Horological Meandering

I have been invited to various boutiques recently and I have to ask myself if I would feel free and relaxed enough to decide on a purchase there. In most cases, the answer would be no (a great exemption probably the Montblanc boutique in Vienna).

That (& 'clothes maketh man') being said, one should always have an open mind. A little story to that:

I am a great admirer of the works of the late Steve Jobs, and I am fascinated by his aptitude for reduction and simplification with a quest to offer utmost user satisfaction. The results are a few of the greatest IT machinery every produced, holistically designed and beautifully constructed. 

Is this possibly the most beautiful PC enclosure ever made (it certainly is one of the most sturdy ones!):

Or this one, a masterpiece of industrial design both outside and inside:

I really enjoy buying such old Apple Power PCs (from the G4/G5 era), upgrading them with little (financial) input and selling them on the famous auction house to people who put them to good use. Its not that much for the money (I make little profit if anything at all; happy to cover costs ;-)), its for the altruistic pleasure that I could contribute to the efficient use of still quite usable PC hardware.

Over the years, I acquired a (very) small group of repeated buyers who appreciate these outdated machines for what they are. These are people who use specialised software written for Apple's pre-OS X (=not UNIX-based) operation systems.

There is, for example, one law professor from the University of Vienna, and there is the owner of a one-man publishing 'house' that specialises in chess books. The latter guy uses ancient desktop publishing software and vintage printers to create very low production numbers (a few dozens) of expert, bibliophile chess anthologies that enjoy a small, but globally dispersed customer base, amongst them university libraries and - of course - collectors. He buys 'my' Apple desktops as backup/replacement workstations to keep his business running without interruption (and without being required to invest into current DTP soft- & hardware which would make his one-man shop unprofitable).

This publisher once told the me the following story:

He has a customer who always insists of a special print and specification for the books he buys, and the publisher is happy to entertain those requests. The customer always acquires each book published by the publisher, even without knowing the exact content and he always pays in advance, sight unseen (we are speaking of several thousand €/book!).

This customer is a dutch billionaire, an offspring of a dutch industrialist family.

One day he sent a mail to the publisher asking for a private meeting, he said he needed to get to know the creator of these beautiful books personally. A date was arranged.

That day, the doorbell of the publisher rang, and outside stood a chlochard in beaten-up clothes, worn sneakers and a backpack, asking for entry.

It was our dutch billionaire, producing from his shirt sleeve several 500€ banknotes to pay for the next book!

This story tells us that appearance is meaningless, its the spirit that counts.

Ken, I hope that your experiences with boutiques were just an unfortunate accumulation of exceptions.

Cheers,

Magnus

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