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Z3
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A Relaxing Afternoon with Don Corson and Friends - A photo essay of interesting time pieces

A Relaxing Afternoon with Don Corson and Friends

- A photo essay of interesting time pieces.

    On Sunday June 14, a group of Purists welcomed a special guest in New York City - Mr. Don Corson, met up for a leisurely lunch at Le Pain Quotidien in Union Square.

    It was a great together - Don brought with him the 3 watches (succinctly named as "No. 1", "No. 2", and "No 3") that he made personally. These watches, along with their creation processes, have received a decent amount of coverage on our forum. However, seeing them and handling them in person are very pleasant treats.

    Don, who is the moderator of the AHCI and Independent forum and currently resides in Switzerland, has a very eclectic background. From our conversation, I learned that Don was born and grew up in Connecticut and New Jersey. After receiving his training in music history, he went to Europe, worked for a while on pipe organs, later received further training in engineering, and then worked on various engineering projects. A man who enjoys workings with his hands, as the watch hobby became more entrenched, he decided to make his own watches - a daunting undertaking unthinkable for many.

    The watches were made completely from scratch - movements, cases, hands, dial, everything, making them truly "in-house" creations.

    The results were a marriage of interesting designs and marvelous mechanical executions. I will let the photos do the talking.

    From left to right: No. 2 - a ladies watch Don made for his wife (yellow gold case, black MOP dial, and stingray strap). No. 1 - Don's very first creation. No. 3 - Don's latest work and his most complicated movement to date.

The finishing on the movements, from No.1 to No. 3, gets progressively more decorative - from the non-finished No.1 movement, to the tastefully decorated, ruthenium plated "grayed" movement found in No.3

No. 1. in more detail

The crown on No.1 is interesting...

No. 2 in more detail:

No.3 in more detail, along with a hardcover book documenting the watch making process, which is given to every buyer of No.3.

The dial has beautiful Cote de Geneve decorative pattern, the sub-dial are made of precious stone with nice looking speckles.

The hands are of Don's signature design.

We also saw some very interesting pieces today at the table.

Once again, my most sincere thanks to Jay (jaysny) for his fantastic organizing effort, and fellow Purists for coming out!

My best wishes to Don on his venture as a budding independent watch maker. We will all be waiting for his new design with bated breath.

Hope you have enjoyed the post.

Truly yours,

Jon (Z3)

This message has been edited by Z3 on 2009-06-20 08:53:42

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