Visceral Memories with the Mühle Glashutte Sportivo Diver

I am over a week into my time with Mühle Glashutte's Sportivo Travel GMT.

It's interesting how something brand new can hit you like a 2 x 4 and shake loose a memory strictly through visceral means. Back in October I was among the sea of humanity wandering around the Worn and Wound show in NYC. I had made a special point of saying hi to the guys from Duber Time (North American representatives for Mühle Glashutte), and that was the first time I clapped eyes on the Sportivo Travel GMT. I was instantly drawn to it.

Folks who know me will point out my love of color. Typically it is a bit more pronounced, but the Sportivo gives just the right balance, dare I say - nuance! The bright blue wonderfully accentuates the black and white of this GMT sport watch - but not in a remotely gaudy way.

It wasn't until it arrived last week and I put it on my wrist that I recognized the trigger -

Courtesy of https://watchcharts.com/

This is the Calypso Diver from Swatch. I picked mine up at May Company (if memory serves) in late August of 1985. More on my love affair with  that wonderful time machine can be found 

here - https://www.henkitime.com/search?q=swatch+calypso+diver

I have a few more days with the Sportivo Travle GMT, and will be posting the full rundown on Sunday - stay tuned!

Something To Look Forward To

Like probably every single person out there suffering from insomnia and therefore reading Tempus Fugit, I am tired.  Like you, I am tired of COVID and the startling way it has somehow become a political issue. Let's hope we all live through it. 

I was thinking about something that I said at the second annual (and final) gathering of the "Watch Expert's Network" at BaselWorld (the less said about that ill-fated effort, the better), where I asked the absolutely crazy question - "Do any of you actually remember why you got involved in writing about watches in the first place?"  Well, imagine a vacuum sucking all of the air out of the room at a startling rate.  More than a few feathers were ruffled, but Robert-Jan Broer, to his credit, understood that I wasn't trying to pick a fight with anyone, but I was a wee bit exasperated by the waste of an hour and a half listening to a lot of hot air during Sunday (the busiest day at BaselWorld back then).  But to Robert-Jan's credit, he understood what I was driving at - "What was the trigger."  In other words, what drove us all to be interested in something like watches in the first place?

Well, I remember my first SWATCH, the Calypso Diver. I could go into all sorts of crazy details, recount the story, but essentially I hopped into my 1978 Toyota Corona and drove to Midway Mall.  There in the May Company's jewelry case they had the Calypso Diver and the Yamaha Racer. It was back and forth between the two of them, but in the end I opted for the Calypso Diver.

Anyway, that is a long way of saying that I actually really miss those particular SWATCHs. Last week a reader forwarded me this website -

Paulin Watches

And once there, gentle reader, my eye fell on this time machine -

Courtesy of Paulin Watches

So I selected he black cordovan strap and solid case back option -

Courtesy of Paulin Watches

And I ordered!

As a side note, I do not think that they engrave case backs, but I will do that when it arrives.  I will keep you posted ; )

I am not one for hyperbole - I have not held one, worn one or spoken to anyone who has owned a Paulin Watches watch. But some things you gotta take on faith, and I am ready to place mine here.

For those of you who are curious, here are the pertinents -

Movement: 

Seiko NH35A (Automatic)

Lens: 

Hesalite box section PVC

Water resistance: 

5ATM

Case: 

316L stainless steel

Case diameter: 

38mm

Case thickness: 

11.6mm

Strap width: 

18mm

Warranty: 

24 months

You Can Go Home Again

A bit about me.  1n 1985 I was seventeen years old, getting ready to start my final year of high school.  My father had remarried and the polite way to reflect back on that time would be to say that his new wife was not a fan of the family that came with her new husband.  Owing to this I moved back to my hometown and was spending the remainder of my summer working at the now (I am assuming) defunct Selenti's Pizza (Oberlin), living on my own and (not always successfully) trying to take control of my life and my future.  And about that time, two of my friends came back from summer vacation with some pretty nifty SWATCH watches.  And I became fairly obsessed.  So I saved up some pizza money, returned some soda bottles, and off I went to the Midway Mall (another long forgotten relic to another time) and did my best to choose.  And I chose this one -

Shamelessly borrowed from Squiggly

The Calypso Diver.  You can, I believe, still purchase an original Calypso Diver from the good folks at Squiggly in the Netherlands.  SQUIGGLY SITE

Spoiler alert - I managed, despite my best efforts, to graduate Oberlin High School in 1986.  From there a misfire at Slippery Rock University, then off to the University of Oregon.  And that Swatch Calypso Diver made the journey with me.  It saw me through high school graduation, it traveled to the Marshall Islands, and made sure (as best it could) that I got to the majority of my classes at U of O on time.

Somewhere along the way, that SWATCH was lost.  And I got older and my tastes evolved to other watches.  A Tag Heuer F1 (red and green rubber), a yellow Omega Speedmaster Schumacher, and perhaps my all-time favorite - an Eterna Super KonTiki 50th Anniversary.  Plenty of other SWATCHES came to me as they are fun, and my wife Wendy has a great eye for picking out a fun SWATCH.  But I always felt a bit of wistfulness about the absence of the Calypso Diver.  It had, in many ways, marked the beginning of my adult life.  It saw me through the type of dramatic highs and lows that only a particularly self-absorbed person can experience ; )

And then, 32 years later, SWATCH has brought out this sweet 
baby -

This is the Hamarace from SWATCH.  And yes, gentlereader, you can go home again. 

But more and more, I have come to learn that home is not necessarily a question of where you're from, it's a statement about where you're at.

Enjoy your watches!

The Pleasure of Waiting Patiently - RELIEVED!

So often we go for quick, even instant gratification.  In many ways, that is what the SWATCH was originally made for.  Well, not exactly for me.  In 1985 a Northern Youth, recently encouraged to leave home, scraped together the $45 to buy a SWATCH.  It was the Calypso Diver.  I spent nearly a month saving the extra's from my job at Selenti's Pizza to pay for it.  I went to school, then soccer practice, then work to - well pay the rent among other things, then my "luxury apartment" where I struggled through Trigonometry and other less daunting subjects until 2:00 AM.  Only to get up at 7:00 AM so I could do the whole thing over again.  In many ways, that SWATCH was a first kiss - a first taste of freedom.  But it also taught me that no matter how bad things got I could still make it on my own.

Well, today in Lugano I was re-acquainted with what I will consider the "grown-up" version of that SWATCH - the SISTEM51.  ONLY available in Switzerland, and then ONLY available through the SWATCH Store.  I've been dreaming about this one!

So welcome to BaselWeek Pals and Gals - and make it a special, memorable one!

Henki, checking in from Lugano.  More tomorrow!