Horological Meandering

Echi
[Photo Forum Moderator]
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I think it's just a matter of time before we all acclimate to fauxtina..

At first, we hate it, dismissing it outright as fake vintage.

After several more iterations and intros, we begin to warm up to it. Not totally, but slowly. How many folks initially didn't like fauxtina indices on, say, a PAM 372? People who didn't know any better, and yes, horological ignorance can really be bliss, took to it without second thoughts. People who knew better started to not mind it and even liked it. A number even actually bought a few. And this probably extends across most brands with any type of "history".

I'm at that stage (and probably there's a lot out there as well from, ahem, the "purist camp") where I'm thinking, "hell this is nice but where do we draw the line"?

The interesting part is where we acknowledge within ourselves that it's actually nice.. a doorway to giving in to this aesthetic.. and also a lot of introspective back and forth trying to figure out why the hell we get so incensed with pieces faking that aged look. We get incensed because we can't accept that, heck, it looks good!

Once we're over this.. and we're probably at this stage where we're ok with it, ok enough to buy a few.. we then leave the "distressed” jeans stage and start entering the "ripped” denim phase. Honestly, I don't mind "faking” a bit of fade here and there.. but I'm not yet at that point where I can buy jeans with off-the-rack holes in them. This would be similar to those brand new pilot Laco pieces that come with dings and scratches. Not sure why I want to go that route when we can pick up dings and scratches EASILY if we wanted to.. hello doorknob.

This Longines dial is not yet at that ripped denim phase for sure but a step towards it.

Frankly, I like this piece. And I'm starting to view the spots as texture as I view browned indices as hues. My mind is starting to embrace this type of historical appropriation.

I just wished though that it had a manual winding movement.. like that Hamilton field khaki mechanical with no date introduced last year. It sort of keeps the illusion that it's vintage inspired ;-)

Would I buy it? I wouldn't be surprised if I find myself opening my wallet for this one. The only hesitation I'd have is the actual look and feel on the wrist. I tried the Longines Railroad several times and while I love the aesthetic, it just felt too flimsy on my wrist.

Thanks for the article, Magnus.. been waiting for a PPro write up on this piece and like always, yours didn't disappoint!

Best, Echi.

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