Holy grails and Leicas

Everyone knows that the best part of holiday shopping is making sure you get the perfect gift to bring joy and happiness into the lives of the people you care about. The perfect gift that says “I know you so well.” Just kidding, it’s obviously the secret list of everything that you want to get for yourself. At any given time I have at least three gift lists going (I’m a list guy). One of those lists is what I call simply “grails.” They’re the things that you’d buy immediately if money didn’t matter. These are three of the items on my list. Let me know what’s on yours!

in this issue

📷 Leica Q2

⌚ Tudor Black Bay 58

🎹 Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field

Leica Q2

Ironic that a Leica is on my list so soon after being duped by iPhone photos, but ever since I no longer needed to care about using a camera for work the Leica cameras have become sooo much more appealing. When your professional work depends on having a camera that can shoot great video and photos, Leica cameras typically don’t end up on your short list. For years I was making YouTube videos for work and I needed something that was relatively small, shot great video, and most importantly affordable, which means I landed squarely in the Sony ecosystem. Leica was never on my radar. At my current job, I'm lucky enough that I don’t need to worry about having a personal video camera for work anymore. If ever I want to shoot a video I have access to cameras I could never personally buy. So I sold all my Sony gear that was collecting dust on my shelf and never looked back. At least, until I realized that I still enjoy taking pictures for personal use. And now I had no camera.

When I started researching cameras again, a whole new world opened up to me because I didn't have to worry about video anymore. I even picked up a few film cameras just for the love of the game. Of course, the Leica can shoot video but that isn’t why you buy a Leica. You get one so that you can flex on everyone with the little red dot. Duh. Unfortunately, these cameras are insanely expensive. Thankfully, the Q2 has a fixed focal length so at least I wouldn’t need to worry about spending tens of thousands of dollars on multiple lenses.

Tudor Black Bay 58

Speaking of obscenely expensive luxury rich guy goods, the Tudor Black Bay 58 is the watch that got me into watches. Some people like Rolex, some people like Seiko, for me it was Tudor. I was always more of a smartwatch person, but a few years ago I bought a TicWatch and was so thoroughly unimpressed with what I got vs how much I spent that I thought, “Well damn, I could get a real watch for this price.” And that’s when the rabbit hole opened and swallowed me whole. I was vaguely aware that the watch community was a thing, but I had no idea how deep it went and how many options there were.

After watching YouTube videos for weeks and digging through forum after forum I found the perfect watch for me: the Tudor Black Bay 58. Now all I had to do was find roughly $5000. No biggie! At the time I had one full-time job, two part-time jobs, and was also in school full-time so I guess lack of sleep was making me a little delirious. Eventually, I settled on a Bulova Lunar Pilot instead and picked it up at the local Macy’s in-between classes. Then I flipped that into two Lorier watches and a Seiko turtle, which I then flipped into something else, which got flipped into something else and so the story goes. The obsession continues but one day the BB58 will be mine.

Teenage Engineering OP-1 Field

You didn’t think I’d write a post about grail items and not include something for Teenage Engineering did you? Surprising absolutely no one, the OP-1 Field was an immediate addition to this list as soon as it came out. It’s an upgraded version of the OP-1 which was already eye-wateringly expensive. I somehow managed to buy a used original OP-1 for about $900 a few years ago and loved the hell out of that thing. As fun as it was, there were just a few things about it that were a little too annoying to use and when I needed money I sold it. It held its value really well for an electronic piece of gear so I managed to get almost all of my money back.

That was my first product from Teenage Engineering and I didn't have the time to learn every little thing about it. Apparently, all of their devices are confusing as hell to learn but that’s part of the charm. It feels like you’re actually learning a real instrument and the sense of accomplishment that comes along with that is what makes it fun. Still, whenever I get in the mood to mess around and make some music I genuinely miss how fun it was using the OP-1. As soon as I buy myself a Leica Q2, a Tudor Black Bay 58, and still have $2000 (not including taxes) left over to blow, the OP-1 Field will be on my desk again. You’ll never know I hit the lotto, but there will be signs.

Special thanks to Cool Supply members:

Abstronautica, Taylor Cash, Ben Sorensen, Daniel Hernandez, Becca Farsace, Abraham Perez, Charles Malave, Dean D., and Jacob Mitchell! ❤️