Horolonomics

I'll admit it: I had a negative initial reaction to Rolex' recent release of a "Rolesor" Explorer (aka two-tone in steel and gold). I wasn't alone. As I type this, I think to myself "they really ought to change that term. It rhymes with eyesore." A memeified version of Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay On the day of the release, I created a meme which I posted to IG, also offered here. It reflected my assessment at the time, which was that the adventure / mountaineering legacy of the Explorer really does not require precious metals, especially gold. It is soft. Climbing Everest requires hardness, so all we need is 904L steel. Not very sophisticated thinking, I'll admit, but I'm pretty certain that's what the "reptilian complex" portion of my brain was up to. It seems that certain novel watch releases kick off an emotional grief response in the watch community. Photo credit Wikimedia and Bertrand Grondin There a...

Helmets of different size on shelving. I had the distinct pleasure of recently, and virtually, joining the Horological Society of New York for a lecture this week. The talk was entitled "The Ideal Watch Size: A Curious Case of Misperception and Missed Opportunities." The speaker, Mark Cho, is a men's fashion entrepeneur who co-founded The Armoury (with stores in New York City and Hong Kong). Cho also owns a men's clothing brand in UK: Drake's . I won't spend too much time describing, in detail, Cho's talk because it is recorded and currently available for HSNY members online (in the near future it will be publicly available on YouTube). Screengrab from Mr. Cho's talk. Cho collected some data online, using a survey, about people's perceptions of their wrist sizes as well as their actual wrist sizes. He also compared and contrasted those survey responses. The results are really interesting and worth considering. Plus, Cho mention...

Let's play a word association game, watch idiot savant style. I'll offer a word and try to anticipate your response. Bern? I'm guessing Switzerland, or Rolex, comes to mind. Geneva? Maybe you're thinking about the stripes on a movement, or the seal that's a hallmark of quality in watchmaking. Moser? I'm betting you might pull up the Instagram account of H. Moser or recall some of their vanta black dials. Baumgartner? Maybe this won't prompt any particular response, but for aficionados of the Urwerk brand it's almost guaranteed that Felix Baumgartner comes to mind. He's the watchmaker, and co-founder, of the manufacturer. I'm even more confident that, in response to any of these prompts, almost no watch enthusiast would think of the state of Indiana (located in midwest farmland of the United States). The Star Press, Feb 3, 1936. But what about this newspaper clip dated February 3, 1936 from The Star Press out of Muncie, Indiana?...