The Benjamin Franklin Edition

From Meister Singer -

 

Courtesy of Meister Singer

This limited edition from Meister Singer is inspired by one of the Founding Father's horological creations. A clock that ran in four hour segments. Meaning that every complete rotation of the scale would be completed in four hours. Meaning, the wearer will need to have some conception as to what portion of the 24 hour cycle he or she is currently in. And truth? I love that idea! 

Courtesy of Meister Singer

The Benjamin Franklin edition is limited to 70 pieces total, and priced at $5.599.00

Here are the pertinents -

Movement ETA/Unitas 6498, hand wound, 46h power reserve 

Case Stainless steel, sapphire crystal, 5 bar, 4 screws exhibition back 

Diameter 43 mm 

Dial Polished white 

Strap calf leather with croco print, Cognac 

Speciality 4-H-Watch, unique modified Unitas pocket watch movement, limited to 70 pieces

The Astroscope Edition

From MeisterSinger - 

Courtesy of MeisterSinger

Limited to 100 pieces, here are the pertinents -

Model
Edition Astroscope / limited 100 pieces

Movement 

Sellita SW 220-1, automatic, power reserve 38 h, 

Day and Date Disc

Case 

Stainless steel, Diameter 40 mm, 6 screws exhibition back, 5 bar, sapphire glass

Variants 

Edition in 2021:
black - orange with orange leather strap

RRP 

1.990 Euro

Availability 

February 15

Urban Day Date “Edition Today”

 From Meister Singer -

Courtesy of MeisterSinger

I NEED this watch! Time and how we measure it has taken on some pretty wacky twists this year, and while I will not be so presumptuous as to dictate what it means to you, I can tell you that I tend to relish it more.

Those of you older readers out there will remember a watch offered by Alain Silberstein known as the "Smile Day" which (curious to relate) predated the whole concept of emoticons and modified the date function with different emoticons.

Well, as the old saying goes, TODAY IS THE DAY!

MeisterSinger opted to modify their Ubran Day Date to have the day aperture at 12 o'clock always be "TODAY".  Now as a practicing Buddhist, I'm not going to lie, this speaks to me, and my desk mate  ; )

My understanding is that this is a fairly limited edition of 100 pieces that will be offered in 7 different languages - English, German, French, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, and Esperanto.

Here are the pertinents -

Model Movement Diameter Case

Urban day Date TODAY Edition
Miyota 8285, automatic; 42 hours power reserve
40 mm
Stainless steel, exhibition back, water resistance 5 bar, sapphire crystal

What To Wear On Your Journey (or look the part, be the part) 90 Day Essay Continues

I am an unapologetic Rowing Blazers Fan. There, I've said it.

This is a photo from my office, at the Adult Education Center I manage.  We work with low income and recent arrivals to the US, teaching them English (where needed), soft skills (interview techniques, resume and cover letter writing, etc.), and provide job training and placement. We then stay in touch with the student, pretty much forever (or until they stop replying to emails) to make sure that they are still moving forward with their lives.

When Wendy and I first moved to the North Shore nearly 5 years ago, I could not find a job to save my life (thankfully it didn't come to that). It was getting tough to get out of my pajamas and leave the house because it seemed like an inevitable wave of rejection was waiting to wash over me. While I wouldn't say I was paralyzed, I would say that I was that bunny in the road that was hypnotized by the oncoming headlights and moved a little bit too slow and just missed getting its paws run over.

Now the irony in all of this, gentle reader, is that the majority of my career has been in Education and Workforce Development. More ironic when you consider that my last job before we moved eastward was in a college's career services office. I taught a Career Readiness Bootcamp to graduating students where I preached the gospel of positive thinking, proactive attitudes, professional appearance and pretty much any other skill (hard or soft) that might lead to gainful (and hopefully) productive and happy employment. I think it is safe to say that on some levels I felt betrayed. I had followed the playbook, I had done everything that I thought I was supposed to. I would get called in for interview after interview only to be turned away at the final hurdle. It was pretty demoralizing.

After about 2 months of this, I found Phil Knight's memoir Shoe Dog -

As a fellow Man of Oregon I think this book hit me in just the right way at just the right time. We all tend to look at successful people, and somewhat readily leap to conclusions that while forgivable are somewhat inaccurate. Uncle Phil (if you attended the University of Oregon, he is ALWAYS referred to as Uncle Phil, but more about that later) wrote a fairly open history of not just Nike, but his own life. He was honest and did not sugar coat some things that he could have done differently and better as a businessman, a husband and a father. He spoke about about his own challenging relationship with his father, and about how that formed and informed his own adult life.

More than anything, it really spoke about resilience.  Nike started as Blue Ribbon Sports, but in fact it really started with a business school presentation years before. In the watch world where brands like Rolex and Patek were the result of long, steady dedication, it is easy to forget that there was a time when even those mighty brands did not exist.  To quote that other great commentator on the watch business, Barry Hearn -

"You can't take a baby and turn it into a teenager overnight,"

But back to resilience. I finally got a (very) part-time job teaching a career readiness program getting recent arrivals to the Boston Metro area ready to enter jobs beyond Uber and food service (not that there's anything wrong with that). And it was a long, winding road that year that in the end led to 80% of the students getting a better job.

But let's get back to today's post - Look the part, be the part.  What you are doing for a living, right now, this minute?  That does not fully define who you are, what you are capable of doing. In the current time and place that we are living - COVID LAND, it is easy (and understandable) to sleep a little bit later, skip that shave, pull on the sweats, pour a bowl of Frosted Flakes and hunker down for 3 hours of Rockford Files. And I know that it is easy for me to say it - but put on your "going to work" clothes, hit the streets (even if they're virtual) and keep swinging. There is no clock on this except the one that you apply. 

And if you think I'm just blowing sunshine up your collective backsides, allow me to complete my own personal story - after a year of teaching my one class, I was offered a full-time job in Boston working with students and job seekers.  And then one day the phone rang, and I was asked if I would be interested in applying to be the Director of the Adult Education center where I had taught 2 years before. 

As I begin my second year as the head of the program, I am reminded about resilience. I am reminded that where you are now does not and should not dictate where you will be. And although we are seeing all of our students virtually through Zoom and Google Class, I make sure I have on one of my favorite blazers, a good attitude, and a smile when I head in.  

Take the time to appreciate the journey, don't just be a tourist!

Sundays - 90 Day Essay Continues

Sundays. Every culture views Sundays differently. When I lived in Japan back in the early 90s, you could shop on Sundays, but you could not take money out of a bank ATM. When Wendy and I moved to Portugal you could do very little except go to church, or a restaurant. Once the "Hyper-Mercado" opened, then suddenly you could not only shop, but see a movie on Sunday as well. When we moved to Finland, Sunday was still very much a day for doing pretty much nothing. The only store that might be open was the Kioski (literally, kiosk). You could get some soft drinks, newspapers, magazines, some snacks, etc. Things began to change, and I seem to recall that by the time we moved to Helsinki you could actually shop at Stockman's (big, fancy department store) on a Sunday.

This Sunday morning we discovered that one of our dressers had given up the ghost and it was time to saddle up and look for a replacement. The US does not tend to have the same sort of "Sunday Hours" that a lot of other countries have. And truth be told, I am not 100% sure how I feel about it. There is something to be said for a day that NOBODY works, but in this day and age, I am afraid those days might be long gone.

Our luck was in as Manzel was open, and we found just the piece for us. Manzel offers furniture ethically sourced and crafted from reclaimed teak. And as anyone who has seen my rather bright and electric collection of watches (and blazers, ties and trousers) will affirm - Wendy and I walk to our beat in terms of aesthetics. 

Now ordinarily, you go to buy some furniture somewhere off the highway, some big box in a strip mall with bad lighting and a sales force trapped in ill-fitting polyester "team member" outfits, slogging it out under flickering florescent lighting, telling small children to get their dirty shoes off of the sofa/chair/mattress. This is made more awkward when the children in are in their 30s and refuse to put their face masks on, but I digress.

While we were wandering the floor, something odd caught my eye -

Yes, gentle reader.  This is a Peugeot automobile that is probably older than most of you reading this. While I would not call it mint, I would say it was in gently used condition.

A few rows of furniture down the way, there was a Mercedes convertible which was certainly nice enough, but didn't really catch my attention beyond passing.

But then, I saw something that stopped me dead in my tracks.

What is in hazy focus (like many of my memories of 1985) is the Corona name plate.  Yes, a 1977 Toyota Corona.

It as June, 1985 and my father and his new wife had just moved to Jackson, TN. Jackson is not exactly what would have been termed a "public transit friendly" city back then. So whether I liked it or not, I was required to purchase a used car. In fairness, my father provided $100 towards the car, and co-signed a $1,500 loan. My stay in Jackson lasted all of about 2 weeks when it became abundantly clear to one and all that this was not going to work out, so I packed all of my belongings into that 1977 silver (truthfully, faded stainless steel hued) Toyota Corona, and pointed it's snout north towards Oberlin, Ohio. 

That car was well-loved and enjoyed for our short term together. Until one fateful December evening when my recurring roommate, Vince HAD to borrow it to drive about 30 miles to Cleveland to watch the Mr. Olympia contest in a movie theatre/convention center.  It was a snowy, icy night, and I should have said no, but I figured as he was older, he knew what he was doing. Long story short? He made it to the Mr. Olympia showing, and he made it back. My Toyota Corona was, sadly, forfeit to his overwhelming desire to see grown men in posing pouches all oiled up. He managed to rack it up on an overpass when he braked too sharply and first ran into another car, then acquainted the rear end of my Corona with the front end of a pick up truck. So if any students at Tiffin University are reading this, do NOT let Professor Moore borrow your car for any reason!  It will only come to grief.

Seeing this sun-shiny yellow goodness really brought a smile to my face. And truth be told? I am not really much of a car guy, so this is saying something.

And after a fun day of shopping and reconnecting with your (somewhat) misspent youth?

TACOS!

Because let's be honest, NOBODY hates tacos!

To quote that other great commentator on the watch business Feris Bueller who opined in 1985 -

'Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.'

Don't just enjoy your watches, enjoy your time!

 

Success stories

Success stories...
the watch industry lately seems to be full of them. We watch fans love to hear and read about the genius who saved a company from the graveyard - Jean-Claude Biver's success with Blancpain, and then later successes with Omega and now Hublot.

And Mr. Hayek who probably saved the Swiss watch industry.

It would be great to be a part of something like that...

But I want to ask all of you who read this - and to my great shock and pleasant surprise, there are many of you out there - what would you do if you didn't get paid on time?  I mean, you go to work, you do what you're supposed to, and you don't get paid? I can well imagine what your reaction would be. Many of you have had the sudden shock of losing your job.  Suddenly, buying a watch is very far down the list of your priorities. Many of you can remember living paycheck to paycheck, but what if you don't even have a paycheck?

And this, in a way, is now an open letter to the Swiss watch making industry as well as the luxury industry as a whole - I get bombarded with press releases daily from the various luxury companies, many of them telling the world how a phenomenally wealthy, prosperous and famous actor, singer or athlete is now the ambassador.  So in other words - this is the big news... they've given another freebie to another wealthy, successful person that can afford to buy this item several times over. The CEO comes out to present the watch, there's the "Grin and Grip" photo opportunity, and a year or so later we tend to have forgotten what the initiative was, and within five years the celebrity has moved on, and the watch company has moved on to the next thing. I want to be clear, any charity initiative is positive, but it is finite. The money is given and that is the end of the cycle.  So please DON'T STOP with your charitable outreach, but... what if there was a different approach? 

What if there was a charitable thing that you could do that was not charity at all? How often do you see those signs of homeless people - "will work for food"? What if you could actually give that person a job so that they would be able to support themselves and not be on the street? And not just any job, but actually help them start a business? And lastly, what if you weren't actually giving anything, but actually LENDING the money to someone so that they could start a micro business for themselves, and then pay it back so that OTHER people could borrow this money and then start THEIR micro business and pay it back... this is the concept of micro finance. And this is the concept behind the MeisterSinger Neo -

You will also notice something new on my blog's page - a banner ad/link to the site where you can order this watch.  A portion of each watch purchased goes to help with micro loans so that someone who REALLY needs the help can start to stand on their own feet and help themselves.

So here is your chance to be a part of a true watch making success story, to be a part of someone else's success story.  And the watch is pretty swell as well!

www.microfinance.at