As Thanksgiving is quickly drawing upon us, let’s think deeply (or shallow) with my two all-time favorite American writers. What’s the best part of the holidays? The alcohol….um, I mean family. Francis & Papa understand me.
Advance thanks to those PuristS for letting me “borrow” your pics.
(1) “Experience is the name so many people give to their mistakes.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
That watch in your box that stands out now for the wrong reasons. You wear it once a year on a Sunday when you’re feeling sentimental and convince yourself it wasn’t a mistake to waste $xxxx on it.
Me at about 26: a fool who bought a Bedat rectangle watch when I should have bought the genuine original —> JLC Reverso. The Bedat is now my wife’s and even she doesn’t wear it.
Robin’s pic of his brilliant blue Rio de Janeiro Reverso
(2) “How did you go bankrupt?"
Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
This damn watch hobby.
The Vlad Archduke, Amanico, posting his vintage watches that I want for myself.
Nico’s sublime Rolex 6542
(3) “We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master.”
― Ernest Hemingway, The Wild Years
Are you skeptical of how often someone is called a master watchmaker/maitre horologer in these last years? It’s like “Editors” are 3/4 of the staff at a watch blog that wants to be taken seriously.
I like my master watchmaker and editors to be white-haired and/or bald, comes into the office dishevelled wearing the same outfit 4 out of 5 days, has zero pictures of him at any social events floating on the internet — and it’ll f***ing stay that way buddy boy, and will absolutely end slick-haired Charlie, who used to be his apprentice and is now just a weasel, if Charlie makes that g*dd**n mistake one more time.
MScott’s picture of the master Philippe Dufour
(4) “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.”
― Ernest Hemingway
I can only imagine that in the mind of this Frenchman below, this Hemingway thought is interpreted quite differently. Credit to Horogasm for this idea.
picture of the Invenit & Fecit man himself
(5) “She’s got an indiscreet voice,” I remarked. “It’s full of–” I hesitated.
“Her voice is full of money,” he said suddenly.
That was it. I’d never understood before. It was full of money–that was the inexhaustible charm that rose and fell in it, the jingle of it, the cymbals’ song of it.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
When you walk into a watch boutique with a rich friend and your friend gets the fawning back-slapping salesperson while you get the other one with the constipated face.
And how many times has any type of salesperson looked at your shoes? I wear running sneakers frequently and it’d be funny to know what they presume about me.
(6) “No, that is the great fallacy: the wisdom of old men. They do not grow wise. They grow careful.”
― Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms
Phillips Bacs & Russo auction catalogue
Here’s the great truth: Rolex & Patek Philippe are the blue bloods. Certain wealthy guys only buy the blue bloods. Rolex & PP have been safe to buy (and sell) over decades now, more than anything else. It’s the careful choice. It’s just what is done. Like adding a roman numeral for the son’s name. Who else knows this, but of course, other older wealthy guys - Dealers & Auction departments - and those filthy aspirational poors.
And you think Richard Mille has entree into the high-society ball? Sorry champ, RM is the mistress in the downtown apartment you go see when the Missus is on a European shopping trip. That downtown apartment has skeletons. You just hope Miss RM won’t lose excitement like Miss Franck Muller did 15 years ago. Oh my, Miss FM, you fondly remember those crazy hours in Miami, a cigar never tasted so good afterwards; but towards the end there were too many histrionics, she had become the master of complication and you wanted a simpler seduction.
Audemars Piguet? That’s uncle Christopher, who wants to be called Topher nowadays, and his wife Morgan and they dress like they’re still 25 and go to the same nightclubs every weekend. They smoke pot too. You stay in touch but it’s not your scene anymore.
Vacheron Constantin? That’s old aunt Beatrice who’s been a widow since the war and still lives up in the far, far north. Everyone you know with a pulse stopped going up there but she won’t move. Lately, aunt Bea has had the company of a young dinky hipster fellow. The May-December affair befuddles you because aunt Bea has always been such a prude. The little chap does blogging which you think is definitely along the lines of grifting or probably he’s a seaman.
A. Lange & Sohne? Oh yes, old family friends of dad’s or was it grandpapa’s? Can’t remember, it’s been so long. They once had as much money as your family but then they lost it and somehow now they’ve come back into wealth again. But they live too far east to be in your inner social circle.
Breguet? The neighbors down the street. Perfectly nice & staid old money people in the ornate mansion. Interesting landscaping though, every bush and shrub has a neat coin-edge trim. Not for you but pleasant to look at.
The high-end independents? That’s offbeat Richard, called Dickie-boy when you were kids, who moved to California years ago and started investing in tech companies. Dickie is really passionate about tech. Always been a bit too eager to beat his own drums. He’ll talk your ears off. You nod along but it escapes you what he’s worked up about. “Disruption?” “Machine learning?” “The Cloud?” Good heavens, it’s all so tiring to talk to Dickie. He just doesn’t have the decency to talk about golf, yachts, and real estate.
There’s the Thanksgiving watch family, who are you sitting next to?
(7) “Can’t repeat the past?…Why of course you can!”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
The Swiss mindset since the birth of their watch industry.
MTF’s 2017 GPHG winners pic
(8) “I’m a slave to my emotions, to my likes, to my hatred of boredom, to most of my desires.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald, This Side of Paradise
What every marketer at every watch manufacturer knows too well about us…
The now classic Patek Philippe modern ad campaign.
(9) “Nothing is as obnoxious as other people's luck.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
When a guy you know reveals in a post that he’s gotten the same watch ref that you already have.
You introduced him to this reference.
His is in great condition, probably NOS.
Much better than yours.
And his is a complete set.
Bought for less than you paid for yours.
So your terse reply is “Congarts bro”
(Hell no, you’re not fixing that misspelling.)
And he ain’t getting the smiley emoji.
Later it’s all water under the bridge when the GTG rolls around.
alphabeta81’s GTG picture