Horological Meandering

Ares501 - Mr Green
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POTM - June - Padj

Dear friends
Summer is easily taking grip on Northern hemisphere
Time to move to North America to meet our next POTM
that has just passed 7K post benchmark
You all know this gentleman already but
let's take a closer look

Sit and enjoy
Yours
D


1. Please introduce yourself!

Michael Paduano; Mike; Padj; others censored;

still others on request. Part-time Attorney-At-Law, in New Jersey, USA.

Really old.

2. How did you discover WatchProSite and what does it mean for you to be one of PuristS?

       I actually used to post in the former site, back in the mid-2000s; mainly on the Breguet and VC Fora.

       Things happened, and that phase came to an end. More recently (2014 to be exact) I started devoting

       a lot of time to watches and watch literature and thought I would enjoy participating on a Forum site,

       as in the past. I joined TimeZone and re-joined PuristS, and within a short time found myself drawn to this site exclusively.

       I can’t put a finger on what I disliked about TZ (until about October of last year-thanks Antiquorum) but I can tell you what I like about PuristS.

      This is a community that has fun with each other and has a lot of knowledge to share. It is also a very tolerant group-it puts up with a lot of varied opinions.

       It’s a respite from the rest of the world and a place where you can check in on friends, even if you’ve never met.

       Obsessing on watches, you have to admit, is weird. But in this obsession, or passion, that we share, we learn so much about ourselves and each other;

       and from so many places on Earth-here in the U.S.; North America; South America; Europe; Asia (particularly the “Far East”); Oceania (alright…Australia!).

       I love-and I mean LOVE- to check in on what my friends are talking about every day; and multiple times. Being a Purist is all of that.

       And, finally, it allows me to force my photographs on a captive audience.

3. What watch are you wearing today and how you choose watch the “of the day”?

Today I am wearing my Datograph. I chose it because I am wearing a (light) blue sweatshirt and my Dato is on a black strap.

I choose which watch to wear, in many instances, based on what I am wearing. Sometimes I go against the grain.

For instance: all my suits are either gray or blue, which would suggest I wear a watch with a black or blue strap;

or a stainless steel bracelet. But then I would never wear my Lange 1; my Scuderia Ferrari; my Moritz Grossmann; etc.

So…what I wear isn’t always the determinative factor. I also get in periods where a particular brand rules my decision-making.

Those brands are always Lange or G.P.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

4. What is your favorite watch/brand/complication?

Lange, followed by…guess! C’mon, you can figure it out!

As for complications: the chronograph/fly-back chronograph/split seconds chronograph tops the list about 75% of my watches are from this group.

After that, I would have to say a moon phase; but one that is at least accurate to 122.6 years.

That way I know I will only have to adjust it never. (My Vlad friends, on the other hand, may want something more in line with Ludwig Oechslin or Svend Anderson-eternity is a long time.)

Favorite watch? Probably the Dato. Lange 1 also blows me away emotionally. It’s so odd and yet so perfect.

I would love to have a Lange 1 Moon Phase-that could end up being tops for me.

       5. When and how you discover horology?

There was a Citizen watch back in the late 1980s-big dial with all kinds of astronomical symbols and functions.

I didn’t get it but it fascinated me that a watch would have all that on its dial. Until then I wore the simplest Bulova quartz watch-day and night- for 10 years.

This Citizen made me start to look at watches and begin to see their appeal. In 1992 I inherited my Father’s Longines, which he bought for himself in 1944 when

he was released from Hospital rehabilitating from war wounds. In 1997, after spending years looking at Rolexes (the only brand I knew anything about for a long time) and Breguets,

which I discovered on St. Martin, and which were ridiculously expensive (boy I wish I kept that opinion a little longer) I bought myself an Omega Seamaster Chronograph,

Steel/RG/Tantalum, just to be different from my one friend who was a watch guy and owned several Rolexes. The rest, as they say, is history. Or bankruptcy….whatever.

6. What element of the watch is for you make it or break it factor?

I admire many different brands for many different reasons.

I see a dozen watches every day on PuristS that I would love to have in my collection.

The layout of a dial; the complication and how it is effected; the brand and its reputation.

But if pushed to pick one element of a watch that would be the deciding factor for a purchase,

it would have to be the finishing of the movement.

7. If you could design your own watch what would it be and what it would look like?

39mm round; cream dial; dark brown hour markers (no numerals); leaf hands; luminous hands and hour markers;

all three golds; fly-back chronograph with tachymetre scale on the dial; thin bezel; brushed case-sides;

72 hour power reserve; exhibition case-back; Lange-quality finishing; column wheel with horizontal clutch;

power reserve indication on the movement side.

       8. What is the watch that will last leave your collection and why?

There are two. My yellow gold, champagne dial Lange 1-to me the most beautiful of all the Ones,

and with the original movement. And my Honey Gold 1815 200th Anniversary.

This one because I received it on November 13th, 2015. This just sticks with me. But only one day earlier would I let go of my “Phil Hill” GP Chronograph;

my Vintage ’45 Chronograph; my 1815 RPC and my Dato. Why? I just love these watches. I love looking at them as much as I love strapping them on.

They give me a feeling which may be unexplainable-but it’s a feeling of well-being. Of solidity. And of time remembered. Hey! They make me feel “SEXY”!

       9. What do you love and hate about the watch industry today?             

       I love nothing about the watch industry. I’m happy that some of the brands (and the two I have the most interest in)

       have awakened to the obscenity of the prices that they have charged for their creations and have made some adjustments.

       But I think the Industry is too taken with itself. It suffers from arrogance; which can be seen even when it is crying the blues

       and “admitting” it made mistakes; charged too much; over-produced. Habring2; Seiko; Bruno Soehnle;

       Thomas Ninchritz-these names should be shoved up the big brands’ you-know-whats.

10. What was the evolution of your collection and how do you see it in next decade?

       Basically steel to gold, with a couple platinums thrown in very recently.

       Any brand that intrigued me to just a couple brands that I would consider for purchase.

       When I first started into this passion seriously, I bought anything I read about that was of interest.

       Now, I buy only after a lot of consideration, taking into account what I already have; the brand and whether or

      not it has made me happy in the past; and the considered opinions of people I respect. In the future there will be a

       lot less addition and a lot more selling/consolidation as I attempt to reduce numbers to something sensible.

       So I am limiting myself to a single MB; 2-3 G.P.s; a half-dozen or so Langes; perhaps a couple G.O.s, as I've never owned one and

       I am impressed with several of their models; a Habring2 or 2; a Johannes Kepler;

       a Tank Francaise; a Tank Anglais; a Tank Louis Cartier; a Santos-Dumont; Reverso Rouge; Reverso 1931; and a Reverso 1948.

       Oh, and a couple of Langes.

11. What other hobbies do you have?

      Who has time?! Just kidding. I love to read.

       I love to go to movies. I love theatre.

       I love music; particularly blues, rock and roll and Gustav Mahler (don’t ask-I have no idea why).

       And I love to travel.

12. Your life motto and life philosophy is…

I don’t have a motto.

Philosophy? I think we should be aware of other people, and how they feel about things.

And we should remember we are not the last generation to be here, unless we fix things so that we are the last.

And that would be incredibly selfish.