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The Grey NATO – 397 – Huiy Tang of RZE Watches

Published on Thu, 29 Oct 2026 06:00:00 -0400

Synopsis

In this episode of The Grey Nato (397), hosts James Stacy and Jason Heaton discuss their recent activities, including James's press check trip to Vancouver for Hodinkee magazine and Jason's road trip in a surprisingly fuel-efficient Prius. They spend considerable time with Huey Tang from RZE Watches, discussing his journey from vintage watch collecting influenced by his father (a Cambodian refugee) to co-founding RZE. The conversation covers RZE's commitment to titanium watches with their Ultrahex coating, their innovative "re-verified" program for watch sustainability, and the development of their own digital watch module (the 8080) that powers both RZE watches and their new sister brand, Vostra.

The discussion expands beyond watches into broader topics of personal style, fashion, and taste development. Huey shares insights about creating accessible yet high-quality products, with RZE's digital watches ranging from $119 (Vostra in bioresin) to $399 (premium CeraKote versions). The episode concludes with practical final notes: Jason recommends PTCOL work gloves with touchscreen compatibility, while James highlights the Rubyvon Aurora A5 flashlight, a feature-rich $35 light with magnetic mounting and photoluminescent body.

Show Notes

Transcript

Speaker
Jason Heaton 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 397, and it's proudly brought to you by the always-growing TGN supporter crew. We thank you all so much for your continued support. And if you'd like to support the show, please visit thegreynato.com for more details. My name is Jason Heaton, and I'm joined as ever by my friend and co-host James Stacy, who joins us from the Pacific Northwest. James, how's Vancouver? It's good.
James Stacy Yeah, it's uh an early start here. I'm at the printers for press checks for the Hodinkee magazine. Uh, but things are going really well, and it's always a treat to be here. It's uh kind of a quick trip. I got in uh Monday morning, I head out on Thursday, uh and it's a few just kind of long days at the printer. You basically see every page uh to be able to take a look at how it's printing and and how those are coming together and that sort of thing. But if my voice sounds a little beat up is just I just don't really know what time it is currently.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Wow. Jeez, that's only eight o'clock there by my by my calculation here. So you and you've already been on the on the on the job for a while there. So yeah. Yeah,
James Stacy a few hours in. It's the it they're weirdly long days, but you gotta see every page to make sure the color's correct and that sort of thing.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Uh before it goes into final printing.
James Stacy So that's always good. Um but yeah, other than that, I haven't been up to a ton.
Jason Heaton I got back from watch week and was kind of laying low.
James Stacy had some really fun family stuff go on this weekend, which is why I uh delayed and came out Monday instead of uh instead of Sunday. Oh, and then I guess the and the other thing before we get into your road trip I would say just stay tuned to your feeds.
Jason Heaton Yeah. I don't want to I don't want to necessarily overstate
James Stacy anything or give anything away. Um, but there might be a little surprise coming. So if if that's something you'd be keen on, uh just watch the feeds. Uh we've been working on something fun with it. So uh Jason, what have you been up to since uh since we last chatted?
Jason Heaton Yeah, I like like you, I'm just having a hard time recalling, you know, when we last chatted and and what I've been up to. Um last week felt like kind of a busy week. I I think I had something going on every day and and two of those days were were taken up with uh with a kind of a short road trip that I went over to eastern side of Wisconsin, about a four and a half hour drive to uh to visit my folks who live over there now. And uh that was nice. The weather was good and it was good to catch up with them. I hadn't seen them for gosh ten months or so. So um good to good to catch up and saw my sister as well. And uh it was great. You know, I'm I'm not m one to to wax poetic about vehicles other than my Land Rovers, but I I took our our twenty twenty eighteen Prius on this drive um just for comfort and some Bluetooth and some good gas mileage and uh i have to say, you know, I I've kind of become a bit of a convert. Um you know, you get these there's this so discipline called like high milers who who like try to get the maximum maximum miles per gallon out of their cars. And I I'm not one of those people, but it is fun to watch the calculation on the dashboard creep up and I got fifty seven miles per gallon on that trip, which is just I I mean, for someone who you know, drives old Land Rovers that, you know, the the Defender being a turbo diesel with a small engine gets, you know, twenty-five, twenty-six, which I consider pretty good for a a truck like that, but uh nothing close to fifty-seven. I mean it was just just crazy good. So I was pleased about that.
James Stacy That's great. Yeah. I I you know over the years back in the day the I remember they did a couple different of the ultra mile or the high miler sort of challenges on top gear.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Where they had to, you know, they brimmed
James Stacy the tank and then the drive was longer than the range of any of the vehicles and they had to see who could kind of stretch it to get there.
Jason Heaton Yeah. And I
James Stacy it's it's an entertaining premise and I kind of like hearing how it went for you. I do not have the mentality. It's like how quickly could I get there if I you know if it didn't matter about the fuel.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um but that said I've I've
James Stacy never really owned anything where the number was high enough to be entertaining.
Jason Heaton I I can claim no credit for that good of uh gas mileage because I you know I just set the crews at seventy-five and and just you know listened to my audio book the whole way and uh yeah it was uh it was it was pretty remarkable. And I I I feel like I got some feedback or maybe it was on Slack or somewhere that somebody commented like, I don't want to hear about Priuses. So I apologies to anyone that that is you know a Prius hater, but uh I will offset that with uh some other updates and that I I did a fair bit of uh Land Rover kind of autumn maintenance here over the past week as well. Uh I I took the grease gun underneath and I I lubed the uh the U joints on the prop shafts and uh and checked uh you know checked all the fluids um in both uh both the Land Rovers so there and did some kind of I guess what I consider corrosion mitigation on the on the chassis of both. I you know, scrape off any loose rust and spray it with uh kind of a rust converter and then and then paint over it. So it's you know, I don't typically drive the series three in the winter um much, um but uh the defender gets a fair bit of use and so good to kind of keep ahead of that and make it last as long as I can. So that was uh got up to that. Yeah. And then also I guess in prep of winter I also set up uh I got the water rower. You know, I moved over the past uh few months and and I finally got the the water rower set up uh in the corner of my office here for uh for foul weather training. Um and I jumped on it yesterday. It was kind of a cold, rainy day and it felt good to do some rowing. So yeah, that's all
James Stacy I was just uh I was just looking at mine, which lives sort sort of in vertical uh around a quarter so I don't have to look at it that often. But uh I I was thinking I should maybe consider doing the same thing. We're right on the edge of like walking pad season for me coming back.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Where it's either, you know, I don't
James Stacy I don't mind when you're kind of out just before dawn.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm uh and it, you know, you're out for a nice
James Stacy walk and it and the sun comes up while you're out or something like that. But it's a whole different thing where the whole walk is just in the dark.
Jason Heaton Oh yeah. I know. So I'm I might have
James Stacy the uh have have the need to to get that started. Certainly now with now we're looking down the barrel of uh of November. Uh but look before we jump into some wrist check, I'm curious what was what was the the audio book for the drive?
Jason Heaton Oh, I'm just finishing up the latest David McCloskey um spy thriller called London Station. Okay. Um he's uh he's written a number of books. I think his uh he did one called Damascus Station and uh the other name escapes me but I've read a couple more of his and he's so yeah, I can go off on a bit of a tangent because McCloskey is um you know, a lot of people I've seen in the slack enjoy his his writing. and it it's's great. There's some recurring characters from previous uh novels of his and he definitely writes from authority. He is a former CIA officer and um he co-hosts a a really entertaining podcast too called The Rest is Classified, which people might be familiar with. And he co-hosts it with uh a British guy whose name escapes me. But he um uh they covered all sorts of interesting topics. They had a kind of an interesting two-part episode on the Nord Stream uh pipeline sabotage and uh and they're they're they're they're it they're they're good and they both speak from some authority and and he's he's quite good. So it was a good good book to dig into for the I guess nine hours of round trip uh driving that I had and I'm I'm just finishing up. I've got about an hour left that I'll kill on the next couple of dog walks. But good stuff.
James Stacy Yeah, very good. Yeah. Well with that in mind, let's uh let's jump into a little bit of risk check. Uh what what are you wearing this uh end of October sort of week.
Jason Heaton Yeah, well you talked about uh we teased our titanium talk and um I'm wearing titanium. I've got my FXD on wrist. Um I'm wearing it on I guess I'm not even sure where the strap came from, just I felt like wearing a black NATO today, so I put it on a black NATO um that I had kicking around. And you know, it's I just I this morning I found myself like browsing strap websites. I mean, I've got so many straps, especially like for this watch too. Like you're limited by pass through or or NATOs and yet I'm always just looking for that next one that's gonna be just the just the chef's kiss uh strap for this watch and um you know kind of went down some rabbit holes there and ended up not making any decisions but uh yeah so that's what I've got on
James Stacy the it's funny I do the same thing with straps and I think I think I've come to the point where there's kind of three categories, if that makes sense. There's like the $10 ones from Amazon.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. And sometimes those are all I need.
James Stacy For the trip to Vancouver, I also brought my Doxa LE, the sub 200 Army, and on that I have it on the like ten dollar strap from Amazon and I really like it. And then on the other side of the spectrum, the ones that stay that I keep a long time, they're custom.
Jason Heaton Oh sure. And in the middle would be the anything
James Stacy pretty much I just the the stuff that I've bought. And to be fair, they've given me a strap or two over the years. But anything from Watch of Espionage, like if if it suits your style, like I like their the five eye NATO and I like the um the cat strap a lot.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. Um but other than that, a lot of the stuff at like
James Stacy more the top the higher end of the price point, it's stuff that we I made custom, postal or or you know, a leather strap that that somebody made for me over the years. And th those seem to stick a little bit better than some of the others.
Jason Heaton Yeah, it's true. And I I I keep meaning to organize my collection of straps a little bit better and and maybe do a bit of a purge because I I you know I end up looking for I think oh do I have that one twenty two millimeter, you know, certain shade of whatever with a stripe and then I'll you know, they're all just in this snake's nest of, you know, a a box or a a big ziploc bag and I end up just dumping it out of my desk and that takes, you know, fifteen minutes to find the one that I wanted and whatever. So yeah, it's you know the struggle is real as we all know. So
James Stacy oh for sure. Yeah, absolutely. And what uh
Jason Heaton what did you bring besides the Doxa?
James Stacy So I'm today I'm wearing the Halios C4th Rolldorf L E. So I got this back in 2018. It's not one I talk about a ton, but it's one of my most like sentimental watches.
Jason Heaton Mm-hmm. So there's a little
James Stacy project between Rolldorf and Halios. Roldorf being the retailer, Jason Gallup' ons been the show many times, and then of course Halios Watches is pretty well known. They did a sterile bezel special dial version of the C-Forth with a sort of dark metallic green sector dial with like a cream center, kind of like a tuxedo sector dial. And then mine is in a uh DLC black case and then they they used a a higher grade uh EDA movement at the time
Jason Heaton uh just to try and make like something kind of special and
James Stacy they were all assembled and adjusted by uh Rolldorf uh in Vancouver. Um and it's it's one of the ones like if I'm coming back, especially like this time of year in Vancouver is kind of like the perfect type of dreary for me. It's kind of cloudy, but it's not raining. It's cool, but it's not cold.
Jason Heaton I I love it. And this watch really suits
James Stacy it and I've got it on that. The RDX strap with the titanium hardware. It's called like hyper therm or hyp I don't remember what it's called and I can't find it on their website at the moment, so they may not be selling it anymore. But it's that black so it's all like it's a very dark gray rather than black. I don't wear a lot of black.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But this being a black case watch,
James Stacy I like it on either a tan nado or this uh this RDX uh strap. I'll I'll put a link to their straps in the in the web in the in the show notes but uh that that's what I've been wearing. It's kind of like my Vancouver watch to some extent and then I brought the docs to just to show folks as as I see them while I'm here.
Jason Heaton Yeah, nice. What uh what plans do you have? Are you gonna see the Jasons while you're out there?
James Stacy Hoping to see the Jasons, hoping to see the Jasons and a little crew of folks that that kind of pinged me when I had mentioned in Toronto that I would be out uh later this year and uh and so hopefully it all depends on how long things take at press check. There's like there's a non zero chance that things take longer and I'm here through tomorrow evening and I I you know, maybe I can catch a beer at the end of the night before an early flight the next day to get back to Toronto. Um but ideally, you know, we're we have a a normal work day tomorrow and then I have my evening to kick around. I'd like to get to thirty three acres. I'd like to obviously gotta get to Roldorf. Wouldn't mind swinging by uh revolver and seeing Terry if he's about um it's you n there's never quite enough time here. I I need to get into a mode of it needs to be more like quarterly that I find an excuse to come back.
Jason Heaton Uh, you know, certainly we've got the the timepiece
James Stacy show, but it's it's nice to be back in general. So yeah, got a few plans on the horizon and then uh jump on a plane home Thursday evening and uh and then yeah just back back into the sort of normal grind have a little bit more travel coming up but that's for more for stories than than just general support like I'm doing this week.
Jason Heaton Yeah, cool. Nice. Yeah glad you glad you got to make a trip out there. Um it's a shame you can't uh tag on a day or two and get a hike in or something like that. But uh
James Stacy we might make it out to uh there's a possibility of a field trip to Lynn Canyon today. Matt, who I'm out here with, our creative director from Hodinkee hasn't been.
Jason Heaton Uh and we thought it might be fun, especially sometimes
James Stacy there's like a two hour wait between one plate being approved and the next one being prepped.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um, and if that's the case, that's probably
James Stacy just enough time to drive out there to do a forty-five minute little walk So we might we might try and do that this afternoon because the weather's looking okay.
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's great. But look, we've got kind of a fun episode
James Stacy today. It's uh we don't commonly do big extended sort of chats, but I've I've gotten to know uh this guy, Huey Tang from RZE. Many of you know him, many of you know RZE's watches, and then Hugh is also on the potluck episode we did this year. So we did five, six minutes with Huey on stage in in Toronto, and I just thought I gotta get this guy on for a longer chat. We've had a lot of fun phone calls over the last few months, uh kind of dreaming and scheming about different things. And uh and so yeah, let's let's jump into that chat with Huey. If you've been to a watch show in Canada or the in the U.S. in the last few years, there's a good chance you've met Huey or seen him behind a table full of titanium watches. He's one of the people behind RZE and he runs the brand's marketing worldwide. Uh like I said, I met Huey a couple of years ago at the Vancouver Timepiece Show and we just kinda instantly got along. He's a proper nerd. He's into a lot of different things, as you'll get from this chat. And as well as being like a very detail-driven sort of product guy, he's also a bit of a dreamer, which I I quite enjoy. Uh in this chat, we get into the latest developments from RZD, Huey's start in vintage watches via his father, and his renewed interest in fashion, and even what it takes to kind of develop your own personal taste. So let's jump right into it. All right, Huey Tang, an absolute treat to have you on the show. a returning guest because we had you on the potluck episode. I'm really pumped to have like a proper chunk of time to dig into RZE and a bunch of other things. How are you today?
Unknown Yeah, I'm really excited. I was really looking forward to
Huey Tang this. And uh like you said, every time I run into you, it's like we always have a million things to talk about, so it's cool to have a chance to you know really properly catch up.
James Stacy Yeah, it wasn't the easiest thing to keep the potluck to like five to six minutes. I'll try and be focused. You know, that's not my necessarily my skill set here. It's interesting because I I think we met officially in the the Vancouver show two years ago, right?
Huey Tang Yeah, I think so, yeah. Have kind of become kindred
James Stacy spirits. You're one of Edmonton's finest sons, uh which I which I respect as a a a fellow Canadian. Uh why don't you give us the give us your background, kind of the the Huey elevator pitch, uh and maybe maybe bring us up to speed on how that led to RZE.
Huey Tang Yeah, so I was uh, you know, like you said, Edmonton's finest son. I was born and raised here, um, you know, still here, still in Edmonton, still on the Hendaundaiy, Those are common Edmonton things that are talked about. But uh yeah, so I came as a um refugee from Cambodia. Um I was born here, but my parents came as refugees, and then um you know that, actually intertwines nicely into my um watch story as well because like ever since I was young, um, you know, watches were always a part of my father's life and um there's a watch that my dad actually got after the war in a refugee camp from a soldier and it was a rattle watch and um we we share this watch today because uh when I was young I remember he told me about um this instance where he encountered this soldier that had this um watch and had come into the camp and asked if anybody wanted to trade for it. And he knew at the time that rattle watches are scratch proof and made of ceramic, so he told the soldier, you know, if you throw it to the ground and I can stomp it into the ground and kick it down the road and it doesn't scratch, I'll go trade you some bags of rice for it. And like, lo and behold, finds out it's a real watch, kicks it down the road, gets them the bags of rice, brings it to Canada and this is the his elevator pitch to me as to why on a weekend we're going to flea markets or we're looking through the bargain finder um or the newspaper for ads like Swiss watch, 50 bucks. My dad will like drive out and we'll like go and look at these watches or go to pawn shops and stuff. And so that was his side hustle growing up. And that's actually what got me into vintage watches. And so if you look at my personal collection or things I've collected through my childhood or growing up and into my, you know, I guess mature collecting life, it's it's actually primarily vintage. I don't have a a huge love for modern watches, but that kind of actually lends to how I end up being at RZE because as a hobbyist or enthusiast, um I can be excited about something and be excited about the hobby and enjoy it. But when it comes to how I collect, it's going to be a lot different. And so I'd always follow the microbrand market or the independence or, you know, even whole horology and stuff. And we can like just enjoy it, but not necessarily have to to buy it and so um you know I encountered Kirk who you you now know as well um and he's uh was the photographer for um RZE at the time, but he's now our creative director. And we were chatting about what my beliefs about watch collecting were and stuff like that. And he wanted me to talk to our founder, my co-founder now, um Travis, um, about why I don't buy microbrands or independence and stuff. And I explained to him. It's because I feel like some of these things are just a little bit Pinocchio. They're just like a little bit graphic t-shirt. And like I really what I want to get out of a watch is something different, but what I would on want to offer to someone as a watch is also something very different. And so um not to be disparaging or be discouraging, I think there's a place for all of these things. From where I was standing from the outside looking in at the time, or looking in as an enthusiast as opposed to a brand owner, really had a perspective. And so um talking to Travis about that, it was like look, if we work together and like develop a brand and you're interested in developing something that I want to buy, that's looking at something that an enthusiast is going to enjoy, but it's what is the it's a brand for the masses as opposed to just a a niche product.
James Stacy Right. And would you say that you know, you said that your your core personal interest is more on the vintage side. Is that a a a another connection back to your father's taste is that a um is that a a consideration of longevity in the market like something that lasts a long time is inherently of value to you? How we've talked about some of these topics before. I'm curious how that because we can get to RZD and there's a ton of stuff but RZD is largely both functionally a modern brand, but in design a very modern brand as well. So maybe we stick to to to the vintage fascination to start.
Huey Tang It's interesting ' likecause if you talk to my dad, like he's just now very much Seiko. So like the the next step of that story Yeah. The next step of that story is like I remember distinctly one moment where um there's a Movado Museum watch and like it was like the most beautiful watch to me. This is the years of like, you know, when Esquire and stuff like that or ESQ is is at the mall and stuff like that. And so I remember seeing this Movado museum and like I'm like, Dad, this is like the most beautiful watch ever. Like I wanna keep this. This is so cool. And he's like, no way. Like you are like nine years old or something.
James Stacy Movado museums had had a a stranglehold
Huey Tang on on the on the the idea of
James Stacy what was like a classy enduring but sort of modern count like if you're of a certain age, especially. That was like I and I don't I genuinely don't mean to disparage this because it was such a sort of a an icon of its era, the the museum.
Huey Tang Yeah. But like it that was a that was
James Stacy the like peak mall watch for a while.
Huey Tang Oh, yeah. Big time. Big time. And I mean it was in the MoMA, right? Like I think it's like a design piece. The
James Stacy MOMA, the West Edmonton Mall. Yeah. That's the two. Yeah,
Huey Tang exactly. The Mount Rushmore. Yeah, that's the Mount Rushmore. And it and you know, and in reality, that is Edmonton in some ways because or like Alberta or um you know that era of Alberta or Calgary is there's a lot of money here. And so what you see in terms of watches is a lot of wall mall watches and then as we go into the two thousand I mean like the things I was buying for like two thousand bucks in Edmonton is madness like you'd be buying a navy timer or like there's like all these wild things that like panoramic. Just a lot
James Stacy of stock around. Well, yeah, because people are
Huey Tang just buying them because they're just like they got oil field money, they stop in at the mall, they pick up something at the AD, they're like it's basically an invicta to them like it's the same um it's and so if you look at what's available it's not always going to be like whole horology and stuff at the time and and um you know obviously things have developed since the early or mid two thousands even even
James Stacy course yeah of the advent of the internet.
Huey Tang But tastes have changed but it's kinda interesting to see what was available. Um, but when it came to the way that I was collecting though, like my dad was really deep into kind of like the once the quartz crisis came up, he saw all those watches as just kind of like relics of the past or like like all the Yeah. He just kinda saw like the mechanical watches like, oh yeah, that's not like I'm a I'm a Casio guy or something like I'm a Seiko guy. I'm a Seiko five guy. Like I'm not not seeing it. And so um even to this day he's like he has an astron that I gifted him and like yeah the thing the thing is, if you had any idea but that
James Stacy that''ss a ver like a super tech forward watch.
Huey Tang For sure. And he loves the the all the concept of it, but if he had any idea that it was like way more than like a quartz watch, like if it was it was anything like like he thinks maybe a satellite wave is like really expensive, or like he thinks like an eco drive is expensive. Man, he doesn't know what an astron costs, but like it's just like
James Stacy let the man live in his bliss for sure. That's great.
Huey Tang Yeah, and that's the thing, is like uh that's kinda peak for him. I'm like, you could wear any of my watches. He's like, No, those are all just silly things. Like they're just um he thinks that they're just kinda like trophies and I think I I understand. Like it's um when you come from um where he came from and having the life experience that he has it doesn't really make sense to hold on to it. So going back to the museum thing, he's just like, no, like you can see that any time. Like you can go to the mall and you can check it out or whatever. But like we're gonna sell that
Jason Heaton I like it. Going from the the vintage
James Stacy aspect, what led you to uh working with RZD? Give us a background on where R Z D sort of started.
Huey Tang Yeah, so in twenty twenty the Kickstarter was um kind of coming from Travis having already previously founded a brand. He left a brand and then wanted to develop a new brand focused on titanium and then um bringing something new and innovative to the table. And so something that we know now is like almost common in independence or micros is a hard coding. But back in twenty twenty, uh there wasn't very many hard codings and especially in titanium it was just like there was just zin like it wasn't even any other things other than super titanium from citizen or at that time Seiko had Dia Shield, but there wasn't really anything else. Um, so Travis wanted to develop um Ultrahex, which is a super hard coating or a hard coating developed for titanium. And so that kind of counteracted the effects of corrosion that we all know commonly occurred with MacBooks and things like that. From a certain area, you remember all the titanium things had that kind of go to gray. Um, and so that was something that he wanted to counteract. And so we were able to preserve a bead blasted finish and um prof protect from corrosion and scratches through kind of that hard coating. And so creating that brand around that and developing a field watch around that with a kind of angular design language and things like that, that's what he wanted to kind of build in 2020. And so um I came on a couple years after that where where
James Stacy Did you kind of find a a kinship in him that that could even and maybe maybe I'm drawing lines that aren't here, but did you find a kinship in this interest in taking a kind of beloved and technical material like titanium and making it even more everyday friendly. Did you feel any connection back to the RATO and its scratch resistance and and and that sort of story?
Huey Tang Oh, big time. I mean, like I'm I think that's the cool thing about microbrands or independence in general is that um if you look back to all those you know rado isn't something that we see as independent or anything like that of course it's swatch group but if you look back to its history this is what they were known for. this is the thing, like scratch proof, like this is their USP. The ceramic thing is the most popular thing. And so I really followed the idea of all these niche innovations, but I've when we were talking about RZE and its titanium, I was already excited about the concept of it. But I realized that you have to be able to translate that spec into a dinner table conversation, not like a technical conversation, because um if you want to reach the mainstream or you want to get people excited about it, you have to make it relatable for the everyday person. And so um that actually kind of throws back to my actual I guess initial careers like I used to be a science teacher and so that that was all the excitement is getting a hook and then getting a analogy that'll break it down. So it's simple enough for someone to understand a complex thing and be like, oh man, that's soaring
James Stacy opportunity. Yeah, it's a learning opportunity. That's great. And so when when did was Ultrahex part of that original 2020 offering?
Huey Tang Yeah, absolutely. So that was kind of the bundled USP. There's something that he wanted to take on was not only offer titanium, but the unique angular um yet kind of evergreen design language of a field watch and then having it coded in ultrahex.
James Stacy Was it your influence? who decided that the next move, especially maybe the move that became most characterful in the last couple years, would be a digital watch?
Huey Tang So actually Kirk um the creative director was we were sitting down talking about kind of um where we would kind of go with models and things like that and he said like well we like digital watches like why don't we make digital watches and Travis was kind of like, well, uh, you know, broke down. Well, I mean like the the it's not not easy. There's not very many um available options and so on and so forth. And so um and then I was like, well, how how hard is it? 'Cause it was kinda like looking at a creative decision to like an enthusiast conversation to kind of the manufacturing and the experience of the brand. And it it was a really big hurdle. Um for us to all decide to to kind of go forward on it. And so Travis is really is much more in terms of enthusiasm in the mechanical realm and um in the micro brand independent that's where a lot of his experience has been in and he's been in um you know I think over like thirteen years now or something like that and so kind of delving into digital that, was kind of really new to him as well as the rest of the industry. And for for us, um, I've been collecting um since I was a kid in terms of what was practical. Like my first watch is actually the 8 lap and I remember my dad giving me an eight lap and being like, Yeah, this is what you get. Like this is like this is the everyday watch.
James Stacy This is the move. Exactly. And it totally
Huey Tang is. It still is. I mean, like the the Hodenkee collab eight lap, like when I saw that banger, I was like gotta have it because it's it's like you know they're so fun. Yeah it's so fun it's like they're just fantastic pieces and so even Kirk like you know like it was G Shocks uh you know that's something that him and I first bonded on was G Shocks. And so kind of exploring it together was something that kind of got really exciting. And so if you look at the design language of the UTD, there's actually elements of all these different um digital watches from
James Stacy you know the throwback era. it's
Huey Tang like you look at it, there's a little bit of the Sunto, there's a little bit of the 8 lap, there's a little bit of like the the original MRG. And so a lot of people look at it and they're like, oh, it's it's like a G Shock kind of ripoff. But we wanted to have these cues, especially on the initial launch, um, that you would kinda have a je ne sais quoi, you'd kinda have this bias that your brain would be connected to it already. Hurdle.
James Stacy Yeah. And I I would say from my experience, because when it comes to digital watches, it's always been the eight lap for me, or like a Garmin, a Sunto back in the day, uh, for the adventure stuff. And then when you originally uh sent me out an 8,000 series to check out. I kind of felt like I was experiencing sort of the melding of all of those, but in a like a more modern sort of twist. it's larger and much much tougher than something like an 8 lap, which of course is typically a a uh plastic case of some sort, or some of them are metal. Uh, but this one, you know, you get the titanium, you get a great finish on it. And then I think that the screen layout feels more it's if this makes sense, more Casio than G Shock, if you think of some of the Casio's that really put the time front and center rather than the complexity of some of the G Shock designs. And don't get me wrong, I understand the complexity is part of what people love about the G Shock stuff. It's probably what led me to I have several, you know, Hodinkee's made a uh a handful of pretty fun LEs. But I I find that this is something I really wear because it really wears like a sport watch. And uh we'll get to the eighty eighty in a moment because it's quite exciting and it's kind of the big news you guys have on on the horizon. But I'm I'm curious what other evolutions have you made? you you went into the world of digital, um you have a really specific like the brand has a really specific sort of perspective on longevity, on things like returns and making sure a watch has a life cycle beyond a single owner. Walk me through the re-verified program.
Huey Tang Yeah. And so we're looking at developing something that has longevity like the or product circularity. Um I talked to Travis initially about how we wanted to develop a hundred-year brand. We wanted a brand that would have staying power because we have products that are going to last forever. Like it's too easy to say that this is recycled titanium or this is going to be recycled. Like, of course, nobody's going to throw out like some titanium, just like toss it in a river and be like, it's done, it's it's over, this is garbage. Um
James Stacy dust to dust. Yeah, exactly. So we
Huey Tang were like, what's one better than that? And so um, you know, we sat down as a team, you know, we had a few team members at the time and we were talking about it. And I said, it doesn't make sense that we can't just take trade-in on all of our watches. They're like, what do you what do you mean take trade-in? I'm like, well, like like why why not? Because if we're we're looking at the resolute and and we're looking at our models being iterated on, but basically they're the best offering we can do at the time. It's just like a submariner or whatever, like it's it's iterated, but they're basically the same watch and there's people who are looking for different models. And so like what if we just kind of control the secondary market by way of offering people who are on the secondary that want an exit an opportunity to trade their stuff back in. They're like, yeah, but like what are we going to do with the watches and things like that? I'm like, listen, if Canada Goose can let you trade in their jackets or Patagonia can like buy back jackets or Carhartt is like looking at that or or people are buying things on Depop or any of these things, I'm like 1 million percent. We can bring in these watches, we can take them to the workshop, figure out what it would cost to kind of service them to the standard that would be acceptable. The cases are scratch resistant. Let's just let's just roll with it for a year. And so we worked See how it goes. Yeah, and we worked out a formula and we're like, if we do a flat rate, 'cause we wanna just talk about all the time factors of like why we can't do it. And so is interesting because it's true if you look at Canada Goose and things like that, when they look at um Arxterics, when you send in your product, they evaluate it for different grades and then you get a certain amount of credit back. But when we looked at watches, we're like, if we do that, we're gonna have to like then take pictures and sell them that way and start to tell people like, oh, well, this is like this grade and this grade, which is completely subjective. So I'm like, no, let's take a complete gear perspective to it and have it just be like, okay, what you get is what you get. Kind of like at you know, I I talked to you about it when we were doing the potluck at Mac or whatever. Sometimes there's like the the garage sales or the gear swap sales or whatever when there's just the the stuff that they have seconds and it's like yeah you go there and you're you're not looking for a 10. You're looking for the bag or the thing that's the model that you need, but you're like
James Stacy ready to take it out and use. Yeah, exactly. And so
Huey Tang that was how we wanted to develop the re verified program. And so we kind of figure out the math and we're like, okay, we can take in trade in on everything at forty percent And then you get that in credit. And then we would have a built-in amount, which would be um the the margin between forty and seventy percent and that would be going to our watchmaker or logistics and stuff like that to get it reviewed and ready to be sold again at seventy percent. And so that's kind of like our our formula is that like there's no way you're gonna be able to get one service for less than 70%. And um if you ever want to be rid of it, 40% is the minimum you'll ever get for it in credit.
James Stacy That's awesome. Yeah it's an it's an interesting concept. And I guess that kind of leads me up to um, you know, you have you have a broad sort of model range of watches, a lot of them kind of in the field, chronograph sort of space. And then it is is it f where does the U where does the UTD kind of slot in? Is it a flagship? Is it something kind of else? How do you guys see that versus something like the resolute or otherwise?
Huey Tang Yeah, I think that um where we developed the U T D, it was supposed to be something that substitutes for what the full metal would have been in G Shock if I would have done it myself. I I think that what I would have envisioned the full metal G would have been is something that is more accessible than an MRG, is actually a tool watch, but is giving you a real watch experience or like you say, like a sport watch experience without necessarily um being restricted to kind of mechanical or quartz or whatever it is. Like I think that what we're wanting to fill the gap of is somebody who wants to have something that is really grab and go, incredibly legible, um in our instance, guaranteed for life, and then at the same time of the versatility of being able to wear it in other settings. I think that sometimes where you wear even a full metal G-Shock or a regular G Shock, you might feel like it's out of place in some settings, whereas this it's more natural. And so if you look at some of our newer offerings, like the brush finishes and like the DLC and brush finishes, they're so that you can pair them with different bracelets that we already have or bracelets that are coming out and then that way it becomes more versatile so that you can kind of make it a two-watch collection, right?
James Stacy So with that being sort of a certain core for the company or maybe maybe sort of the testbed for a lot of ideas, what led you to need to do your own module and of course this is where you kind of I'm speaking for you here but in my mind this must be where you're kind of tied to this ethos of sustainability. You can't make something that doesn't suit the previous generation of watches. So you basically had to make a module that followed a certain format. And walk us through the challenge. Walk us through the first conversation and how long it took to get to today, because I've got it on my wrist. it's in, you know, the the sister brand as well, which we can get into in a moment. And I I'm fascinated by the development of these sorts of things because I think there's there is this ancillary usage. You could have, like you do, Huey, like a of an incredible array of cool vintage watches or other watches you'd love to wear, but it's just really nice to have something like this for when it fits. And they shouldn't be amazingly expensive, but they should be amazingly functional. And I think you guys have kind of hit a cool zone for that.
Huey Tang Yeah, I think the new module is huge because initially it was trying to get someone to take us on. And so that partnership has developed to the point where so when they're making something for us, we had to again develop something that works with the previous generation. And so we even when we updated the screen to FSTN so that it's a lot uh more legible from different viewing angles, once you kind of choose to go that direction.' Therey like, well, you have the capabilities of the screen are going to be substantially better um now that you have it FSTN. But we were like, okay, but we need it to kind of have the same segmentation and design language and stuff like that as the original one, add the functionality because we want it to kind of have that product circularity element to it. So there was immediately almost a self-imposed uh restriction and that was a big compromise for us while at the same time is a dedication to kind of the longevity of the product when we think we give it one step further and that's kind of making sure that you have all this functionality, but improved legibility and maintaining all of the the physical attributes that we kind of invested all the testing in. And so that's kind of why where we wanted to scaffold on. And so the significance of moving that way allows us to then, like you kind of touched on, use in our sister brand or it allows us to provide this module to other people who want to innovate, who are looking at having something that's kind of assured to be robust, because as you know, but uh maybe the the entire audience might not know, is that we guarantee all of our digital modules for life. And so any of the instances that you may have them in, we're going to guarantee that we're going to keep it ticking because we don't want you to have one that's just kind of like busted at the bottom of a drawer thinking like this is trash. Because you could send it in and have it re-verified, get credit for it, or you could send it in and we'll service it and you can wear it again. There's no reason for any of these watches, mechanical or digital, to just sit. And I think that that's always been, you know, going back to the full circle of the beginning of the conversation is my concern with newer brands and and kind of the over consumption version of watches these days is that um there is going to be a glut. Like there's a lot of people who have like 40 watches that will may never be worn again. And I think that um I wanted to make sure that our brand didn't have uh uh put an element of that in the footprint.
James Stacy And then with the new module, you get a little bit of extra functionality as well.
Huey Tang Yeah. Adds in a dual time and a timer
James Stacy and the multi-alarm. Exactly. All of which, of course, I like. I think the dual time's extra rad. Uh I'm curious, I want to get into Vostra in just a moment because I think it parlays off of this. But for people who are listening who have an 8,000 and they might be interested, like I was in an 80-80, what's the sort of plan there to be able to upgrade?
Huey Tang We're going to allow for um authorized dealers in all the countries that we're stocked in to have the opportunity to provide service. So you'll be able to take it in and for a hundred dollars US or the equivalent your retailer or whoever can install it and do a water test will be able to swap your module for you and then they'll get a cut out of that obviously and then you'll get a new module and you'll have it ready to go guaranteed for life again. You can obviously roll the dice yourself if you buy a sub brand or a sister brand product. So if you buy Vostra later you',ll be able to kind of do the swap yourself. But um our goal will be that we can kind of get into different retailers and stuff like that as well that'll be able to retail either Vostra and have it close to you so you can buy the product and swap it yourself, or that you'll be able to send it in or go to an AD and have them swap it. So we want to make it super easy for people to get that upgrade.
James Stacy And so I guess that leads me to Vostra. I have one here. It's a purple uh is it polycarbonate the case?
Huey Tang It's uh the bioresin. So it's like uh bioresin. Yeah, it's like uh I think castor oil or some kind of yeah.
James Stacy But otherwise it's it's very similar to UTD in terms of its format, its case shape, the structure, the design. And then this has the eighty eighty. What's the price point that something like this is hitting in the in the bioresin case?
Huey Tang So it's gonna be a hundred and nineteen dollars US you know we're gonna keep it tight to this audience but uh we're gonna like let it all loosen um December fourth when we're gonna start launching and kind of letting everyone know but the idea of it is that at that point people will kind of have an accessible entry point that is kind of independent from our tool watches and that sport watch aesthetic. Uh we're gonna give them something that is much more fun and something more baby G or as you said like more Casio. And so we wanted to kind of um stratify our product.
James Stacy Tracing that across what is the price range of of say watches that could have this new module. So it starts it will when they're launched start around a hundred and twenty. And then how does that scale up for RZE's offering?
Huey Tang We're our top end is going to be SarahCode at three nine nine right now. And so um we've always been full disclosure, you know, assembled in China. And so um, you know, I think that this element of it um allows for people to kind of see on our top end, which is a premium product, like the Sarah Code versions um assembled in China and QC by us before they're shipped, uh maybe with some goodies and things like that. It's about three nine nine. Um and on the entry level with our sister brand and in resin, it'll be about a hundred and nineteen. And so I think that there's a lot of room to play there if there's gonna be stainless steel offerings or if there's sister brand offerings or anything like that, but our regular titanium ultrahex is gonna go to um 299 and so there'll be just that that little bit of a hundred dollar gap for the ceracole treatment and stuff like that and then we like to think about the RZE 8080 as kind of being the engine. I think kind of like when we look at um the independence or the micros in general, there's been a lot of talk about movements being a big restriction to kind of where innovations can come from or where costs can come from with tariffs and things like that. And so just being a little bit crafty and looking at Patagonia controlling um, you know, ethical cotton, for example, or them going into developing their own um hemp blend and things like that. We wanted to make our own kind of sauce on this. And so um we're careful not to say that it's entirely in-house. It is developed in-house, but someone is manufacturing for us. Just like Patagonia was processing the the hemp fibers and stuff like that. We're looking to for an opportunity to kind of get in that space where we can supply as well as kind of control the product that we're putting out and then um hopefully open some doors for more innovation around this case or this case style and and kind of explore what we can offer in terms of the enthusiast market as well as kind of filling the gap in terms of the fashion market as well. Because we really want to look at a resurgence in kind of the excitement of vintage and neo-vintage digitals and stuff like that. That's obviously a big part of my interests as well. And so I'd be excited to I'd be excited to kind of explore other options around modules where we can test them and and place them in that those price points as well.
James Stacy What is the overall story or plan with with Vostra? You know, my daughters have the the ring watches, these little metallic digital watches, they love them, like with a little expansion style, like a spidel style, but for your finger, not for your wrist. what's the sort of brief there? Is it just to be able to explore more things that maybe wouldn't fit for the RZE world?
Huey Tang Vostra is like the Anglicized word from Italian for yours. And we thought that it would be a cool thing that would be a brand that's kind of for everyone. And what we wanted it to do was create kind of a brand that was defined by um people who wanted to participate in the brand and cr um and design something that was interesting to a more niche audience or a more broad audience that isn't necessarily RZ core adventure tool watch audience. And so if you look at a lot of our packaging, it's fun without being expensive. And so uh we use like for example pop vinyl style boxes for watches and things like that. And so it is kind of a more budget offering. Not to say that we'll never do anything expensive there, but I think that it's a good opportunity to explore things that don't have the same kind of core ethos that RZ has because we want to kind of preserve that hundred year brand identity there and not to kind of make the old school tutor reference of like it's the shield that protects the crown, but it's kind of that thing. Like we want to make sure that the titanium identity and stuff like that's preserved.
James Stacy yeah. It's one of the things where once you once you stick to something that's very specific, it's difficult to not be that specific every time. I I understand for sure. Well look I think that's uh probably plenty on RZD at least at its core in in Vostra I as I think is very clear I I'm quite excited about the uh the the UTD especially the 8080 um I think the idea of being able to get the same functionality in a watch at $120 if if it's something you want to sample or something for someone getting into watches and they would appreciate something that that it has more personality and is maybe less toolish, uh, I think is super smart and uh and I'm excited to see all that kind of stuff launched. But I'm also interested, you know, when we get together we we talk watches for a few minutes and then we move into other topics. What else are you interested in these days? You know, but could be flashlights, it could be knives. I mean we we we get in I've got a couple things of yours here I have to return. Uh that I'm looking at after the Toronto Time Feet show weekend. But what else are what else are you into these days? What what's on what are what's the tabs on your phone when you're finally done with uh the you know the workday with watches.
Huey Tang Yeah, I think like right now I'm just really kind of falling in love with fashion again. I think that was
James Stacy one of your starting points, right? Like in in a deep fascination?
Huey Tang Yeah, absolutely. Like it's something that I think like I like the idea of um streetwear and and obviously it wasn't always streetwear, it's like urban culture and stuff like that and and kind of the co-opting of different brands and stuff like that and how it it enters the mainstream and obviously we see that in Rolex as well and um you know most recently on talking watches with Pusha um I think that there's all these through lines and so kind of like right now as we're kind of developing Vostra and exploring that, it's got me really deep in the algorithm on kind of what's what's moving the needle for Gen Alpha
James Stacy Wait, should I've should I have kept my gene codes?
Huey Tang Big time. Big time, dude. Like yes and everything. I was looking at the line at wind up on Sat Saturday and um saw that it was like two hours or something like that and I was on my phone and I saw that um Outlander magazine had a pop-up with Hiroshi Fujiwara and Tommy Hilfiger. So like fragments and Tommy Hilfig. Was
James Stacy this the sweater you were wearing that day? Yeah. So I
Huey Tang just like rolled up and uh got to to go the pop-up and saw some really cool people and they like, you know, handed out some sweaters and stuff and it was really cool to kinda be on the street and see things like this happening. I know it's been a while since COVID, but I think my like brain is still locked in this kind of thing. And so to see an activation like that with so many influencers as well as just kind of like regular people involved in that activation, I was like, man, this is so different. Such a crowd, but so different than what we would see at a watch meet or things like that. And so kind of reinvigorated around that and kind of deep into the study of things like Kith and how Kith has kind of developed and turned into the monster that it is, which is like a great monster, but crazy nonetheless and where Supreme is gone, you know, I'm I'm a deep brand guy as well. And like you say, like fashion, that's kind of a place that I've always kind of think is important because clothing or accessories or watches or all these things. They're all kind of signals that identify discerning choices we make in our everyday. They're all opportunities to pick things that represent little elements of us. And I think that um it doesn't really matter how much money you have taste is kind of something that's free and you can kind of express your taste in a way that is cool to you as well as signals well as well to that that group that you're hoping to reach. And um I think that that's something that you and I always talk about too, right? Is that like, yeah, I I just have this taste that is me.
James Stacy I also remember being a younger man and being like, How do I develop this?
Huey Tang Yeah. But I I feel like maybe maybe
James Stacy it's not free, but it's a definitely a lot it can be a lot of work, especially if I'm not just not the naturally stylish sort of guy. I just define the things that sort of worked for me. and most of it is just like a a Pinterest board of Harrison Ford fits from, you know, his s sixty years of being being a a guy out there.
Huey Tang Yeah. My counter on that is that like, but you know your taste and you're comfortable in your place. And so
James Stacy 40, sure. Yeah. Like as you can say if someone's listening they're 20, what's the advice you'd give them then?
Huey Tang Oh, okay. So this is perfect. So this is the thing. I think like when we're looking at someone who's 20 and it it like you said, it either takes work or it costs money because you have to either be experimental and um you know buy things that you see online that you've read a bunch of things, that you've gotta have it, and then realize it's not for you. Or you have to do a lot of work. So it might be either buying it used, um, being really patient and not having FOMO and or it's getting the budget thing that is the lowest entry point to that thing and seeing if you're actually going to use it and put in work and think about whether you're gonna invest in it or not because I think I can even look at this as like Chelsea boots. I have a nice pair of Chelsea boots now. Um I have I'm gonna give a plug to Canada West because I'm a good Canada boy. I think that they're great. I'll
James Stacy have to check them out. Yeah. You've recommended them before and I'm I'm in the I could be in the market, especially if they do a desert boot.
Huey Tang Yeah. Uh yeah. You gotta check 'em out. And so um made in Manitoba. Um Hey,
James Stacy there you go. But uh not everyone's
Huey Tang first pair of Chelsea boots should be a quality Chelsea boot because you don't know. you might wear sneakers more often than not. And I think it's a big mistake that people make in the age of the internet to be like, oh, I really need that and I need the one that's buy it for life. Yeah,
James Stacy I I need Aldens or I'm or this isn't gonna work.
Huey Tang Yeah. And I'm like, no, that's that's the part where I think the taste is can be also cheap is if you develop your taste and you go in and you thrift and you're like, oh I'm gonna wear these out, I'm gonna hand them down. Like if it's something that's gonna be buy it for life someone else is also going to enjoy that and they have a similar taste and you can be inspired but you don't need to be a copycat and I think we're gonna go into one of those rabbit holes that like you say, you and I always talk about something else and I'm like
James Stacy let's do it. We got some time. Yeah. If we
Huey Tang talk about there's like a kid that is wearing a Ramon's t-shirt and cannot tell you one Ramon song. There's so many versions of that right now, but it's like they're wearing baggy pants, but with like um a really tight t-shirt, but not in the way that it's cropped. And so you're like, that's just not quite right. That guy thrifted that thing, but it's like the fit is mismatched, or um, that doesn't belong on that playlist or whatever. And that's because they didn't grow up with that culture and not to gatekeep it, but if you spend time researching it and spend time with people around it, they're gonna give you that alpha or they're gonna give you that knowledge to to influence that. And so you'll be able to put that together as a cohesive
James Stacy Yeah, I remember year years ago uh a guy that I got to know who's big and still is kind of big in the men's fashion space, he said like fashion is a language and some people learn it when they're younger, and some people have to learn it when they're older. And for a while, you might get the syntax wrong. You might know a few of the words, but you're not saying sentences, you're not saying paragraphs, and and you certainly can't like impart why you might be doing something because you don't have all the words yet. And he said you kind of have to like stay in it long enough to have the vocabulary so that everything does kind of align and you have proper sentences that make you feel or sound like a local to that. And he's like, and the he's like, it used to be before the internet it might have been five languages, street, you know, formal, tailored, whatever. And he's like now it's fifty, sixty dialects for for these sorts of things. And it can change like obviously the West Coast, East Coast thing could be one element. And I always thought that was a nice way of thinking about it and also enough for me to go, Well, I'm never gonna get there.
Huey Tang No, but uh but it's a comfort thing, right? it's like when you start to take those elements, like there's people who can wear a a hockey jersey every day and look like a natural because it's part of them and I think that's also watches and that's why also why I am kind of the collector or the watch human that I am. Like I can wear a UTD and um you know a Rolex at the same time and it it is like actually who I am and I it's like scars pizza is exactly that thing right like there's so many places that um are exhibiting that you can kind of be whoever you want to be in the watch world and you don't have to be restricted to 20 millimeter lugs and and you know 39 millimeter diameter and stuff like that. And I think um it's it's crazy because the watch knowledge has both made it more accessible but also more restrictive in some circles. And I think that that's something that I'm excited to kind of see open up again. Like um you know arguably I think the closure of of malls and stuff like that during COVID have influence fashion and have influence watches and influence everything in terms of the culture and the language, like you say, has become much more internet native because of algorithms and stuff like that. But as people go out and like what I see, like you might see it too with your daughters and stuff, what they're wearing and stuff like that is not like the internet or what their friends are wearing is not like the internet, and that's what I love. And that's why I think it's so important to be on the street and seeing fashion and stuff. And so um, you know, one of the things that is unique that Edmonton doesn't have as much of as a density like say Hong Kong or New York or whatever is the watch spotting is so diverse. Like you're not just seeing Apple watches and things like that. You are seeing more things like Macy's watches from years past or or whatever. Um, you know, it's it's kind of like a real niche audience, but even like Katie the other day with her watch, it's not like a Hodinkee style watch, but it's like it's watches. People wear these things out, which is really cool.
James Stacy Yeah, for sure. I don't I don't disagree at all. And I I think it's a it's a good lesson that like there's a lot of space to play and and learn what works for you and and that sort of thing. And I think that extends pretty deeply into watches, but also whatever else you might be into. Fashion is a nice kind of footing for all sorts of expression uh that goes beyond that. Uh look, Huey, it's it's been awesome to have you on. I've got, you know, a thousand other questions, but I don't want to keep you on forever. We can definitely have you back on for Huey too. I think that could be lots of fun uh sometime in the future. Anything you would leave the audience with, you got a maybe a final note, a recommendation, something you've been loving, you read, you watched.
Huey Tang Yeah, you know what? I I'm gonna go with uh the the best thing that I've seen, watch, or read is uh your recommendation to me to watch layer cake. So I downloaded Layer Cake, I watched it on the plane, it was awesome.
Jason Heaton It's a blast, eh? So that that was the one that uh
James Stacy you know purportedly and and you know, at least externally it looks this way, got Daniel Craig the role as uh as Bond. Uh yeah, Lair Cake is a blast. It's one of those classic sort of mid-2000s as it came out in 2004, like a mid-2000 gangster, sort of UK English gangster film. Kind of like in the lineage of of Guy Ritchie, but a little bit shifted, a little bit um a little bit more dangerous, but in a different way, a little bit more exciting in a different way. It's great. Uh I think it's highly watchable. I I can't remember if we put it in uh in a film club in the past, but uh my imagining I imagine that we have, and if we haven't, maybe it'll be in the next film club, but it's sure. I'm glad you enjoyed it.
Unknown Yeah, it was good. And to to tag along
Huey Tang on that just like a bold fashion to wrap it up, is like if anybody is like a Bond fan, I know that you guys were talking about it, is like there's a lot of kind of characters that you can study who have been like evolved through time. And I think that when you look at things like that to develop taste, it is a developed kind of identity that you can follow as a through line through generations and eras. And that's that can be helpful for young people as opposed to kind of to picking a thinging and say, like, I need that uh 0007 video game watch. Like, yeah, that's gonna be hard to kind of tie somewhere. But if you got a Daniel Craig Planet Ocean, there's a lot of references that you can look at and be like, oh yeah, there's all these things. Like I'm not Daniel Craig, but this could work. I
James Stacy don't doubt it, man. I I like that. That's a good spot to uh to wrap up. Huey, thank you so much for being on. Congrats with the success with uh with RZE and a huge thank you from Jason and I for partnering with us for that incredible gear swap in Toronto. I look forward to doing it again sometime in the future.
Huey Tang Yeah, thanks. It was a blast.
Jason Heaton All right. Well that was great to have Huey on the show and a big thanks to him for uh being game to chat. Um you know we we got to see him in uh Toronto and uh you got to see him in Vancouver and uh yeah he's popping up all over. He was in New York. Um yeah, exciting stuff happening over at uh RZE. So uh great to have him on. And you can find all the links you need uh in the show notes uh about RZE and other stuff that you guys talked about. So thanks again.
Unknown All right, cool. Well let's do some final notes.
Jason Heaton Yeah, let's do some final notes. Um I have an interesting one, and I I was reminded of this because as I mentioned uh at the top of the show, I was uh doing some Land Rover maintenance, and um this is a very unglamorous uh final note, um, but we're all about kind of practicality and and day-to-day stuff. And this is a a set of um semi-disposable work gloves um that I was introduced to when I was doing the Defender Trophy qualifications up in in British Columbia back in April, they've kind of issued these to all of us. They're um, you know, these typical kind of stretchy, um rubbery synthetic uh work gloves, um, grippy, um and uh they're they're I I don't even know how you how they pronounce the name, but I I had to find them when I got back home because I was so impressed with them. It's a brand that goes by PT C O L, all caps. I don't know if it's PT Call or Protocol.be May it's short for something. Yeah. Okay, so you're familiar with these. And um what what was great about them is they're they're just they're super durable and they they fit well. I mean obviously it's kind of stretchy gloves, you get the right size and then you shouldn't have a problem there. But um I guess I was really impressed with the durability 'cause I wore them for, you know, the two days straight of all the activities that we did, you know, yanking up, you know, pulling on ropes and um working with a high lift jack and, you know, slogging through wo theods and you know, mud and ropes courses and that sort of stuff. And you know a lot of times those disposable gloves they kind of wear thin and just kind of get trashed, you know, in a in in a day or whatever. But um these I I brought back home and I kept using them for a couple of months, kind of just doing odd jobs out in the garage. And finally I just ponied up and bought a twelve pack uh on Amazon and I'm I'm just kind of on my first first new pair uh recently and they're they're just great. I mean you know they're um not expensive and they're kind of just nice to have in the garage for um I suppose you could use them for for yard work or just kind of general use but uh yeah they're great. Um so if you're looking for some kind of really thin work gloves, um I I do recommend these PT calls or protocols or whatever. Um and th m there's a bit of a bonus if you're like me and you're trying to figure out why one of the the grease zirks on the uh on the prop shaft i is not accepting grease and you need to know the size of the socket to use to take off the the grease nipple. Um they I grabbed my phone and I didn't even have to take off my glove because uh a couple of the fingers are touch screen compatible. So good stuff.
James Stacy Yeah, I didn't know that they had the touchscreen compatibility. that's great. I've seen these gloves before. I think I've even seen people use them when diving. Um in scenarios where there where what you might you might decide to touch something that could be sharp.
Jason Heaton Yeah. But I maybe not the
James Stacy exact same sort of glove, but definitely I I had no clue they were touchscreen compatible. As a guy who likes to take on tasks but does need YouTube university there to help. Uh that that that makes a lot of sense. I like it. So that's cool. Good pick.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Mine's really not wildly
James Stacy out of the same territory. Last week I spoke about the the little towel that Justin Souders had given me and and you, which I stole yours.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Um and this week um I'm gonna
James Stacy talk about the other thing that he gave me uh as a little gift when uh when we connected in New York. Uh obviously I'm I'm a big fan of having uh a flashlight on you. Uh I I often carry my O light, uh my O Clip Ultra. Uh, but Justin gave me a flashlight called the Ruby Vaughn Aurora A5. It's maybe a little bit bigger than a double A battery. Like it's in that vicinity. And this is an incredible little light for like $35. I will definitely be buying these for gifts for Christmas. It has a normal sort of um you know electric switch on the side and if you press and hold it it goes immediately to pull full power for as long as you hold it.
Jason Heaton Yeah. Which is a feature I adore. That's
James Stacy great. Um then you can cycle through everything from like moonlight to normal to very bright. I think it's something like 600 lumens. I don't know how that's possible when it's this small, but it's exceptionally bright. It has a little USB port at the end with a rubber cap so you can charge it. And then if you you know, you have to read the manual or watch a little thing, but it's really not that difficult of a UI. It's all done through the one button. But it also has the side light. So if you want it like to sit it on a table upright, it's kind of
Jason Heaton it has a nice little like soft wide
James Stacy beam that can also go to red for a reading light or a tent light or something like that. Um it has a magnetic clip, it has a reversible pocket clip, kind of pen style, like that clips around the body so you can remove it if you don't want it. But if you want to put it on your brim of your hat or whatever or tuck it into a shirt pocket you can. And then the the for the one that Justin gave me, I don't know if this is for all of them, but for the one that Justin gave me, the plastic body is a uh uh photoluminescent. So if you leave the light on for a while, the body glows when you shut it off, making it kind of easier to find it in a tent or whatever.
Jason Heaton Yeah. It's just a clever little thing and
James Stacy and it looks like you can buy them immediately for 35 and then sometimes they're cheaper than that. I I really like it. I love that you're not putting a battery in it. I like a USB chargeable light. Um it's the right it's the right size to be absolutely tiny, like uh aside from those ones that I think that O light makes, but it might be Phoenix, I don't know. The little magnet ones where if you pull them off the keychain, the light turns on, and then when you put it back on the magnet, it shuts off.
Jason Heaton Hmm. Those are really tiny.
James Stacy For the next step up from that, where this really kind of performs like a full-on flashlight, if that makes any sense.
Jason Heaton Yeah. You know, it not like a little light
James Stacy where you might have dropped This is that next step up. Highly recommend it. This is really good. And yet again, another huge shout out to Justin Souders uh for the lovely gift and a super useful little flashlight. Good tip.
Jason Heaton Yeah. This looks great. I could have once again I could have used this uh when I was uh under the Land Rover. Uh looking at that little grease Zirk. Um this would have been handy and just uh magnetize it right to the uh the frame of the car. So yeah, cool stuff. Yeah, I might have to check one of these out. It's great. Yeah.
James Stacy I don't really know how they pa ye exact well,
Jason Heaton yeah, maybe don't buy one. I gotta g I gotta get you
James Stacy something. Um but I um I don't know how they pack all of this in. the the circuitry's really impressive And it feels pretty well made. I think if you had asked me what do you think this is, I would have guessed it was more like in the similar money to an uh uh one of the nicer uh O lights, something in a fifty, sixty dollar range, but yeah, looks like they're they're going for about thirty six bucks currently. So if that's in your market or if you've got a kid to buy a flashlight for one of my favorite things I owned as a child was a mag light. Oh yeah, you know the double the two double A that you could take the cap off and put it in the cap so it would sit like a candle.
Jason Heaton Yeah. You know, obviously
James Stacy those were those used those little tiny halogen b I think it was halogen, those little halogen bulbs that got wicked hot, I assume Mag Like now makes one in um LED. Uh but that that was one of my favorite things I owned period as a child. Um so any any kid I'm buying for this year is getting one of these as well. So
Jason Heaton Yeah, that's a great call on And it. uh your mention of a maglite just uh boy, that brings back memories. I I have a full-size one kicking around, this giant heavy thing with a ton of like D batteries or something. And I just think back now, they're so weak. L theyike just take all this battery power for what's really by today's standards pretty weak, and just ev evidence of how lighting technology has really trickled down and improved. But uh yeah, yeah, this is great.
James Stacy Well yeah, that's great. I the the maglite thing is is such a such a point of nostalgia for me. We all had them as kids, different sizes, the little tiny ones, larger ones. They're uh definitely my sort of um my starting point for a love of of like cool flashlights that did a couple different things. So now it's in your music. Alright, well, good episode. And uh a big shout out to Huey for being on, and as always, for all of you, 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, which can get you into the TGN Slack and maybe even a new TGN sign NATO, please visit thegreynato. com. Music throat is siesta by Jazzar via the free music archive.
Jason Heaton And we leave you with this quote that's quite well known, and we possibly have used it before, but I'm not sure, but I love it, from Antoine de Saint Exupery, who said perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away