Henki's Holiday Shopping List

Every year about this time, anyone who writes, blogs, vlogs, or pod casts about any sort of consumer product will open their emails each day to find a dump of requests from pr firms to write about their client's products for holiday gift buying guides. And while I do read Monocle, Vanity Fair and the Rake (if and when it actually shows up in North America. It is more often than not a no-show, or delayed by 3 months) I am a social worker, and do not foresee any time in the future where a Cartier Tank will find its way into my Christmas stocking ; )

But with that said, I thought I would break with my usual attitude regarding overt product placement by spending the next few weeks writing about watches, pens, shoes, etc. that I actually personally own or admire. With the caveat that almost all of them are actually (relatively) affordable and not the sole domain of the idle rich.

Some years are more challenging / eventful than others. And while we sometimes mark a success or triumph over adversity at the time, we sometimes wait until the holiday and get that extra something for someone we've been cheering for. The first gift suggestion would mark that for me.

And I'd like to kick it of with a watch from Archimede -

Courtesy of Archimede

This is the 1950 - 3. As it is from Arhimede, the case is "in-house" and manufactured by the Ickler family. It is of stainless steel and measures 40 mm in diameter. It is available with either a self-winding Sellita SW 200-1, or an option for a hand-winding Sellita SW 215. 

I would opt for the hand-winding version -

Courtesy of Archimede

The base price is €940.00 incl. VAT €789.92 excl. VAT. The mechanical movement option adds €80.00 incl. VAT / €67.23 excl. VAT to the total price. I personally feel that is more than fair.

And as this is a special year-end self-reward / very special holiday gift for a loved one (assuming I was the loved-one), I would plump for the case back engraving -

Courtesy of Archimede

This does, of course, add a bit more to the total, but this is not a watch for flipping, or for parking in your watch box. This is a watch that I would wear proudly in my "every day".

Courtesy of Archimede

And you have to love the lume! I hate having to grab my cell phone in the middle of the night to get a time check.

As for straps, those are a personal choice and tend to get changed after purchase. One thing I might tweak for weekend wear? I'd pop on an Archimede NATO just to shake things up a bit -

Courtesy of Archimede

At any rate, that is my first holiday gift suggestion. Stay tuned, tomorrow's another day, and another gift ; )