My pick: the Longines Hydroconquest GMT

I have had my eye on the Longines Hydroconquest GMT as my (almost) one-and-done watch.

Here is a watch which looks like a Rolex GMT-Master II, Tudor Black Bay 58 GMT, and Seiko 5 GMT, but is better. Here is why.

Rolex, Tudor and Seiko’s GMTs have 24-hour bezels, even though these watches are using dive cases. These are dive watches with GMT complications. Yet, without the dive timer bezel it is only a GMT watch, not strictly a dive watch. It could be argued that today since most people use dive computers dive watches are redundant. But not everyone can afford to use dive computers or need to use dive computers for casual recreational diving. So by replacing the dive bezel with a 24-hour bezel means the watch is useless for diving.

Of the three, only Seiko has both a 24-hour bezel and chapter ring, meaning theoretically the complication can now track three time zones instead of two as with the Rolex and Tudor.

The Hydroconquest GMT on the other hand does have a dive bezel for timing dives and a 24-hour chapter ring. This means you are able to use the watch for timing dives as well as tracking a second time zone.

Not many need to time more than two time zones. So Rolex and Tudor are fine. The Seiko is a time zone overkill since it can do three.

The Hydroconquest on the other hand can time dives and keep track of a second time zone. In other words, it’s a dive watch as well as being a GMT watch. Rolex, Tudor, and Seiko are only GMT watches in a dive watch package.

I am not saying I am going to dive with my watch. I like using timing bezels for exactly that — timing. But I also want to keep track of a second time zone (tracking time of family living around the world, for example). So the Hydroconquest is the only watch that does that. They thought about the design and redundancy of having two 24-hour indicators like the Seiko, and also the fact that the watch is essentially a dive watch designed to track 24-hour like the Rolex and Tudor. The watch is essential taking the best of all designs.

The point is, this watch is the only one that is truly a dive watch and a GMT watch … at luxury prices though.

Thoughts on the Bel Canto

I have had my eye on the Christopher Ward C1 Bel Canto (C01-41APT0-T00K0-VK) for a while. This is a watch with a hourly chime complication. The model I like is the black dial on a leather strap and/or the bader bracelet.

It is an elegant and distinctive watch. The only problem is I am not a formal kind of guy. I don’t dress up for work or put on a suit too often. This watch is not for jeans in my opinion. It is a dress watch. Outside of work I am in jeans or shorts.

While it is a cool watch with a cool complication ultimately I will no occasion to wear it.

Verdict: no buy, even though it is an excellent watch.

Cosplay on the Weekend

I stumbled upon this anime/cosplay festival when meeting an old friend I hadn’t seen in almost two decades.

Portrait lens or portrait photo?

This vlogger had a good point. There is no such thing as a portrait lens, only portrait photos. Similarly there are no landscape lenses, just landscape photos.

My photography kit

Over the last few months I have thought about what I really needed, and more importantly what I do not need. Which is why I went on a selling spree. I sold three lenses and a camera body today. Two manual focus 35mm, and 50mm lenses, a wide focal length 16-35mm auto focus lens, and manual SLR camera body from the 1970s. The manual lenses were too cumbersome to use plus had some mold issues (so I didn’t want it anywhere near my gear. The wide angle lens just never got me any shots that I liked. And the SLR was full manual with no metering.

Essentially, I figured out what I used a lot, which were my 24mm f1.4, 24-70mm f2.8, and 70-200mm f2.8. These got me all covered all ranges I need.

The 24mm was a little too wide for street photography so I played around with setting my full frame body to crop sensor mode. This gave me a 36mm f2.1 equivalent which is, in my opinion, the best focal length for street photography. The other benefit (or downside, depending on how you look at it) was that the images were now 10MP only. For SNS like instagram and the like this is fine. To print out also it is supposed to be enough for A4 prints. Furthermore, I can work with the RAW files in my iPhone apps.

So I traded all this gear to buy an APS-C DSLR. This had meant I can get the 24MP images on my 24mm f1.4 now (my street photography setup) and get an extra 100mm of focal length on my 70-200mm zoom, all without losing image quality.

All three lenses work with both bodies so I have a 24–300mm coverage in focal lengths. And with the 2x teleconverter I have 600mm reach in bright scenes as well, all this with just two bodies and three lenses.

Portraiture lens

On a 35mm film or sensor camera 35-70mm focal length is most natural.

Lex Fridman and right speech

Lex Fridman, whether he knows it or not, understands Buddhist right speech (17 minutes in). This conversation with Richard Haier about the book The Bell Curve is an example of how something can be misinterpreted.

But sometimes, no matter what you do, people can twist your words to fit their agenda. Nietzsche is one such philosopher who had been the victim of misappropriation.

Speech as an action can be used (another action) against you. In other words, truth is not about what is there, but what people think is true, or rather, how people make you think something is true when it is not.

YouTube Premium still gives you ads. You just don’t notice them

When you pay for YouTube Premium you are led to believe you are getting an ad-free experience. But this is further from the truth. Let me explain.

Before I joined Premium I watched videos which were interspersed with ads that popped up in the middle (sometimes several times) and at the end. Usually, they are random and unrelated ads to the video that either require you to skip or wait until they finish. Furthermore, I could not play videos in the background.

My experience with Premium is that more I can play videos in the background, not having to skip the ads, and I can multitask. YouTube is much more enjoyable.

But why is it more employable? That is because of the convenience now offered. But more subtlety, I am getting different content. imagine watching the normal content I watch now without Premium. It would mean I would get not only the in-video ads but also the interlaced ads that normally come up. But that is not what makes ads annoying. It is the need for me to skip ads that is annoying. In other words I am paying for this privilege and convenience.

I still get ads. They are still in the videos pumped to me by the vlogger. They are less annoying and also more relevant to the content. It is basically a version of good ol’ television … except I am paying for it.