you are trapped in here with us
Sometimes questions and situations reoccur in the watch collecting and enthusiast world. On forums and in private communications we are sometimes bombarded with collectors who require answers and seemingly have nowhere to turn. Luckily these answers do exist and have been collected and collated in the latest edition of the Manual for the International Society… Continue reading Consult the Manual (that’s why it’s there)
Ugo Boncompagni* was elected Pope in 1572. Before his ascension he had been a lawyer and papal legate. He is better known to us as Gregory XIII. He was a reformer and is responsible for what became known as the Gregorian Calendar. In this regard he is sometimes confused with the sixth century Pope Gregory… Continue reading The lessons that history teaches
Kaysia has written convincingly about what burlesque performers, drug addicts, and fictional vampire hunters and serial killers can teach us about watch collecting. (I learned once not to take a cigarette from a woman who was performing on stage and that I can, or could, inhale an entire Virginia Slims Menthol in one breath. But… Continue reading A Greek philosopher explains watch collecting
Greg: So, I will roll this your way: If you had malicious intent, what would be the worst watch advice you could give? I have seen this advice given and seen this applied by collectors to themselves: only have one watch per manufacturer in a collection. Why would we ever limit ourselves thusly? Why would… Continue reading Round Table No. 7: More Ed Anger than Dear Abby
Am I ahead of a fashion trend, or way behind? I will let you decide. I think that I am behind. Maybe the watch world is not fashion after all. According to the fashion industry consultants Heuritech, the fashion industry experience cycles in roughly twenty-year increments. First there is the “introduction” of the trend,… Continue reading Old man fashion
Gonna take a sentimental journeyGonna set my heart at easeGonna make a sentimental journeyTo renew old memories. -“Sentimental Journey" (music by Les Brown and Ben Homer, lyrics by Bud Green) In sixth grade (more or less when I was twelve) I had a stern teacher who was known for his discipline and his… Continue reading Gonna take a sentimental journey
I lurked for a few years before I ever made my first comment on a watch forum. I wasn’t sure that, even anonymously, I wanted to be outed as a watch nerd. Now I comment all of the time and even include enough biographical information that you could find me and punch me in the… Continue reading The mask slips
The concept of the wristwatch is older than the concept of the weekend. Abraham-Louis Breguet probably made the first wristwatch for the Queen of Naples in 1810. Sixty-nine years later, in 1879, the British magazine Notes and Queries first used the term “week-end” to describe the comings and goings of workers. (The weekend is only… Continue reading Everybody’s working for the weekend…
I had a question of involving watch manners recently, or maybe it was watch etiquette, either way, it was a conundrum. Sometimes when I am hunting some vintage brand or model, I will send a picture of it to Kaysia or Chris to bounce it off of them. Sometimes, they do that to me. Occasionally,… Continue reading What can Emily Post tell us about watches?
Greg: Why don’t I throw out another Round Table discussion: Can a watch brand be truly “underrated”? On our favorite forum last week two different posts alluded to Longines being an “underrated” brand. My head just about exploded. Longines has been one of the Ur-Swiss fine watch makers for nearly 150 years. Important people wore… Continue reading Round Table No. 5, Now with Four, an underrated discussion
The Escapement Room 