I think your watch is rather handsome.
I used to wear a pocket watch, but I kept overwinding it/them.
1: Thanks. I gifted it to myself, because all the classrooms at school have the clocks cleverly located at the back, making it hard to check the remaining class time discreetly (unless you're the instructor).
Stanley, if you ever say "I gifted it", much less "I gifted it to myself", again, you are banned from the blog. Banned!
For what is a gift, but a given thing? Thus you may simply say "I gave it" bzw. "I gave it to myself".
4: The reason is because Higgs boson not cool.
How did my shoe horn end up in the dish drying rack, I wonder.
Outside of your dish drying rack it's too dark to horn.
More seriously, don't any rich people have taste anymore?
I guess if you are a tasteful rich person, you are pretty much by definition not posting pictures of your tasteful deeds/purchases on instagram.
The tasteful rich people are all on Pinterest.
Outside of your dish drying rack it's too dark to horn.
Actually, I blind all my shoehorns so that they'll horn all the time.
7: Higgs boson Global Warming PEDs!
Or rather, photos of their fabulous tasteful possessions are passed around by the rest of us, there.
14: Don't pay it for the pizza.
Actually, I blind all my shoehorns so that they'll horn all the time.
They're like elephants. You just need to blind them once, when they're small, and then they'll never test the limits as adults and realize the strength of their eyes.
Like many people, I gave up watches when I got my first cell phone, but now I'm wondering if I should reaccouter myself. My phone spends so much time charging I often need and lack it.
Because you lost your watchhorn, so you can't take it off?
More seriously, don't any rich people have taste anymore?
The best rich people are the perfect combination of frivolous and sensible.
20: Do you mean frivible or sensuous?
re: posting photos on one's stuff:
I have four or five nice Russian watches. I went through a phase five or six years back when I bought about half a dozen over a few months on Ebay. Total spend, about $60 USD.
So I have among others [not mine, photos from internet]:
Luch:
http://www.netgrafik.ch/civil_watches7.htm
Poljot/Kirova:
http://img801.imageshack.us/img801/6725/15730760.jpg
[Mine has a less discoloured face]
Sekonda 'deluxe' dress watch:
http://www.netgrafik.ch/civil-watches84.htm
Photos make them look a bit more bling than they are, as they are all fairly small and slim by modern men's watch standards.
Instead of wearing a watch I just write the time on my wrist every couple of minutes in Sharpie.
I just have Sifu upload photos of his arm to Facebook every couple minutes.
I wish I could consciously use the part of my brain that knows what time it is well enough to usually wake me up a minute or two before my alarm clock is going to go off.
The numbers on that Luch are lovely. I find the numbers on most contemporary watches to be horribly ugly.
I have three old watches inherited from various family members, all of which work, and all of which I find very attractive, except that my modern, everyday watch is my absolute ideal of a watch and there is never any reason to wear any watch but it. A waste, really.
I like IWC watches, but unemployment and the strong Swiss franc have kept me from buying a second. A friend bought a magnificent IWC Portuguese a few years ago and I am still puce with envy.
22: I really, really like the first one linked, ttaM, though they are all handsome.
And here I'd been contemplating, in my sometimes headstrong manner, a comment along the lines of: Pfeh! People wear watches, what, to engage in status display or somesuch? Pfeh.
I'd briefly forgotten that many watches are quite beautiful. I'd forgotten until just now that I actually scored several pretty ones from my mom's house when she passed. The problem is just that I don't need to wear a watch.
Perhaps if I wore one, I'd refer to it instead of checking the time on the computer.
I like the look of Luch. I wouldn't have thought there were any Belarusian exports of much value.
I have a Timex Easy Reader on an Orange NATO strap. I like it, but I think I'm going to get a cheap mechanical Seiko 5 on a NATO strap soon. I tried to order a soviet watch on ebay once, but the seller wouldn't take paypal, and my bank wouldn't wire the money. Then I found five dollars.
I have an IWC, which is the progeny of a nice Sinn, which itself was born of a silly Breitling that a college s.o. bought me a million years ago.
I thought you were employed again, Flip.
That said, I move in perfect concert with the sun, so your so-called time is little more than an afterthought to me.
32: I thought the same but wasn't so gauche as to highlight the issue.
Since I'm not rich I don't mind being gauche.
The problem is just that I don't need to wear a watch.
My boss was talking about how the new doctors have to get into the habit of wearing a watch again because cell phones don't tell seconds easily.
My favorite:
http://www.omegawatches.com/gents/speedmaster/professional-moonwatch/35735000
It's going to be difficult to beat this one for insante ugly and insanely expensive but I bet there are Russian oligarchs waiting in line:
http://www.askmen.com/top_10/celebrity/ultra-complicated-watches_2.html
36: The hell? There are stopwatch lock-screens, IIRC.
I've never seen that used. A watch is still much easier. It's not in your pocket and you don't need a free hand or a place to set the phone.
A hands-free problem? I can see it being tricky juggling a cellphone while you're taking a pulse -- a wristwatch would be easier.
I need to get my good watch fixed -- I have a nice dull Tag Heuer my father got me as a law school graduation present, but a pin in the band broke last month and I keep on forgetting to take it in for repairs. Pulling my cell out to check the time is annoying.
re: 29
They were pretty fancy in their day. It's a very slim movement (and thus a very slim watch). I expect not much by fancy Swiss standards, but it's a nice dress watch and keeps accurate time. I think (but might be wrong) mine is 1970s.
I like Mr. Jones watches yet I also think they are too twee. Except for this one, which I'd buy in a heartbeat if they weren't sold out. I think the charm of the linked watch outweighs its self-consciousness. As for the rest, having one would be like having a "Fuck your Noguchi coffee-table" t shirt, which seems funny, but then one can't wear it because people might think one was the sort of person who cares enough about furniture to disapprove of it, which is true but one doesn't necessarily want people to know it. I've been working in design so long that I hate anything that looks like it was designed to appeal to me.
40 is a much better argument, and I am always irrationally warm towards people who wear their watch-face inside the wrist, as my mother was taught to do in nursing school.
She gave me a nice watch for college graduation, and I lost it off my wrist at a contra.
Conveniently, the most expensive watch is also the ugliest.
I believe I've mentioned before, here or on waste, my disdain for wall cocks that have functioning hands but numbers in disarray, like this one (or the ones where the numbers are just out of order). Because of course you can still tell the time by looking at the hands.
The truly rigorously whimsical clock or watch would be one with all the numbers in order, and properly functioning mechanisms, etc., but no hands.
Well, okay, but you can't tell it's a watch.
This one would be cool if it had "Death From Above" embroidered on the band, otherwise it's a bit drab. It really exists, I've seen one at the Century City mall, where not even the most aggressive lawyers dare to buy and wear it.
http://www.bellross.com/us/#/collections/aviation/br_01/32
Heh.
Maybe I should contact Mr. Jones about my preferred watch.
44: I think the charm of the linked watch outweighs its self-consciousness.
I would think that having to overcome self-consciousness is a problem in its own right. Nonetheless! I know what you mean.
Also, nosflow said "wall cocks".
I have to admit, I've no interest in expensive things in general, but mechanical things that are designed to be used (especially with the hands) are really attractive. Old watches, mechanical cameras, pens, hand tools, scientific instruments, etc.
A work colleague of mine is a keen gardener, and he seeks out really beautiful antique tools at markets which he fixes up and uses. Things of a quality -- all hardwoods and brass, and high quality steel -- you'd struggle to find easily except at crazy prices.
Having been pwned in 51.last, I will say that I'm a big fan of wall clocks in general (as well as framed mirrors). I've never looked into the best and worst of them, but I imagine there's a whole world of contention out there.
My history with watches: As a kid I had a calculator watch, the spitting image of the one Ryan Gosling wore for Half Nelson. I stopped wearing it in middle school because I inexplicably found it exasperating to take it on and off during gym class' swimming weeks.
I only started wearing watches again more than a decade later, when I needed one to wear while jogging home from work ... and conveniently someone's watch had been semi-permanently in our lost and found.
I've felt out of sync in all three phases: Kids didn't wear watches, teenagers just slightly pre-omnipresent-cell-phones seemed to, and nowadays they're rarer again.
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Just since this is the active thread, I'll mention that Ryan Cooper guest-hosting over at the Washington Monthly's "political animal" blog is really a very good blogger. Very good.
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52 speaks my unspoken language, though I'd add bikes into the mix.
It took me until 56 to realize that "vw" isn't some new commenter I didn't recognize but rather the same commenter as VW.
57: The limp has diminished him. Sad, that.
57 is a fascinating glimpse into the nosflovian mind.
Yeah, I'm with 52 and 56. Fine mechanical things are a pleasure even if they are obsolete in many cases.
re: 60
I still make regular use of my film cameras, but yeah, I'd guess a lot of nice scientific instruments and the like are just museum pieces. Lovely things though they are.
Make a good complement to Nouriel Roubini's wall vulvas.
The art is nosflow's apartment is hung.
I quite like this watch I got from my grandfather. Baume & Mercier. My mom had it appraised before she sent it on to me -- it's apparently very fancy, although I don't remember the dollar figure.
A family friend gave me this edition of the Keith Haring Swatch for my bar mitzvah. I had no idea how valuable it was at the time. Some years after, I'd stopped wearing it, in a moment of idiotic sentiment, I gave it to the girl who relieved me of my virginity.
67: Whoa, I would never have suspected that watch of being that valuable.
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Attn. less-determined fans: season 3 of Archer is now on Netflix.
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I just have Sifu upload photos of his arm to Facebook every couple minutes.
I selectively fertilize my lawn to show an image of a clock face and wait for Google Earth to update. It's right twice a day!
25: I do that. I've always thought it was somewhat normal. Thank goodness I eventually convinced Lee to stop using an alarm clock and just have me wake her up, because I was being driven quickly insane by having to live through her pushing the sleep button on the rare occasions I got to wake up later than she did.
67: You gave her a watch, she gave you the time.
I had no idea how valuable it was at the time.
Not too long ago I was trying to learn about a watch I inherited from my grandfather and was blown away at the prices quoted for related watches (I haven't been able to find anything specifically identifying the watch in question).
(On the front one reads "Jaeger-LeCoultre", on the back, "Memovox" and the number 1144320.)
Who are these people who pay thousands of dollars for watches? There must be a lot of them, judging by how many fancy watches there are.
Who are these people who pay thousands of dollars for watches?
Sterling Archer might characterize them as "bag[s] in which one douches", but that seems to be a mistake. Surely "into" is more correct.
I guess, per the OP, the Rich Kids of Instagram are among them.
I wonder if I can learn anything interesting about the three other watches (not including the aforementioned overwound pocket watch) that, for some reason, I own.
Watch one: no, not really. No identifying marks other than the brand (and the engraving on the back, but that just identifies this individual watch).
Watch two: no, but it seems as if it is (a) not automatic and (b) also overwound, though possibly not by me.
Watch three: yes! this watch, and now I know what the smaller dial is!
I used to have a nifty Russian military watch with (from what I could tell) real radium hand markings, but I haven't the slightest idea what ever happened to it.
I used to not wear a watch in case I had to unexpectedly get into a ninja battle (I wore lightweight shoes for the same reason), but maybe that's not a good excuse anymore.
78.last: plus, it has an engraved cock.
80: The robot people forged an alliance with the ninja people?
82: nah I just feel like at this point better to delegate.
Also wait robots and ninjas have always been on the same side.
|| Sen. Franken is here raising funds for Max; they had a dinner thing here (friends went, we didn't) last night, and there's a bigger deal over in Helena tonight. Anyway, I see a picture in my FB feed of him with our Superintendent of Public Instruction (rising star Denise Juneau) and she's half a head taller. I guess I've not seen him in circumstances where viewer perspective wasn't controlled. NTTAWWIO. |>
Jurassic pirates kept velociraptors on their shoulders. Now they have to settle for parrots.
I got a fairly nice watch some fifteen years ago as a Christmas present from a girlfriend's mother. Nothing spectacular, just a low end Movado, but still way more money than I would ever have considered spending on a watch. I was surprised at how happy I was to get it (and even more surprised that she gave me such a nice present, I was not exactly her favorite person). They do say the perfect present is something you'll really enjoy but would never dream of getting for yourself. It's still going strong, several bands later.
still going strong, several bands later
Just like the singer from ("fun.")!
78: now I know what the smaller dial is!
Huh. That is good to know ("subsidiary at six o'clock showing the state of winding"). I've had a couple of watches go south due to overwinding. Smart and clever to incorporate an indicator for that -- I think I've run across watches with one as well. Now I know.
I would guess that a lot of rich kids eskew metal watches while remaining assholes.
I have this watch from one grandfather that I like: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/110957468441
Three others from other relatives that are also nice, including a Swiss pocket watch from the mid-1800s in a gold case. Such a nice machine, too practical to sit under glass, but really off-key to actually use it as a watch.
I have the watch GEC-Marconi Avionics gave my grandad the commie sailor and cold war defence electronics engineer; it's a beautiful thing but hilariously flaky. the gold housing cracks, the glass jumps out of it, the hands are curved to fit under the ultra-slim glass and foul the face. And the tool room cut his name into the back in the same lettering you find on old British jets.
a perfect product of the classic-era British aviation industry, then; waaay cool and such a hangar queen it's basically useless. I literally stopped wearing it because it costs so much to maintain.
96.2: something of a theme in postwar British manufacturing, perhaps.
Conspicuous consumption is out (has been for a while). Now it's all about prestige (tech startups, venture capital, etc.)
Jay Rosen on Twitter an hour or so ago: Trust me. That joke you are thinking of making about Intrade shutting down has been made and made and made tonight.
I'm also still intrigued at how InTrade lagged almost all of the other betting markets in predicting Obama leading up to the election. The anomaly (~15%) persisted well into election night.
If someone read the news about Intrade and was all, "what's Intrade? Oh I see it's like the Iowa Electronic Markets," would that be like substituting Facebook for Intrade and Friendster for IEM and now you know that I'm old?
Casio F-91, because it's splashproof, it has a light on it, it tells the time, and when it breaks I can just spend £7 and buy another one. I have a nicer watch but I never wear it because the Casio is more useful.
On Alex's British-engineering point, I used to have a Commodore watch from the mid-70s when digital watches were still a new and high-tech thing. It worked really well, except for the clasp, which broke and allowed the watch to fall off my wrist. After that happened a few times, it didn't work really well.
105
Casio F-91, because it's splashproof, it has a light on it, it tells the time, and when it breaks I can just spend £7 and buy another one. I have a nicer watch but I never wear it because the Casio is more useful.
AKA the terrorist watch .
I keep telling myself that a watch would be very useful and nice to have (ttaM's Russian watches are very cool) but then I remember that I have bizarrely thick wrists (laydeez!) and always have such trouble finding a decent watch band that will fit.
I am embarrassedly thinking of getting a Fitbit, and one of the non-embarrassing reasons is the pocketwatch function.
106 brings to mind a corollary of Poe's Law: there is no story so outlandish that someone in our intelligence service won't believe it, and be willing to defend on account of it either (a) a death sentence or (b) life imprisonment.
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Recession Probability Chart ...from Calculated Risk
He reads it as "very low risk."
I read it as nearly worthless, because lag times are very short, 2-6 months, with several false positives. In that it is interesting, in that it shows no gradual declines into recession, and not many shallow slowdowns, but only crashes. Automatic stabilizers don't work for shit.
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there is no story so outlandish that someone in our intelligence service won't believe it
Oh, except for "The Soviet Union is about to collapse", or "the Japanese Navy is preparing an attack on the Pacific Fleet in Hawaii", or "Iraq is determined to invade and occupy Kuwait". No one believed those.
