Henki Time - The Bulldog Edition

As President's Day has limped around again here in the US, it might be as good a time as ever to reheat the real history of the Vulcain Cricket and the Presidents of the United States.

For those of you suffering from insomnia, my book on the subject is available for purchase ; )

The Cricket and the Presidents

So all in one go, here's a reheated version -

The Presidents and Henki

So just what does your old pal Henki have in common with Ford, Carter, Reagan, Gorbachev, Clinton, Bush, Obama and one Joe Biden?

I've got what I like to think of as the REAL President's Watch. One of the Paajanen Vulcains. These were the watches created and ordered by Keijo Paajanen's family in Helsinki to present to US presidents, present and past when they visited Finland. I am sad to say that the Paajanen's are no longer in the watch and jewelry business, and that the last of these was most likely presented to Joe Biden on a state visit to Finland.

The Paajanens represent what is good and right in the watch business, and their efforts to keep the Vulcain tradition alive should be remembered and appreciated by watch fans on this President's Day.

And let's hope that some deep pocketed financing Gigi sees the value in Vulcain, and hires Keijo Paajanen to help save it!

This story is from a previous posting in 2012.

A Real Brand Ambassador!

It seems that this is the age of the "Brand Ambassador" - generally someone very famous who has more money than God. Someone who likes a "freebie" and gets paid an insane amount of money to accept a luxury gift. Also, as we have sometimes seen, someone who then behaves in such a way that it truly embarrasses and shames the company that hired them. Why is it, in this age of insane advertising budgets, that we do not see a true brand ambassador? Someone that the company should well and truly be proud of?

Well, today I got to speak with someone who I have come to believe is one of the few true brand ambassadors. Someone who represents the very best of the watch brand ambassador. The man who with his father worked to revive and sustain a wonderful tradition, and helped ensure that Vulcain would remain The Watch of the Presidents.

So now, a few minutes with Keijo Paajanen.

James Henderson - How is it that you and your family got involved with the Vulcain Cricket in the first place?

Keijo Paajanen - It was through a meeting we had with Mr. Michel Ditisheim in Switzerland. He was the Director for MSR (Montres Suisse Reunion) and a shareholder for Revue Thommen S.A.

It was actually his father Robert Ditisheim who originally created the Cricket!

JH - Helsinki, Finland is a long way from the US. What was it that motivated your family to start presenting the Vulcain Cricket to US Presidents in the first place?

KP - As many watch historians and fans know, there was in the past a tradition of presenting a Vulcain Cricket to US Presidents. We wanted the great story to continue and also because our family has always wanted to have good relations with the USA. My father and his family escaped from advancing Russians (Soviets) in 1939 (JH notes - this is the period of the Winter War).

JH - Who have you presented Vulcain Crickets to?

KP - To Ronald Reagan, George Bush (and same time Gorbachev), Gerald Ford (I personally met), Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter (I met also personally) and finally last year to Vice President Biden.

Keijo Paajanen presenting a Vulcain Cricket to Jimmy Carter

JH - Who was the most interesting President/Vice President you have presented a Vulcain watch to?

KP - That must be Jimmy Carter I met personally. He was such a nice person. I also met his lovely wife Rosalynn

JH - Do you now carry the current Vulcain collection?

KP - We did have some of the new pieces but at the moment no, we do not carry it.

JH - It seems that there is a great deal more to the Vulcain tradition than simply presenting a watch, you and your family have really acted as true ambassadors not just for the Vulcain Cricket, but for Finland as well.

KP - It is our family tradition to present this very special Vulcain Cricket watch every time a US President or Vice President visits Finland. The Vulcain Cricket is the watch of the Presidents. The Cricket is also a Great Story. It has been worn by Presidents Dwight Eisenhower, Harry S. Truman, Lyndon B. Johnson and Richard Nixon.

We wanted this Great Story to continue, so in 1988 when President Ronald Reagan was in Finland we presented him a with a Cricket watch.

In 1990 we presented a Cricket to President George Bush during the Helsinki Summit. (Actually we also presented a Cricket to Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev. We never got a letter but you can see him wearing the watch on the cover of Time Magazine's International Issue (December 31, 1990 number 53).

Courtesy of Time Magazine

In the summer of 1995 we presented a watch to President Gerald R. Ford while he was in Finland to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the signing of the Helsinki Accords. I had great honor to meet him personally!

Keijo Paajanen presenting a Vulcain Cricket to Gerald Ford

In 1997 we presented a Cricket to President Bill Clinton while he was in Helsinki. A few months later we presented a Cricket to President Jimmy Carter, with him being the ninth President of the United States of America to wear the very same watch model. I had the great honor of meeting President Carter and his lovely wife Rosalynn. No wonder we call the Cricket the watch of the Presidents.

One important historical note is that Richard Nixon got his Vulcain Cricket while he was Vice President in 1955. He received his Cricket from the National Association of Watch and Clock Makers.

JH - And the tradition continues with Vice President Joe Biden?

KP - Yes. And I feel it is time for me to provide some information concerning my gift to Vice President Biden since the PUBLIC FINANCIAL DISCLOSURE REPORT was released. I knew this was going to take place since I was contacted long time ago by The Ethics Counsel of the Office of the Vice President.

The watch (the particular model) given to Vice President Biden is from a stock my father kept (only a few pieces) for future presentations and this is why they are no longer in stock lists and therefore no longer for sale. My father passed away 2009.

And most recently, a Vulcain Cricket was presented to President Obama -

The Greatest Marketing Campaign That Never Was (a marketing campaign) - Part 1

For the past 20 plus years, I have been writing about Vulcain, and more specifically the Vulcain Cricket and its relationship to various US Presidents. And what I've learned along the way is that there is a dearth of actual, factual information on how so many US Presidents (Truman, Eisenhower, Johnson and Nixon) came to be Vulcain Cricket owners. Several of my more well-heeled colleagues in the Fourth and Fifth Estate (and to some extent, yours truly as well) have sustained a fairly flawed belief that the Vulcain watch company had conceived of, and launched a marketing campaign to present a watch to each US Presidents. And after a visit to Vulcain HQ and a perusal of what documentation actually exists, it became quite clear to me that I needed a better source...

Well, all I can say is that it's good to have friends! A few calls were made, and Michel Ditisheim invited me to come over and talk about the Cricket, the Presidents, his friendship with the Paajanen family, and even a bit about life.

For those of you just turning in, Michel Ditisheim
is perhaps the last, best link to the original Vulcain, the "middle" Vulcain and today's Vulcain. His father was the inventor of the original Cricket. Michel worked with the Paajanen family to help present Vulcain Cricket watches to former US Presidents in the 1990s and 2000s, and he was instrumental in shepherding Vulcain through the rocky quartz crisis and ultimately to its reemergence with new owners in Le Locle earlier this century. His father, Robert Ditisheim, was not unlike the guy who said "What if we slice the bread, before we sell it?" In other words, when he created the Vulcain Cricket, he brought to reality something many people wanted - they just didn't know it yet!

"It was a sensation!" - Michel Ditisheim.

So what is agreed upon by everyone? The very first Vulcain Cricket to be presented to a sitting US President was given to Harry Truman by the White House Press Corps. It was not a gift from Vulcain. When I asked Mr. Ditisheim why they chose the Vulcain Cricket, his answer was elegantly succinct - "It was a sensation!"

It is important to understand that at the time it was introduced, the Cricket represented something that had not been seen before. A wrist watch with an alarm. What was often referred to as a "secretary on the wrist". It's interesting that many of us think of alarm watches as useful for waking us up. But for you younger readers out there, back when dinosaurs roamed the earth, and we typed out our correspondence with an Olivetti Lettera 22 -

Courtesy of Wikipedia

We did not receive Google Reminders on our cell phones. Owners of alarm watches would use them frequently during the day to set the alarm for meeting reminders, etc.

Yes, the Vulcain Cricket was indeed a sensation. So it made sense that the press corps would present such a watch to President Truman. But then the history gets murkier.

So stay tuned, we're going to shed some much needed light!

The Greatest Marketing Campaign That Never Was (a marketing campaign) - Part 2

Celebrity partners, friends of the brand, watch product placement. You are certainly familiar with these terms. And many folks in the watch (and watch adjacent) interest groups out there have long held the belief that the Vulcain Cricket became the "The Watch of Presidents" through extremely shrewd maneuvering by the Ditisheims, most recently Michel Ditisheim and the Vulcain marketing team. As Mr Ditisheim explained to me when we met last November, nothing could be further from the truth.

As we have established, the very first Cricket was presented to Harry Truman by the White House News Photographers Association. There were no intermediaries, not "fixers" who intervened to get the watch presented. It was simply the watch that they chose to give him -

Photo Credit Harry S Truman Presidential Library

And of course the folks selling Vulcain watches saw a reasonable opportunity to spread the word about Vulcain and the Cricket. And tempting (and potentially easy) as it might have been to jump on this marketing goldmine with both feet, handing out Vulcain Crickets left, right and center to anyone vaguely connected to the White House, Mr. Ditisheim and the folks at Vulcain took a decidedly novel approach. They did nothing.

Well, not exactly nothing, but let's just say that rather than spending time and money working to promote the Cricket by presenting it as a free gift to every US dignitary that crossed their path, they simply sat back and watched as the Cricket took on a life of its own, promoting itself and Vulcain as perhaps the least expensive yet most effective brand ambassador of all time!

History will note, the next man in the hot seat at Pennsylvania Avenue was none other than the now out of work, former Supreme Commander of the Allied Expeditionary Force in Europe, one Dwight David Eisenhower. Just how, when, where, and why Ike came to have a Vulcain Cricket is a subject of debate and more than a wee bit of conjecture. What is clear is that, at least as far as Michel Ditisheim knows, it most certainly did not come directly from Vulcain.

Advertisment for Vulcain Cricket

And Vulcain (and the Cricket) did the opposite of the fabled grasshopper, they made hay while the sun shined! Needless to say, long before Michael Jordan strapped on a pair of Nikes, watch fans wanted to "be like Ike". And it didn't hurt that unlike other alarm watches before and since, the Vulcain Cricket did as advertised - it literally chirped like a cricket, ensuring that the wearer (and all those around) would not miss its alert. The quality of the Cricket's construction was demonstrated to a large audience when President Eisenhower's Vulcain rang out as he participated in a conference discussing the importance of imposing higher import tariffs for Swiss goods. Whether or not this was planned will likely never be known, but the Cricket was rapidly becoming a fixture at the White House.

And for those of you keeping score at home, the official number of Vulcain Crickets given as a gift by Vulcain to US Presidents thus far is:

0 / 2

Tune in next time as the Cricket jumps to the wrist of a new, and somewhat unlikely Commander in Chief.

The Greatest Marketing Campaign That Never Was (a marketing campaign) - Part 3

Of the US Presidents since Truman it is generally agreed that only 2 have never received or worn a Vulcain Cricket - George W. Bush and John F. Kennedy. Insofar as the forty third president, the reason most often cited was that he has not visited Helsinki, Finland from the time of his presidency until a few years ago (more on that later). When it comes to President Kennedy, it is safe to say that unlike his predecessor, Eisenhower, he neither purchased one or was presented one prior to his election. And as history will note, he was assassinated before the end of his first term, and any symbolic post-Presidential presentation that might have placed a Vulcain Cricket on his wrist were made impossible.
Fate would bring a former school teacher from Stonewall, Texas to the White House in 1963.

Arnold Newman, White House Press Office (WHPO) - Lyndon Baines Johnson Presidential Library and Muesuem - Archived
Lyndon Baines Johnson was, to put it mildly, a man who was as much shaped by history as he helped shape it. Born on a farm in Stonewall, Texas in 1908, through a series of events that would have made Forest Gump blush, he became first Vice President, then President of the United States in less than 3 years. From what can only be called modest beginnings in a small farm house, it would be fair to say that his ascension could not be called typical. Following a spell as a school teacher, he entered politics as a legislative secretary to Richard M. Kleberg, who won a 1931 special election for a congressional seat representing Texas in the US House of Representatives. The rest, as they say, is history.
President Johnson was perhaps the all-time Vulcain Cricket fan. How and when he got his initial Cricket is, again, shrouded in a bit of mystery.
Courtesy of Vulcain
What is known is that he was so enamored with the Cricket that while attending a conference in Switzerland, he deployed several staff members across Geneva with instructions to lay hands to as many Vulcain Crickets as possible so that he could present them as gifts. The word around the campfire is that this horological scavenger hunt netted 200 Vulcain Crickets. While who exactly was presented these Crickets is largely lost to history, what we do know from the LBJ Library's archive is that on April 2, 1964 President Johnson did present a Vulcain watch to Secretary McNamara in the Cabinet Room of the White House during a "special" meeting. I feel confident that if you asked any heads of marketing working for a watch company, they would be over the moon if a year's worth of pay-to-play content on instagram, Facebook or any other social media channel netted a sale of 200 watches - and from such a prestigious client! Needless to say, they clearly did do everything bigger in Texas.
The cost to Vulcain for this amazing return on marketing investment? Exactly CHF 0! Once again, the Vulcain Cricket proved to be the world's most successful Swiss watch brand "ambassador". President Johnson even went so far as to customize at least one of his Crickets with his initials at the 9 o'clock position.
Courtesy of the NAWCC
While there are more than a few images of Johnson wearing other watches, it is safe to say that the Cricket from La Chaux-de-Fonds was one of his favorites.
President Johnson (in the end) opted not to seek the nomination to run again for the Presidency in 1968, and yet another unlikely presidential candidate would emerge, one who was already wearing a Cricket on his wrist when destiny called.

The Greatest Marketing Campaign That Never Was (a marketing campaign) - Part 4

Enter the man from California

Richard Nixon is the first, and at the time of this writing only US President to be born in California. Nixon entered the national political arena in the same election as fellow future President, John F. Kennedy. They were both elected to the House of Representatives the same year. Nixon was first a Congressman, then was elected to the Senate, when in his his first term his name was put forward in a smoke-filled room to be the running mate of future President Eisenhower.

In many ways he was about as unlikely a future president as the man he succeeded in the Oval Office, President Johnson. Seeming set to follow in the footsteps of Eisenhower, he lost the 1960 election to his fellow freshman representative, John F. Kennedy. He spent the next eight years in a political wilderness. Counted out by many, he came back to win the 1968 election.

And now we have to once again clarify some of the perceived notions as to provenance as it pertains to the Vulcain Cricket and the Presidents of the United States. It is indeed true that Richard Nixon owned a Vulcain Cricket. It is also true that his Vulcain Cricket was a gift. But what has (unfortunately) been misunderstood or simply poorly researched is the actual source of the gift.

Courtesy of Vulcain

As Vice President, Richard Nixon gave a talk to the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. He was then presented with (spoiler alert) a Vulcain Cricket. The then Vice President sent this rather praiseworthy note to Vulcain in 1960 -

"This watch was presented to me on the occasion of my address before the National Association of Watch and Clock Makers on May 20, 1955. It has given excellent service over the past five years and has served as my alarm clock around the world."

That's correct watch fans, the score thus far is:

Vulcain Crickets worn by US Presidents (and Presidents-to-be) = 4

Vulcain Crickets given by Vulcain to US Presidents (and Presidents-to-be) = 0

Once again, the Cricket itself proved to be one of the best "brand ambassadors" out there.

I was very fortunate in preparing these dispatches to be introduced to Michel Ditisheim, the former head of Vulcain and son of the Cricket's creator, Robert Ditisheim. He was kind enough to invite me over to discuss Vulcain the last time I was in La Chaux-de-Fonds. We talked about the Cricket, and he helped me to discern fact from (if not fiction), some misunderstandings held by more than a few journalists and Vulcain enthusiasts at large.

According to Mr. Ditisheim, the first time that Vulcain presented a Cricket to a US President was when Barack Obama was elected - some 56 years after the first Vulcain Cricket appeared on the wrist of a US President, courtesy of the White House Press Photographer’s Association.
So you're probably saying -

"Wait a minute, Henki! You claimed that every US President since Truman except Kennedy and George W. Bush has either owned or been presented a Vulcain Cricket!"

Yes, gentle reader, I said exactly that. But the Cricket was about to stop chirping, at least around 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue for the next 20 years or so.

This brings us to the close of the first chapter of the story of the Vulcain Cricket and the Presidents of the United States.

But stay tuned! We will be back with the story of how a seemingly forgotten watch and an unlikely retailer over 1500 miles away and his family helped revive and nurture the relationship between the Vulcain Cricket and the Presidents of the United States.

Henki Time - The Bulldog Edition

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Friday, February 20, 2026

You Did It To Yourself - Or What Happens When You Humor A Bully

Monday, February 16, 2026

President's Day and the Vulcain Cricket