“What, another watch?” she almost screamed in disbelief no sooner than WMMT had opened the front door to his little love nest. Rewind to last week. Hehad been looking for a Roger Smith Series 1 for some time now, and Jones, his watch dealer, happened to finally locate one. WMMT thought that he had played it pretty safe, so he really don’t know how she could have noticed. But what happened next changed the rest of his life.
I love watches made by small independent artisans because they fully embody the vision of their makers, who have put blood, sweat, and tears into creating them. Among the independent brands, De Bethune is most probably my favorite. In fact, no probably about it: De Bethune is my favorite. After close to a year of thought, I finally approached the De Bethune team to discuss a customized Maxichrono. Here’s how it played out.
One evening while we were sipping away at his ex-wife’s stock of 1945 Pétrus, my buddy Slippery Steve and I contemplated a few of the essential questions in life, the kind that rarely find a real answer. Where do I come from? Is there life after death? Can I wear brown shoes after 6:00 PM? Is my Audemars Piguet a fake? Following on that conversation, Slippery Steve and I offer you six easy ways to recognize if your watch is fake. No prior knowledge needed and entertaining photography guaranteed!
The watch nerd that I am, I rarely immediately wear my new watches; I like to put them aside for a few days and let the anticipation grow. When the day finally came that it was time to wear my new Rolex, I took it out of the box and proudly put it on my wrist. And then horror struck. I didn’t feel anything, not a thing! Zilch, nada, niente! What to do?
One evening while we were sipping away at his ex-wife’s stock of 1945 Pétrus, my buddy Slippery Steve and I contemplated a few of the essential questions in life, the kind that rarely find a real answer. Where do I come from? Is there life after death? Can I wear brown shoes after 6:00 PM? Is my Audemars Piguet a fake? Following on that conversation, Slippery Steve and I offer you six easy ways to recognize if your watch is fake.
The watch nerd that I am, I rarely immediately wear my new watches; I like to put them aside for a few days and let the anticipation grow. When the day finally came that it was time to wear my new Rolex, I took it out of the box and proudly put it on my wrist. And then horror struck. I didn’t feel anything, not a thing! Zilch, nada, niente! What to do?
In the early days of TimeZone and ThePurists when you posted a question you had to wait a few days for an answer you. And that answer was often detailed and knowledgeable. Then came the guys who had no idea what a free-sprung balance was, but posted ten times a day or more with content that included calling watchmakers and CEOs by their first names. Today, we would probably describe all of these categories of forum posters as internet gurus. The problem being, most are just using up bandwidth.
For a die-hard shoe aficionado, the Berluti moniker probably resonates the same way that Franck Muller’s name does for a WIS: overpriced, under-crafted, and something that clueless wanabees might buy. But let’s not forget something important: Berluti, like Franck Muller, was a game changer.
Dear De Bethune,
Can I call you Thunie? Or, even better, just DB?
I have decided to place quill upon pad after all these years of watching you . . . no, I’m neither a stalker nor a star-struck groupie.
But more often than not you have intrigued, baffled, dazzled, and surprised me.
You do not remember our first meeting; how could you? You were just a baby, very different from what you are today. You had rather classic looks inside and out, but there was a je ne sais quoi implying that you might grow into something more interesting and perhaps flamboyant . . .
In the early 1990s, I was facing the same dilemma as today: should I buy modern or vintage? The problem was that the modern watches actually all looked vintage, right down to the sizes. There was something lacking, and watch shopping at times almost felt like perusing the yogurt section in a Soviet supermarket.
I’m obviously exaggerating here, but in general it seemed to me that creativity was more or less an afterthought.
Enter Vianney Halter in 1998 with the Antiqua Perpetual. And then what happened next: the birth of ICH (“independent creative horology”).