage in that area, so the ground was just a swamp, and then the dump was just a smelly swamp and that sort of thing, but really good to get some stuff off the property and start to tidy up. I took on another project of... We kind of wanted to have like a cooking area outside. Oh, yeah. And in the past, we've just used like a spare table, you know, like a patio table. And we wanted something, you know, a little bit more dialed, a little bit more intentional, something that was much sturdier. And then, you know, I was like, oh, you know, I'll build it like a workbench. Yeah. Like I would in the garage. And somebody wiser than me was like, well, you're going to leave it outside. I said, yeah, I'll just do pressure treat. And they're like, you can't cook on pressure treated wood. It's full of really gnarly stuff. You should consider doing something with concrete. And at first I was like, well, I'm never going to do that. I've never worked with concrete before. And then I realized what they meant was like bricks or cinder blocks or patio stones. So we picked up a big lot of, um, And I would say this is in version one. We'll see how it holds up and how we like the design. But we picked up 32 cinder blocks.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey And I built sort of like a... It sort of stores wood below it. And then the top has a nice flat surface that you can put a barbecue and a Coleman stove and that kind of stuff on.
Unknown Yeah.
James Stacey And being concrete, you don't have to do anything with it. It's non-toxic, like all that kind of stuff. So that was another big project. And then we spent most of Memorial Day... this past Monday, just kind of working on some interior renovations. We're reskinning one of the rooms with a beadboard to kind of cover up some old walls and damage and that sort of thing. And that's kind of what we were up to. But it was a busy weekend. But thankfully, you know, to a certain extent, there was quite a bit of rain still going on. So I had a chance to kick back and enjoy. The Monaco Grand Prix and, you know, Sarah and I watched a movie. We watched The Big Short, which I hadn't seen in a little while and really enjoyed. You know, it had probably been a few years. So, yeah, it was a super nice weekend, but busy and, if I'm honest, moving 32 cinder blocks and a bunch of patio stones around. I'm a little, like, beat up, like, physically. Yeah. It was good. It was good. And I, you know, it's, it is a delight. I'm at that stage in my life, which I didn't understand when I was younger, but like manual labor to a certain extent has become a delight because I spend all of my time in front of a computer monitor. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah.
James Stacey Like all of it. So the idea of like, yeah, I've got to lift a bunch of stuff and load up the trailer and we're going to get muddy. I'm going to the dump. I'm going to, you know, maybe we'll get a slice of pizza on the way back. Like it's just this moving around feels really good. Yeah. Yeah. Even, even if I'm a little tired because of it. Yeah.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Just, just don't get injured. You do these like movements that your body's just not used to. Even if you're fit and lift weights regularly, like to carry cinder blocks is not something the body is used to doing regularly unless that's your job.
James Stacey Yeah. Yeah. And I'm not fit and I'm not lifting weights regularly. You know, nice opportunity in the summer to kind of reset these things and stay outside and move stuff around and chop up wood and all this kind of stuff. So, yeah, these are all good things. Yeah. Well, look, we've got a great episode today. Our friend Rhonda Rich is on to talk about her new book. We should probably get into a wrist check, but now that I'm thinking of it, why would we do that without Rhonda? Maybe we just jump right into the chat with Rhonda.
Jason Heaton Yeah, and Rhonda's always got something interesting on her wrist, at least when I've encountered her in the past. I remember the Toronto Timepiece show last fall. She was... wearing something quirky and given her knack for finding unique pieces and her interests in that area. I'm sure she'll bring the heat today, so to speak. So let's check it out.
James Stacey All right, let's get into it. Our guest today is the wonderful Rhonda Rich. She's a celebrated writer, editor, and on-camera personality, and of course, the editor-at-large for Watchinista. Her work has appeared everywhere from, of course, Watchinista, but also the Toronto Star, CBC, Sharp Mag, and even Elle Canada. She's known for blending cultural insight with horological expertise, and she brings an inclusive and thoughtful perspective to the world of watches. You might remember her from episode 263 when we had her on to talk about the looming labor shortage and fine watchmaking. But today we're here to chat about her latest big move. It's a book. It's called The Wonderful World of Women's Watches, Beauty Beyond Time. We've got a lot to get into, but Rhonda, welcome back to the show.
Rhonda Rich Thanks for having me, guys.
Jason Heaton Yeah, welcome. This is great. I'm feeling a little outnumbered. We've got two Canadians and myself here. So let's leave the politics out here, you know, as we want to do on TGN. But yeah, I mean, you guys are pretty friendly. Oh, sure. Yeah.
James Stacey We've got like 40% of the Swiss Chalet crew here. If I go get Sarah, we'll be halfway there. She's just upstairs. Shout out to Julie and Jason and Ken and everyone who came to our great Swiss Chalet date during the Toronto... toronto timepiece show last year uh look ronda we've got tons to get into i'm really excited about the uh about the new book um but earlier in the show jason and i we were going to do a wrist check then we realized why would we do a wrist check when we're going to have ronda on we'll all do it together yes uh so do you want to kick off wrist check what have you got on today this is very sad uh i have it's sort of a diver's watch i went um
Rhonda Rich I'm not a morning person, and I had to go visit my mom last week, and I forgot to put a watch on. Shame on you. I felt so naked that I went to the Value Village when I got out in Kitchener, and I bought this... It's a kind of dive watch. Sounds like one. It was the only thing in the Value Village.
James Stacey What's the brand? I don't recognize it.
Rhonda Rich It has no brand. It's unbranded. Okay time. They had it at the Value Village and it still had a battery working in it, unlike many of the other watches there. And it was $5. And then I felt clothed again. It's got a soccer ball on the cover and it says... I was going to say it looked like a soccer ball.
James Stacey I didn't realize it was quite literal. That's great.
Rhonda Rich It's a soccer ball, but the bezel has a satisfying click. Sure does. Because I'm obsessed with dive watches, even though I don't dive.
Jason Heaton Well, maybe that's the one to try it out with.
Rhonda Rich Yes, when I go out in the rain later on. But yes, that's my wrist check.
James Stacey Just fogs right up.
Rhonda Rich It's not so much a testament to my... tastes or well it is a testament to my taste um but just like i can't go without a watch i was literally like itching and i had to get something that's so fun that's great yeah good good one i actually have a question about thrifting yes uh for right after risk check we get to but jason what have you got on for today's episode
Jason Heaton I've been wearing my Pelagos FXD for the past couple of days. And, you know, this was the watch that won our kind of one watch tournament earlier in the year. And, you know, we committed to wearing our final choices for a month straight. And I've had it on a few days and it's kind of that time of year. We've talked about this where summer comes and... I kind of don't feel like picking out watches every day. I just, you know, it's just nice to, you know, run with what you brought as they say. And I, I just, um, I don't really think about it much. It's just comfortable and kind of can do everything. So I think, I think I might just be, I might just go full on, you know, a month starting from a couple of days ago and just, just wear it, you know? Nice.
James Stacey That's great. Yeah. Such a good watch. Rhonda and I hung out just recently at a Tudor event that they did in Toronto for David Beckham. It was literally like the event was essentially to meet David Beckham and get a photo with him if you wanted. But Rhonda and I, we had a couple of canapes and chatted about her book. uh for that evening i i put the i had had my pelagos 39 on the postal canvas yeah and i put it on the rubber and just immediately i was like oh this is uh this is so good it's like coming home yeah i know i love it so much they're so great and uh but for today for today's episode i needed to pick something that i felt really represented the the quirky lovable character we have on the show today with ronda and And so I picked one of my favorite vintage watches, the sort of watch that I think would be a great thing to find at a value village. It is my Buren Minstop, which I got years and years ago from Jordan Litt at Retro Watch Guy. And he even later sourced me a bracelet. And this watch is like mint. It's almost scary to wear outside. I'm terrified of humidity because of it. But I absolutely love this watch. You know, it does highlight... So many of the aspects of a gold watch that I like, where this is gold plaque, it's plated essentially, and I'm sure that it's even lesser on the bracelet. This is an inexpensive watch. But gold case, gold bracelet, gold dial, and some black accents, and I think you just go a really long way. Add in the totally screwball, min-stop... chronograph essentially yes so uh ronda i'm sure you've come across these in the past but for anyone who hasn't or if you don't listen i wrote a story for hodinkee as well which i can include in the show notes but it essentially has this very large aperture which is designed to look something like the uh display from a parking meter apparently apparently that was the inspiration and i've actually seen some of these made by maybe duenya or something like that where it's red the wheel is red and people will swap them out. So I've seen models like this in full gold with a bright red and it's very parking meter at that point. It's very cool. But this is wild because all it is is essentially a second minute hand that's operating on a disc and it's always running and all you do is you reset it when you want to start measuring something. Ideally, I guess that would be you get out of your car to park. You don't have to look at the watch. It's one button, so it's my finest mono pusher chronograph. It's one button. The button's very mushy, but when you get to the very bottom of the travel, the little disc snaps back to zero and it starts running. I think it's a really clever complication, but it is one of those ones that I feel like complications like this never made it out of the quartz crisis. these sort of inexpensive quirky expressions of you know like if there's a chronograph this is several genetic trees down from the chronograph meant to tell you when it was time to put another quarter in the parking meter There's chronographs that have markings for how long a phone call was. Yeah, yeah. Because that would change how much the call costs on a payphone. And I understand why that went away, but I still think there's a world in which someone could create this as a module for a Miota or something like that and make something quite cool. And it is... such a handy and passive way to have something like a chronograph or a stopwatch um and and i love that you never by using it you reset it so it's not like a normal chronograph where you would stop it reset it now you know it's ready for the next thing this is just like oh i got you know chicken fingers in the in the ninja oven i gotta you know whatever right so But yeah, it's a fun one. And I think it kind of captures a vibe that I think kind of aligns with a lot of your tastes and watches, Rhonda.
Rhonda Rich Yes, and now I've got to find one of these. Now I'm going down the rabbit hole.
Jason Heaton I always just think, I brought this up on a past episode, like if someone were to recreate that watch, I just don't understand why some of these, you know, long forgotten old complications can't just be reverse engineered using... you know, some analysis of the movement and creation in CAD software and just spit out of a... I mean, I'm oversimplifying, of course, but I just wonder, like, why... Like, that watch feels like something that... well, I don't know, like you'd see one of these small micro brands just churn out like some funky, you know, weird thing like that. And you'd think they could just do that. But these old complications seem to be difficult as we, I think we were talking about the benthos, you know, which, which according to Rick took years to kind of get the movement recreated. And it's like, why can't these things be just reverse engineered? I just, I don't understand that. I'd love to find out.
Rhonda Rich That'll be my retirement plan is I'll get some CAD. I'll get like a laser printer and all the things that were made once before. Yeah. Just recreate. Until they come and sue me for intellectual property.
Jason Heaton Maybe there's that. Yeah. Somebody owns the rights to that weird movement. Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah, I mean, and that could be the thing, too. It could be one of those things where it went into, like, patent hell. Mm-hmm. And who knows who owns it, and how do you make it, and that sort of thing. But I agree, like, if, you know, to bring up Arkin again and Swiss Chalet crew, and the man who coined dipping soup. Dipping soup. But, like, if Ken can make his own dual-time module... that sits on top of a 9015, I guess, and really doesn't add that much in terms of perceivable, like the Altair one's right behind me, is not that thick of a watch to wear, really. And it has that added feature set. I have to imagine this could be out there somewhere. It also feels like something that would work just fine in a quartz watch. Yeah, true. Where you could just have that instant kind of snap back.
Jason Heaton It's nice. And Rhonda, for your retirement brand, I think you could just call it Swiss Chalet. You know, you could just call the brand Swiss Chalet.
Rhonda Rich Swiss Chalet. The dipping soup.
Jason Heaton James, don't you have a chronograph Swiss? Maybe, you know, chronograph Swiss. Oh, yeah, exactly.
Rhonda Rich You could call it like Swiss Chalet Swiss.
Jason Heaton All right.
James Stacey We're getting really inside baseball here. I like that. Well, look, I think this is a great place to kick off. We've got the wrist check out of the way. So the next place I wanted to go is when we had you on for episode 263 with Jason Gallop, we didn't get to do a lot of like the intro to the world of Ronda as much as we might have because we were focusing on the kind of story at hand. You know, you mentioned in that episode that it was vintage watches that got you interested in watches in general. Why don't you walk us through that sort of origin story?
Rhonda Rich The origin story is, first of all, I had been banned from owning watches when I was little. I took apart my Cinderella watch and couldn't get it back together again. And my mother said, no more watches for you. But, you know, that just made me want them more. So, yeah, I think I was just like hitting up yard sales and thrift shops. And I found Timex that was kind of like a Cartier tank knockoff and wore that all through high school. And then I just. You know, there's like little offshoots. I had, you know, a harebrained scheme where I was making bracelets out of old, broken vintage watch cases and dials. You just, you know, link them all together and you'd have a bracelet made up of. And that was one of my early money-making retirement schemes. sell them at the local craft show at university i also like research i'm always a history buff so i would you know at some point go hey maybe what is this brand like what is this swiss watch what does that mean and so between between the uh being a a research nerd um and then just liking watches and always always needing to have one on no matter but i'm not a but no never was totally snobbish about it either some and then you start finding out oh some of these things do have some history um i would hang out at uh to get um these broken watches i used to hang out at uh old jewelry store and watchmakers um and they would like you know very graciously share their knowledge and they would have boxes of old parts and give to me to make whatever steampunk monstrosity i had in mind And, yeah, you know, they would tell you stuff. I remember the first I ever heard of Universal Genev was there was a guy who ran a pawn shop near where I worked. And I would, you know, go in at lunchtime and he would start advising me about what I should get. And he was like, yeah, Universal Genev, you should, you know, buy these whenever you see them. They were like they were high up there and now they're forgotten. And this would have been in like the early 2000s.
James Stacey So pre-internet watches, really.
Rhonda Rich Yeah.
James Stacey Yeah.
Rhonda Rich Very cool.
James Stacey And, you know, definitely pre the rise of the Pole Router.
Rhonda Rich Yeah, yeah.
James Stacey Or the second rise of the Pole Router.
Rhonda Rich And there's still lots of things that these guys told me that haven't quite resurfaced yet. You know, like the Anikar Sherpa or the Contiki.
James Stacey Oh, yeah, the Eternos.
Rhonda Rich The Eternas. And, you know, mark my words, there'll be a resurgence for those at some point. Because they were like, you know, super practical. Like my dad was a big read all the Thor, hired all Contiki adventure books. which is another thing I think that got me in my specific dive watch fascination, especially from the 60s and 70s, was, you know, reading those books and watching Jacques Cousteau on TV and all of these, like, cool adventurers. But also kind of, you know, going back into the women's watch thing, that you had people on the – the Calypso. There were women on the Calypso and they had dive watches too, and they were going in the water. So it didn't seem like a, a totally that I would never be able to you know, be an adventure.
Unknown Yeah, sure.
Rhonda Rich Someone told me the other day, it's like, you know, maybe, maybe you could never like, you know, be Jacques Cousteau, but you could have his watch. And so that that's, I think that's what triggered my specific, specific thing of vintage dive watches. Although of course, and I soon found out that the, the gaskets had blown or disintegrated years before they don't go underwater.
James Stacey Well, I'm curious. So that's a great origin story. Do you still have any of those really early watches?
Rhonda Rich I have a few.
James Stacey Do you have that Timex still?
Rhonda Rich No, I keep going back and I'm looking for it again online. I feel like I spend a lot of my hunting for vintage is just recreating my youth.
James Stacey Sure. Yeah, I mean, I think that's how it goes for a lot of us, right? If you want to know what's coming next, just look at what the next group of people who have money liked when they were in high school. Those cars will be worth a lot of money for the next five years. There's always that sort of thing. And I think Bring a Trailer has proven that. And I know you're a very prolific thrifter. It's one of my favorite things that you put on the internet. It's very charming. And it's great because my wife is also, she can't help herself. You know, Value Village is her happy place. And it's where she goes to just kind of kick back and, you know, be on her own and that sort of thing. And it's great. If you were to compare like the value of the hunt to the value of the watch that you eventually find, how do you balance that in your mind?
Rhonda Rich Yeah, it's, I'm sure... If I looked at it logically, did a spreadsheet of how much time I spent looking for certain things and... You know, I don't know if thrifting is saving me any money. I could have just gone to, you know, Eric Wind and bought the thing that I was looking for in the first place. But I do. But yeah, the thrill of the hunt. My friend Sarah and I go out on these thrift, you know, like a safari. We'll go out and like hit like five or six places.
James Stacey For expedition.
Rhonda Rich Expedition, yes. And, you know, sometimes you kind of, you can manifest like the thing you want. I know it sounds a little goopy, but yeah.
James Stacey No, I think Sarah would say the same thing.
Rhonda Rich Yeah. It's just like, you were thinking about this. I got a Boucheron for like no money.
James Stacey Wow.
Rhonda Rich Because just after they announced the Boucheron sale, I've had a few before and, you know, traded them, but. yeah it was just like this that feeling that you know you almost feel like you're robbing the place when you you pick up like i've got zeniths and stuff and like you feel like they're gonna catch me the cops will be after me i've i've got such a great great watch and they didn't know what it was worth and you know you you try to be cool
Jason Heaton Well, that was the scenario with that 1954 Navitimer that I have. It wasn't my find, unfortunately, but the guy that I bought it from got it for $5 at a thrift store. Wow. It ran great. But I'm curious, Rhonda, so your thrifting, is it strictly watch-focused, or are you also looking for other things, too?
Rhonda Rich I look for art. I got a lovely, uh, uh, print by the Canadian artist, uh, David Blackwood, um, last two weeks ago. Um, but it was, yeah, it was just like, it wasn't his normal style, but, uh, definitely like one I've always wanted to get because he's, my dad's from Newfoundland, this artist from Newfoundland. My dad had prints of his work. Like he'd gone to, uh, um, an art, a gallery show that they had bought, like brought home the poster from the show and had it hanging up in our, in our basement in the rec room. And so, yeah, it was like, but it was such a weird, again, it's that weird confluence. I'd been thinking of my dad that day because, you know, the spring when. The apple blossoms and the little petals are falling off the tree. And so that always reminds me of my dad. And yeah, it just felt like a communication or something that it was meant to be after. And I've been looking for one. I keep telling people if I'm going to one day, I'm going to find a David Blackwood print in the Valley Village and that that will be it. Then I won't have to do it any do it anymore. But I will.
Jason Heaton So this Value Village you guys are talking about, is this a chain of stores that are all secondhand stores?
Rhonda Rich Yeah, it's like Savers. It's the Canadian version of Savers. Okay, okay.
Jason Heaton And do you kind of have a regular circuit that you visit like once a week and you visit five different stores?
Rhonda Rich It's kind of weird because it's kind of like a fishing thing. It's like I try not to... Oh, yeah, you don't want to give up your spot at all.
James Stacey No, no, no.
Rhonda Rich So... It's like you have to visit each one on a certain regularity, but you can't go too, too often. So once a week, I was trying actually not to go to the value villages, because I'm just trying not to bring stuff home. Yeah, we split as soon as we get to the store. We go our separate ways. And I know that there's a word for it, like when you're farming or fishing, that you have your areas and you... Almost, not seed them, but you let them go for a week. But check it out. Check your nets.
James Stacey Yeah, right.
Rhonda Rich See how things are going.
James Stacey Yeah. It's a full on hobby.
Rhonda Rich Yeah.
James Stacey When Sarah's not thrifting, like not actively thrifting or deciding, you know, what baby needs to leave our house to make room for other stuff, that sort of thing. She watches YouTube videos of like other even Toronto based people going to other value villages and that sort of thing. It's great.
Rhonda Rich So that makes me mad because I see something. Why didn't go in that day?
James Stacey I think, yeah, I think she's had those feelings as well, for sure. You know, sticking with the watches for the moment, you know, you've been interested, you know, you were talking about kind of early 2000s, getting into UG and that sort of thing.
Rhonda Rich Yeah, yeah.
James Stacey You know, I'm curious with, you know, like Jason and I have been doing this for a similar-ish amount of time. And like, I just feel like I have an entirely different perspective. Yeah. on watches every five or six years and some of that's shaped by the media of watches and some of it's shaped by just getting to know more about them as you go. Are there kind of any major milestones for you in how you developed your taste for watches?
Rhonda Rich Well, I guess the first thing was getting to know watchmakers and, you know, making friends with, you know, these old school watchmaker jewelry store guys. Because they're very... very free and willing to share their knowledge. The other thing would be the forums. There were some great people on forums before you had so many watch sites.
James Stacey What was your forum back in the day?
Rhonda Rich The Omega Vintage forums.
James Stacey I was a big poor man's watch forum, if you remember that one. That was really my start.
Rhonda Rich Yes, the Omega one, the moderator was from Australia, and I unfortunately can't remember his name, but he was like... Sometimes people would come at you. I remember I found a vintage Omega Geneve, just like a tiny ladies watch at the Value Village. And so I was so excited and took a picture and put it up there. A bunch of people kind of came after me because they were like, it's not vintage, it's from the 80s. And the moderator goes, I'm sorry, but if it's 20 years old, it's vintage. And yeah, I just, I guess, made them feel old.
James Stacey We can't be doing that on the internet.
Rhonda Rich But yeah, they're very helpful. Like, you know, I had, I had plenty of dumb questions that they were patiently answered and, you know, hooked me up with, you know, in the old days when you could just write to Omega with the, your serial number and they would send you an extraction for free. I guess if you're a watch nerd or whatever, you're keen to share your knowledge. And so, yeah, the forums, then just the full-on internet, like when Google searches got good, that, yeah, you could find out so much information, old ads. I'm still finding out about people that I never, like with the book, it's, it's far from an exhaustive account about women in watchmaking or women's watches. Cause there's just so much out there. And I'm still finding out things. I, I got a, my friend gave me a vintage Wittenauer a couple of weeks ago. Oh, very nice. And. I thought I knew what Wittenauer was, that they had kind of like, they were just an oft-sold brand, mid-price sort of thing. They had some cool watches, but I didn't really know the history of the brand so much. So, yeah, I fell into a very satisfying and deep hole that I could still probably have a lot more. But, you know, they had like, you know, again, and the role of women in the companies, which to me is also exciting because it's not that I need to have a woman's story in every watch that I own, but I'm always excited when I do.
James Stacey For sure. And I mean, look, that's the peg for the new book. And to my understanding, you have two previous books?
Rhonda Rich I have one previous book that is on interior design. It's about 10 years ago, my friends and I had a website called Covet Garden, in which also the concept was that you walk past people's houses and you look in the window. And you go, oh, that's cool. And then, so we would just like, you know, kind of, it was like, we're knocking on the door, asking those people if we could come in and talk about their, their spaces and their stuff. Um, and some, you know, on occasion, sometimes we talk about watches too, because I was already, I was already in, into that. It was just, uh, and, but, you know, both things in form, like I still love interior design and furniture and the way people put things together.
James Stacey And what was like that for the first step to the new book? What put you on the path to put this book together?
Rhonda Rich Yeah, so we, you know, doing the first one was very, because we kind of, we had a publisher, but we basically did everything ourselves. And it, you know, it was very exhausting and kind of... Again, we didn't lose money. So we were already 80% ahead of most authors. But it was, you know, it was also pretty exhausting. So I hadn't really pursued any other book writing. And then Tenoyas contacted me and they wanted to do a book on women's watches. And they asked if I was interested. And I was like, yes, please. So it kind of came up quickly. You know, from start to finish, it was probably a year. But there was also like, you know, four months of not doing anything well.
James Stacey Of waiting for feedback or yeah.
Rhonda Rich Because it is such a wide ranging book, you don't want to repeat yourself too much. There's chapters that got left out that maybe can be revisited if there's a volume two.
Jason Heaton Did you have pretty free reign when it came to, like, I'm guessing you outlined however many chapters are in it. And did you have to run that by an editor or the publisher before? Or did they say, whatever you want to write about, you know?
Rhonda Rich Yeah, they did have, like, somewhat of an outline. Like, when they came to me with the proposal, it was like, we want to do a book on women's watches, but we want to be a little different that it's not... Like we have chapters, interviews with people about, you know, how to how to buy a watch. So, yeah, which is that was totally up my alley. So, you know, they had like, again, Jackie Kennedy was something they want to do. And they already had the idea of having the Bulgari Serpenti on the covers. We had to talk about that for sure. But I would have anyway.
James Stacey It's a wild watch for sure.
Rhonda Rich Yes, because it does like it. It breaks out of. all whatever conventions of watch making and that women's watches. Yeah. They, you know, we got to talk about how they guys wear them now. So, you know, just the whole evolution of what, what is watch. Yeah. Going way back. Like in, I tried to find like the earliest. timekeeping that and it was like apparently this stick that they found it was like to keep track of all the the tides and and things oh wow okay um and then some anthropologists figured out that oh a woman must have done this a because it's decorated and b because you know women kept you know They just kept track of the tides. In different cultures, that was their thing. Oh, yeah, women have always been time keepers. But that's the fun part of the book. It is kind of free-ranging. It's not comprehensive, scholarly thing. It's just like, here are moments in time. Mm-hmm. and how women intersect with it. So, you know, like the whole idea of the Chatelaine, you know, the woman who was running the household would carry this thing around that had all the, amongst other things, the keys to wind all the clocks and keep your household running.
James Stacey Household official timekeeper. It's an important task.
Rhonda Rich Yes.
Jason Heaton Maybe this is something that shows up in the book or that you know or learned or you can correct me, but I remember reading a long time ago that in the early part of the 20th century, pocket watches were the thing, but well before that. But then wristlets were the domain of women. Women were the first ones to start wearing wristwatches until World War I when it just wasn't practical for soldiers to be carrying pocket watches. And so then it... then it became a man's thing to also wear watches, but, but women were the first to wear wristwatches. Is that right?
Rhonda Rich Yeah, that's correct. Um, they like really early on, I think there was one, a, a bregget, of course. Um, you know, I don't, I don't know if it totally counts. Yeah. More wristlet than wristwatch, but you know, like a, almost like a charm watch that'd be hanging off your wrist. But yeah, there was, I, one of the stories in there is, uh, you know, the, uh, converting trench watches into wristwatches for, you know, during World War II, because it was impractical to pull something out of your vest. So there was this, I think, Hermes, one of the founders' daughter or granddaughter was like, hey, why don't you just make a little leather pouch you can put the pocket watch in and tie it to your wrist? Because you'd see, I guess, people floundering around trying to work this. Like, hey, we've got this totally practical wrist system. You should try it out. It's, you know, yeah, it was just, I guess, convincing people that it was manly to wear a watch on your wrist. And now here we are.
James Stacey You know, when we chatted at the Tudor party last week about having you on the show, you mentioned some pretty like, not to be too presumptuous here for Jason, but kind of like TGN coded adventurous women and their watches. And we're talking everything from like some that I knew, Sylvia Earle. We've featured her audio on the show before, and she's certainly an absolute hero. But even like Farrah Fawcett and Raquel Welsh. Yes, yes. You want to get into a couple of your highlights for those stories? I think people would really kind of dig into some of this.
Rhonda Rich Oh, yes. Because one thing about liking the history of watches is going through old ads. And in a movie called Fathom, it's, I'm sure, a terrible, terrible movie. But beautiful watch. And yeah, she was, you know, they had lots of old press photos of her. you know fathom representing diving obviously with some i guess build is i've never seen it and i don't love watches that much i think to want to to want to i can tell you the the opening few frames of the trailer for 1967's fathom yes
James Stacey Not sure it would fly today. No.
Rhonda Rich I think it was just like any kind of actual practical diving is just wearing ripped bait like a scuba suit.
James Stacey I'm pretty sure the VO just listed Raquel Welch's measurements.
Rhonda Rich Yes.
James Stacey I'm not even sure I can keep watching this.
Rhonda Rich No, it's not good.
James Stacey It's a tough look, guys. But it sounds like the watch is cool.
Jason Heaton Strange choice, though, for a movie called Fathom about diving if it's a Navitimer, which has like zero water resistance.
Rhonda Rich Sorry, I apologize. It's a Breitling co-pilot chronograph.
Jason Heaton Oh, okay.
Rhonda Rich But still not very, it just looked cool, I guess. And that's the same with the Farrah Fawcett, the lip that she's wearing. Oh, that's right. It was a lip. Yeah, it was like one of those Roger Talon designed chronographs. It's not the super famous Farrah Fawcett poster where she's, you know, the red bathing suit, but it is. And so, you know, again, I thought, this is silly. Why is she wearing this, you know? But apparently, you know, that chronograph has a fairly decent water resistance.
James Stacey I feel like the big side buttons would also work with a dive glove.
Rhonda Rich Yes.
James Stacey They are cool watches, those lip chronos.
Rhonda Rich I know I want.
James Stacey Great use of primary colors and all that kind of stuff.
Rhonda Rich I definitely want one of those. I actually, I know a guy who has one, but he wants too much money for it. We will, we will, the detente will end hopefully soon because he still has it and it's been a year.
James Stacey It's always good to have a few negotiations ongoing.
Rhonda Rich Yes.
James Stacey Play the long game, for sure.
Rhonda Rich That poster is from the movie Sunburn. She's also wearing a scuba diving suit. Well, a very high cut. She's wearing part of a wetsuit. She's not wearing a whole wetsuit. It's been shredded down to nothing. But yeah, there's those pop cultural things that were very cool. I'm sure it's the same as seeing a picture of Sean Connery with his Rolex or the later Omegas. But movies, it's highly impressionable on a young mind, even if they're terrible movies.
James Stacey Look, I mean, just from this image, and maybe it's the lip thing in the asymmetrical chronograph, but I get Sigourney Weaver in Aliens sort of vibes from this. I mean, she's one of the greatest to have ever done it, for sure. But yeah, it is really genuinely an exciting thing when those two things come together, kind of an actor or actress kind of at a certain prime and a watch that feels right.
Rhonda Rich Yes.
James Stacey And you kind of go like, ah, not only is that a cool choice, it fits the character. And that's, I think, why the Bond thing has always been pretty successful is, you know, the idea of Bond is they cycle a new one in every now and then, hopefully finding somebody right at the right part of their career to be the most interesting, the most culturally relevant, the right age, the rest of it. And at the same time, they stack up a car, a watch, a bunch of weird gadgets, a bunch of the best hotels in the world. So, you know, some great. And then you're like, ah, man, this is good. We've got a whole we're telling the whole story here. And I'm not sure, to be fair, I haven't seen Sunburn or Fathom. I'm not sure that they hit the Bond kind of tone overall. But it is cool to see these watches and to have that footnote. But you listed a few others as well. Obviously, we've got Sylvia Earle and her beloved Rolexes.
Rhonda Rich So there was a Zale Perry had an Ichapod. I don't know if I'm, I never know if I'm pronouncing that right.
James Stacey I think it's Ichapod. I do hear people say Ichapod.
Rhonda Rich Yeah. But, you know, she's very cool.
James Stacey And she was a photographer, correct?
Rhonda Rich So, like, I can see being a photographer, having that connection to Ichapod is...
Jason Heaton makes sense because you're working in a visual thing that you maybe want a non-traditional i thought ikapod was a more modern brand but zale it is dates back to so when was she wearing this ikapod then not in her youth when she was still diving or
Rhonda Rich Yeah, because she's 92 now.
Jason Heaton Oh, okay.
James Stacey So she's been wearing it more recently. Yeah, I was also wondering, like, when did Ichabod even start? Mid-90s? So, yeah, 1994.
Rhonda Rich So it's a Seapod diver watch. There are two versions because she was partnered with her husband, also a diver. So they did two versions. One was the Zale. And then there's another one called the Jacques. They did two versions. So, you know, I don't know how, if she was doing heavy duty diving at the time, but...
James Stacey Still a cool connection for the mid-90s. And I guess that would have been towards not the end of her career, but certainly she would have been established already. And then I wonder, in the book, do you get into how she got the connection to Ichabod, like with Newsome?
Rhonda Rich In the book, we didn't even get into that. This is all for volume two. Oh, fantastic. Fresh stuff, exclusive for you.
Unknown TGN exclusive.
Rhonda Rich Yeah, I would have loved to have gotten to the whole just like, you know, because we did talk about Mercedes Gleitz, who was the first, you know, Rolex testimony. And, you know, swimming across.
James Stacey Fascinating. That's a great story.
Rhonda Rich Oh, yeah. Jesus.
James Stacey Also really pretty well covered on that Acquired Pod episode. Yes. They did a little while ago on Rolex. Those guys covered that as well. But that's a fascinating. you know Rolex is just endlessly interesting because they're so opaque but some of those early moves you you can see these like little breadcrumbs of what they would become yes in the decision and and yeah working with Gleitz who was you know going to swim the English Channel uh wearing an oyster uh is quite a fascinating kind of piece of backstory and just the whole like did they invent marketing at that time because they took like a
Rhonda Rich performance marketing maybe right they basically took out a front page ad of like you know the the the equivalent of the british new york times and um you know talking about how and it wasn't like oh this is a lady swimmer it was just like this woman and she's like a young mother who just decided to and it fits it helped i think their whole uh the adventure part of Rolex's marketing time was born in that moment, but it was still like marketing. They, you know, people don't take ads out on the front page of newspapers very much.
Unknown Cause it's true. Yeah.
Rhonda Rich And it would have been probably a front page story at the time. And, you know, yeah. And just, they, they've, I guess, stuck by her for a long, they, that's the other thing they do is they stick by their ambassadors.
James Stacey Yeah, it seems like a lot of those relationships are quite long-term. Certainly Sylvia Earle is a great example, Federer. I mean, some of these have been with the brand for a very, very long time.
Rhonda Rich Yes, and even if you're not doing stuff anymore, they're still part of the story. And who else was I talking about?
James Stacey Lottie Haas had a cool...
Rhonda Rich Oh, Lottie Haas, yes. The Shark Lady. Yes, which is very cool.
James Stacey Those are exceptionally cool watches, for sure.
Rhonda Rich And that, you know, and she's like just a cool, like, that's the other thing. A lot of these women have, you know, like photographer, diver, diver, diver, swimmer, shark lady, like just environmentalist.
James Stacey Yeah, Lottie Haas for people who don't know the name immediately. German or Austrian?
Rhonda Rich I think Austrian.
James Stacey Photographer, model, diver, pretty cool person. You know, I'm curious when you're going through all of this, are there any stories that made it into the, we'll call it volume one.
Rhonda Rich Yes.
James Stacey That really kind of were brand new and novel to you that really stick out as like when you discovered it, you were like very excited to get to be able to tell the story in the book?
Rhonda Rich Well, one of the discoveries that was, you know, brand new to me, and it's, you know, again, you always feel a little ignorant that you didn't, that you are just discovering it now. But I do like finding out new things. And so one of the stories that I really liked was the story of Terrell Diddesheim. Omega Trap tapped her to redesign the constellation, which is obviously one of their most... iconic. I hate using that word. One of their best, best known models, but you know, it was the quartz crisis and they wanted to tap into something younger and newer. Part of the quartz crisis is like some of it was quartz was good. You can make much thinner watches, much lighter watches. And so they were making and like really precise and accurate watches. It wasn't until you got the really cheap quartz coming up against the
James Stacey Yeah, the original identity was much more like convenience, tech forward. It was very much of the moment and it was something people were quite excited about. It wasn't just that it was less expensive or less work to create necessarily.
Rhonda Rich Yes. So I guess when, you know, as part of that, trying to revive the constellation, they hired this Carol Dittesheim, a woman, she's 26, straight out of the Geneva School of Decorative Arts. And, uh, yeah, they gave her the job of rebuilding this watch around the, the ultra thin quartz movement. So, you know, that's with the, the little griefs they have on the side of the constellation now. Yeah. I think that's griefs is the proper thing, but yeah, it was, uh, I didn't know that was the official term. Yeah. I've learned. That's the other thing I learn new stuff every day.
James Stacey There's a term for everything in this industry. That's probably sometimes four or five for the same thing.
Rhonda Rich Yes. The loss of the watch world is she, you know, left and just focused on jewelry design after that. But like just that kind of a young woman taking this classic watch from the 50s. Reinventing it for that moment in time of the 90s or the 80s. And it's still, her signature is still on it today.
James Stacey Yeah, that's great, and definitely a good example of kind of the tidbits you can find in the book. Mine, I need to be very clear, my copy is in the mail. Yes. But that brings us to a very important point. If someone would like to discover your book, where's the best possible spot for them to order it, or do you have any recommendations? Is there a homepage that would take people to their local links? Is it the kind of thing you might be able to find at your local store, or if you're here in Canada, Chapters and Indigo, that sort of thing?
Rhonda Rich Yes, you can get it through Amazon. You can get it through chapters Indigo and Canada. I think basically any of your big online book retailers you can order it from. You can go to the Tenoyas website, T-E-N-E-U-E-S dot com, and they have links to different, like if you're in Europe or places like that, they have some more links. But also to promote your local bookstore, you can go to any of your local independent bookstores and ask them to order it for you.
James Stacey There you go. And you would be asking for The Wonderful World of Women's Watches, Beauty Beyond Time. That's great. And if anybody is interested in following along with you with your work for Watchinista, your prolific stories of thrifting and all of the treasures you find therein, what's the best option? Is it Instagram? Is that kind of your preferred social media?
Rhonda Rich Yeah, that's my jam. So yeah, Instagram, which is at the real Rhonda Rich. Rich spelled R-I-C-H-E. And Rhonda with an H.
James Stacey Great. We will put that in the show notes. It's been an absolute pleasure to have you on to chit-chat about the book.
Rhonda Rich Oh, it's always great to hang out with you guys, as always. Thank you.
James Stacey Congratulations, by the way, for putting the book out. I'm very excited, as is Sarah, to get a copy in. And we were talking about it, too, with the girls, and they're very interested, too, to see some of, you know, the kind of female side of influence in the watch world will be.
Jason Heaton uh quite exciting for them uh are you keen to stay on for some final notes and uh and wrap up the show yes yes all right let's do it jason you want to go first yeah sure i i think this probably is a fairly relevant uh link to to offer um after talking about women's watches with ronda because um Just yesterday, I and I'm sure many other people came across our TGN longtime friend and friend in general, Asha Wagner, featured on Tudor's Instagram in about a one-minute reel in which they highlight her work as a firefighter in Northern California and the fact that she's wearing a Tudor Pelagos 39. Certainly, it's a classic kind of great quality. Rhonda, you talked about it. rolex marketing starting with mercedes glitz um and i you could argue that this is the latest in that long legacy with with tudor a sub-brand of rolex with featuring another strong woman um in their marketing and it's asha kind of in this short really dramatic really well shot great film about her work as a firefighter wearing the pelagos 39 it's it's uh It caught me by surprise. I was not aware this was coming and it was just really cool to like just be looking at Instagram and finding Asha on Tudor's Instagram like front and center. I thought that was really cool. I think it was kind of part of a series they're doing called Daring Jobs, I think. And it said it was number seven in the series. I couldn't find one through six. But it was pretty cool.
Rhonda Rich The thing that differentiated Tudor marketing and Rolex marketing, Rolex had, you know, like people climbing the Mount Everest, but Tudor always had this like people doing really hardcore jobs. Like if you go to 50s Tudor ads, it's like a guy with a jackhammer. Sure. Yeah. So, so yeah, it's a nice extension of that. And also she's amazing. I was, like you said, I was so excited. I didn't know it was coming and I saw the, every, you know, the, the clip showing up on social media and I was just, it was so thrilling.
James Stacey Yeah, I was super pumped. Cole, you know, Cole and I went diving with Asha for a Houdinki pass project for the Road Through America part one on the West Coast several years back. And, you know, Asha is just about as cool a human being as I've ever met. Really lovely person, obviously super talented. And Cole said, you know, we're doing a daring job with Asha. I'll send it to you when it comes out. I said, absolutely. I'm really excited. And I have only one complaint. Where's the seven or eight minute version? Yeah, right. 45 seconds? Yeah. I need way more Asha doing her cool job than that, for sure. But it was an absolute treat to see it. So in a perfect final note, if you hadn't called it out, I definitely would have. I shared it immediately on Instagram. I think it's super cool. So Asha, hope you're listening and hope you're well. And we're just so proud. It's so cool to see you on. And it's so well shot, like so well shot. It looks so cinematic. Yeah. I thought it worked quite well. So if you haven't checked that out, please do for sure. Great, great note. Rhonda, how about you? What have you got for final notes?
Rhonda Rich My final note. So we went, speaking of vintage, we went to see Blamange, an 80s synth pop band on the weekend at a bowling alley in Mississauga. And it's like... You know, they were so good. Everyone needs to rediscover Blamange. They had new, you know, you go sometimes see a band from long ago and they play their hits and then they do some new stuff that nobody is interested in. It was like they redid all the old, old hits in a fresh manner. They had new songs that were like. I'm still, I can't stop thinking of it, basically.
James Stacey That's very cool. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Rhonda Rich Yes, everyone go back and see Blamage and also watch the Asha clip, which...
James Stacey We can certainly link some of that in the show notes for sure. If you have a favorite track or a great YouTube link or something, send it my way and we'll get that in the show notes. Mine this week is actually a return to something I did during university and then gave up at one point, which is maintaining a real to-do list. So I've had an extent, I mean, Jason can attest to this, I'm very scatterbrained these days. There's a lot of work on the plate. And a lot of times it's just there. For me, I find that I'm capable of doing a lot of things, but I have to be able to track it. I have to know what it is that I should be doing or shouldn't be spending my time on or whatever. And, you know, years and years and years ago when I was in university, I was something of an acolyte for this guy, Merlin Mann, who was like, you know, kind of a tech evangelist and a bunch of other hyphenates online in those kind of earlier days of podcasts and the rest of it. And he had this thing, which I believe that the overall nickname or at least the name I remember was a hipster PDA. So if you remember personal data assistance, I think is what they used to be called, like Palm Pilots and that kind of thing. So it's that concept of being able to have essentially files for various aspects of your life that have things. that need doing and and so i was able to dig around and and i found it on amazon but it's essentially an index card i'll hold it up to the screen here very simple index card and on the back you've got spots for like drawings and other stuff but the idea is it it follows loosely i think since then the system has been called like gtd get things done um but you carry a stack of these and a bull clip And that's my to-do list. I've got a card for my cottage. I've got a card for my family. I've got a card for TGN. I've got a card for my normal work and that sort of thing. And, you know, that plus, you know, a tactile turn pen, which I can't put this thing down. I just adore it. And also to everybody on the Slack who wants us to make a tactile turn pen. We will. I'm more than happy to do it, but I need a show of force. If you would be interested in what would probably be like a $100 to $150 really nice pen, go to Substack and like this post. Like the story for this one. I know what normal likes we would get. and I'll factor in the increase. I'm more than happy to talk to our friends at Tactile Turn. Ed's very active on the Slack. Shout out Ed, by the way. That's a deviation, but nevertheless, I picked up a stack of these cards on Amazon, and I think it's actually working. I feel like I'm able to hold more of the plates in the air and really decide what's a priority and what isn't. So if you feel a little overwhelmed, or like me, you got kind of tired of just constantly having your phone in your hand when you just needed to see your to-do list. And then you, you end up on Instagram and then I'm watching Rhonda's reels. I'm not working. Uh, you know, I'm, I'm lost in the sauce as they say, uh, this keeps me a little bit more focused and a little bit less on, on the screen that may be valuable to you, or you might be laughing at me as a, nearly 40-year-old man who's now carrying cue cards with all the stuff he needs to get done. But hey, I can remember to cut the grass. I can't always remember which emails I have to get to today versus other stuff. So I find that quite helpful. And that would be my final note for the... For the list, they're called notes to do list index cards. I'm sure there's other options. And if you can find them at a local bookstore, maybe you go to get Rhonda's book and they've got a, you know, a stationary section and you could get one. But it's basically just something simple enough where you can write them down. They're heavy enough that they don't like disintegrate in a pocket or by being pulled in and out all the time. And then I carry a couple spares in case I've got to open a new file for something else. But I would say we're working on it, but it's working.
Rhonda Rich I'm going to try it because I have my to-do list on my phone.
James Stacey Yeah, I've been using Todoist for years. I think I've talked about it on the show before. And it's nice to organize stuff, but like I said, I don't know, maybe it's just the ADHD. Maybe you guys don't have this, but like... I'll know that I need to go say like, oh, prep TGN 332 for next week and block some time for that. And that's what I want to go in and type. And I go in and I have a text message and I go, oh, that's interesting. That text message is telling me that somebody put something on Instagram and now I'm on Instagram. Now I didn't put the thing in and I forget it. And if I don't, if I just go to the paper, the only thing I can do here is write down what I need to do. So it has a built-in, you know, kind of benefit to my attention span as well.
Jason Heaton Yeah, I think just capturing, when you have a lot of stuff floating around in your head, just getting it down somewhere. And I find that paper, I have a little notebook, does kind of a similar thing for me. It really makes a difference to just see it. I think the physical act of writing it, it does something mentally that maybe... reinforces something, actually writing something out. So yeah, that's a good one.
James Stacey Well, look, three good final notes and an absolutely fantastic guest. Rhonda, we couldn't be more happy to have you on the show. Can't wait to see you whenever we cross paths again, but certainly let's figure out some Swiss Chalet for the Toronto Timepiece show again. Or maybe we have to take Ken somewhere else.
Rhonda Rich I don't know, some other Canadian institution. Last time I talked to Ken in Vancouver, he is still, I think he's had his... His fill of dipping soup.
James Stacey Dipping soup, yeah. All right. Well, maybe it's A&W. I'm trying to think, like, would the keg be another option? Like, what's a uniquely served Canadian? The haunted keg. I don't think there's much on the menu that Jason would love at the keg.
Rhonda Rich No. But it's got ghosts.
James Stacey It's a steakhouse. Yeah, there you go. All right. But this is great. So 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 consider supporting the show directly. Maybe even grab yourself a new TGN signed NATO. Please visit thegraynato.com. Music Throat is Siesta by Jazzar via the Free Music Archive. And we will leave you with this quote brought to us by Rhonda.
Rhonda Rich It's a quote from a poem by Eli Silvestre. And it says, I am a museum of everything that I've loved.