The HYPE - NYC 2026! The Countdown is On!

                                                     The HYPE - NYC 2026

  Friday October 16, Saturday October 17, and Sunday October 18

9:00 AM - 4:00 PM

   

Come see us at The Draper New York -         

4-6 West 37th Street, New York, New York

Friday                                    Saturday & Sunday

1776 Atelier (Friday only)                     5280
5280                                                     Carl Suchy & Söhne
Carl Suchy & Söhne                             Elka
DLoke (Friday only)                              GoS   
Elka                                                      ISOTOPE   
GoS                                                      Kneijnsberg
Hager (Friday only)                              Minase
ISOTOPE                                             Moriarty
Minase                                                 Nepro
Nepro                                                   Ollech & Wajs    
Ollech & Wajs                                      Sartory Billard
Sartory Billard                                      Schaefer & Companions
Statera                                                 Sherpa

                                                                            Statera

                                                            Tesse

                                                            Version

Welcome Back MINILIP!

I am not able to be "neutral" about Lip. They are not as fancy as Audemars Piguet. They are not the official time keeper of the Olympics. And you will not (typically) get one ripped of your wrist at gunpoint unlike a certain brand bearing a crown on the dial...

With that said, I have made three trips to Besançon, France to learn as much as I can about the brand, and meet with the people there. And I am now a true devotee! 

For many years Lip was simply a brand. It made watches, some relating to a rich and fascinating history. But for the most part, up until a few years ago, before they moved back to their original home in Besançon, they were going through the motions.

Courtesy of Lip

I've said it here before, and I'll say it again - the Berards, most specifically Pierre-Alain, have not only rescued Lip. They are beginning to move it even further forward than it was during its heyday. You can market just about anything in terms of watches. But it takes a special person to look to the past, and resurrect things with not only a nostalgic look back, but to do so with a true understanding of what the public wants. 

The MINILIP was designed with a "younger demographic" in mind. It was meant to help children understand the time not only as hours, minutes, and seconds, but also to take into account AM and PM. With this new interpretation through quarter and half hours into the mix and you've got quite a time machine!

Courtesy of Lip

It is not a large watch, but a fun-sized 29 mm.

Courtesy of Lip

Best of all, it is very reasonably priced at €199.00!

Courtesy of Lip

And it is also available in a stainless case with white inner dial (above).

Having spent this past weekend in New York at the two big shows and seeing more than my fill of divers, pilot's watches, and other "tough guy time machines", this renewed offering from Lip is just what I needed to remind me about why I enjoy writing about watches!

Un grand merci, Lip!

You can read all of the pertinents here -

https://lip.fr/en/minilip/207-lip-minilip-671971

Nobody Ever Texted A Mission Statement

So I recommend you find a more permanent communication device. I give you the Esterbrook Model J in Lotus Green. 

Pen people are slightly connected to watch people, but in truth they are a tribe unto themselves. Watches, by and large, come as they are. True, you can order a custom Sartory-Billard, or Holthinrichs watch, but by and large you buy what the brand has made. You might put your own twist on it with a different strap, but for the most part that's it.

For pen people, it's often a wee bit different. Some of it's about heft (i.e. how much it weighs, how dense it feels in your hand), for some it's about the flow of the ink from the nib, for others it's about how stiff or flexible the nib is. Others are solely focused on the name on the box that the pen came in. Pen people, like watch people, are often looking for that extra bit of validation.

I have been guilty of this, with a flock of Pelikan pens in various drawers and pen boxes. I had an opportunity to check out Esterbook's pens back in October and I took the Model J for a test drive.

It is available in two colors. And as you came to Henki Time for the words, and not the photos, I will borrow a better image from the folks at Esterbrook -

Courtesy of Esterbook

This is the Model J in Antique Rose. It was a close contest, but in the end I opted for the Lotus Green with a broad nib. Yes, to quote that other great commentator on watches and pens, Boz Skaggs, I put my money on the table and drove it off the lot.

Now should you ever encounter my handwriting, you will scratch your head, and wonder why I would bother even trying to use anything so elegant. Well, that is an answer in two parts:

Part One:

Just prior to my sixth birthday, I took an ill advised leap off of our neighbor's swing set. According to my mother, it was a multiple break "2 or 3 places!" Luckily, long-suffering family friend and neighborhood doctor, Dr. Mason, was on hand to splint me up in (according to my father) that day's copy of the New York Times. The accuracy of that last factoid remains lost to history, but after an overnight stay at Allen Memorial Hospital, and six weeks in plaster, I went off to first grade where they tried as best they could to get me to hold a pencil correctly, and produce anything that might vaguely pass as handwriting. What was not realized at the time was that there was nerve damage in the arm - and therefore the hand as well. About a year after leaving the U of O, I picked up a fountain pen and used it from time to time, nothing too serious. Almost as much an affectation as anything else. But I did notice that it forced me to be more patient when writing. Wendy gave me a Parker Sonnet for our first wedding anniversary. But by and large, I still mostly used ball points or roller balls.

Part Two:

In 2009 I took a rather nasty tumble off my Gitane Team Replica bike (it is worth noting that the only 2 cycling accidents I have had have been on blue French bicycles - my Peugeot in 1982, and the Gitane). I managed to drag my face along the tarmac for a good 25 feet. Two front teeth, literally the skin off my nose, a knee filled with gravel (of which the removal was excruciating), and two broken fingers later, I was back at work. And needless to say, holding a pen was also, excruciating. 

I started trying to get control of my hand, and its now semi-serviceable fingers. And I started writing exclusively with fountain pens as a type of physical therapy as it forced me to focus my actions and motions. And for the most part? I never looked back.

But back to my new Esterbrook -

It is safe to say, that not unlike watches, when it comes to pens you have plenty to choose from. Some of it well worth the money, some of it disappointing. The Esterbrook does not disappoint! I opted for a broad nib. The feel is forgiving without being flimsy. The ink flows evenly, and it requires little to no downward force. 

It is crafted of ebonite, and therefore has a wonderfully warm feeling in the hand. And it now has me looking at it's Antique Rose partner.

While it is not inexpensive, it is not outrageously priced at $295. Now while that would have been way out of my league as a freshly minted graduate with journalistic ambitions, it is certainly not too outlandish. It is the type of pen that just might inspire the next Charles Foster Kane (ideally the one before his fall from grace).

So for those of you out there working on a business plan, a mission statement or even a declaration of principles...

Get yourself a decent pen, and write like you give a damn!

Looking Back...Weaponizing Empathy

We have, in many was gotten past COVID19. Without getting into the political differences that were laid bare during the worst phases of the pandemic, both Wendy and I were reminded recently of some of the positives that came out of it. I realize that it is a truly difficult thing to find light in the bottom of a dark well, but we have now come out the other side, and on May 11 the official public health emergency will be declared over.

A few heroes emerged, and one who I am truly proud to call my friend. I first heard the motto "Weaponizing Empathy" in an interview with José Andrés, and I can think of nobody who embodied that ethos more than watchmaker, medic, and Army veteran - Daniel Wentzel.  Daniel and several hundred military veterans decided to run towards danger while so many of us were squabbling over petty differences. It is hard to believe that this was three years ago, and I hope for all of our sakes it's something we won't have to go through again for a very long time. As I write these words, the Executive Publisher (my cat, Tallulah) is on my lap purring away, the birds are out and singing, and it is the third consecutive warm spring day. When this story first ran we were laying in bulk supplies of masks, ordering everything online, and waiting collectively for things to go back to normal. Well, let us hope that our return to normal will not cause us to forget to be kind, courteous, respect different opinions, and most importantly? That we will always have people like Daniel Wentzel out there who are not afraid to weaponize empathy.

And so, an end of Pandemic special repeat -

Weaponizing Empathy

Or - A funny thing happened on the way to New York City

COVID-19 has, in the words of an old university chum of mine who is now a professor of theology and Sunday School teacher, "Kicked the snot out of us."  It continues to be a challenging situation.

I will ask you to go back with me to April 11th.  It was a Saturday, and I was cooking dinner when my Facebook Messenger pinged. It was my friend Daniel Wentzel.  At first I thought that maybe my watch repair was finished - Daniel is a highly skilled watchmaker here in Massachusetts and more than once he has taken pity on my mechanical babies and repaired them.  But this message did not involve any of my watches, it was actually a request for help. Because in addition to being a very talented watchmaker, Daniel is also a proud US Army veteran who, just so happened to have served as a medic.  And as it happened, Daniel was in New York City with a flood of other military vets who also had medical training. They had all converged on the city and surrounding area to help support the various hospitals and pop-up centers that were struggling to keep up with the flood of patients coming in.  And believe it or don't, but there was one key thing that was needed by this massive group of volunteers -

Wrist Watches.

Now in normal situations (that means back in December and January here in the US), a nurse or EMT wears a watch with a second function OR they had a nice big wall clock with a LARGE, RED second hand so that they can take accurate vital signs.  Curious to relate?  A smart watch is not going to be reliable as you frequently need to move your wrist to "wake up" the watch face.  A cell phone will also do you no good as it requires another set of hands to hold it.  And as many of these facilities were hastily assembled? Let's just say that there was a dearth of wall clocks.  Long story short?  Plenty of people to take pulses and blood pressure, very few of them had a watch that would do something so basic as indicate seconds elapsed!

Daniel's message was short and to the point: "We need basic quartz wristwatches with a central second.  People will need to be able to disinfect them between shifts.  And if possible, we need them by Tuesday.  Could you reach out to your contacts for help?"

Ironically, a simple $15 watch that could be had (again, pre-lock down) on virtually any street in New York City would do the trick. That was before the lockdown.  Oh, one other thing?  This was the Saturday night before Easter!  Oh, one other small detail -

They needed about 200 watches!

I told Daniel that I would do what I could.  I reached out to Gary Girdvainis, the publisher of iW and About Time magazines and the two of us reached out to all of our contacts in the watch world.  And what happened next was pretty amazing.

On Easter, which is a pretty big deal in Europe as they tend to stay closed from Friday to Tuesday, I received a response from Yasmina Pedrini of Frederique Constant / Alpina in Switzerland. She wished Wendy and me a happy Easter, and she said that they would love to help, but with shipping times, etc. it was not going to be as quick as was needed.  But that she would reach out to her colleagues in the US.  Monday morning an email came in to Gary at iW from Ellen Seckler of Citizen Watches in North America (Citizen is the parent company of Frederique Constant), asking what they could do to help.  Without putting too fine a point on it, mountains were moved.  Somehow, watches were tracked down, retrieved from a secure location, and delivered most riki-tik! 
For those of you unfamiliar with this expression, per the Urban Dictionary: riki-tik

Derived from a story in "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. The story featured a mongoose named Rikki Tikki who exhibited great speed. To do something "riki-tik" or "most riki-tik" is to do it very quickly. The phrase has common usage in the US armed forces. by SpenserPS May 27, 2009)

How the people at Citizen made this happen is still pretty remarkable, but within a very short time span, 175 Citizen watches arrived in New York City!

Courtesy of Citizen

Courtesy of Citizen

But Watch Town was not done!  The owner of Ollech & Wajs had been working with folks in a few different countries to help them produce face masks for medical staff. He is based in Belgium, but his mother was born in the US, and he wanted to help. While Ollech & Wajs was a watch brand, they make mechanical watches, not quartz.  So an order was made to a "third party retailer" and a good amount of another brand's watches were purchased and delivered.  

And then there was Ray Grenon, of Grenon's of Newport in Rhode Island. Ray made it personal by donating a large number of his personal quartz collection.  On the Monday morning after Easter, he replaced all of the batteries in his watches and shipped them all down to NYC.

Curious to relate?  There really wasn't anything in this for the folks who donated. These were volunteers they were giving watches to, not an official charity.  There will be no tax credit statement, no mention in the monthly newsletter, no champagne thank you at the annual gala.  They all stepped up and helped without expecting a thank you.

But I wanted to personally thank them all, Gary, Ray, Ollech & Wajs, Yasmina, Ellen, Citizen, and most of all?  I wanted to thank Daniel and his incredibly dedicated band of brothers and sisters who stepped up to help us all be safer.  There are no words sufficient.  

But Daniel wanted to be sure that this story got told, so I am going to turn this part over to him -

May 21, 2020

Daniel Wentzel on his way to the hot zone

So my journey to the field hospitals of New York City began way back in 2009. I had just returned from deployment to Iraq as a Combat Medic in the US Army. I suffered injuries to my hips having had to have them both replaced over the next ensuing years. Prior to my deployment to Iraq, I was a Paramedic Supervisor in Elizabethtown PA providing pre-hospital EMS, among many other management related duties. When I had my Hip joints replaced I could no longer pass the physical requirements needed to perform as a pre-hospital EMS.

I decided that I would change careers and become a watchmaker, I enjoy working with my hands and true watchmaking requires critical thinking and problem solving. I then attended the York Time Institute for 2 yrs and graduated with a Diploma in Watch/ Clock Repair and Restoration. I was hired directly our of school in a high end Jewelry store in Massachusetts, I worked there for almost 3 years. It was hard for me to adjust to the environment with my old employer, I didn’t fit in with their culture, like most vets I am not a yes man. I decided to start my own watch repair/watch making home based business in January of 2019 working on my own endeavors.

Then came COVID-19, my clients dried up and I really had to sit down and figure out what I really wanted to do. I decided that I needed to give back to society again, my whole adult life has been about healing others, this is what made me truly happy deep down. I soon put out the feelers for jobs in the healthcare field where my experience and expertise could be best utilized. I was not having much success, lots of applications with little feedback. I then received a post on social media calling for prior service Medical Corp veterans to volunteer to staff a field hospital in NYC for treating COVID-19 patients. I applied Monday and got accepted the next day and was on a flight to NYC to be a medical provider at the Ryan Larkin Field Hospital-New York Presbyterian Hospital. I spent the next month providing care to patients stricken by COVID-19.

Medic in action

When I arrived in NYC I saw a need for wrist watches, most of the younger generation uses cell phones and smart watches for timing, they are not easily accessed in the controlled environments that were required in the “Bubble” COVID ward. I reached out to my friend James Henderson, who moved mountains to get the project moving; within a week's time he had already arranged several wristwatches to be set to NYC. I cannot thank him enough for all his hard work and to all the people who made the wristwatch mission happen. It is heart-warming know that there are people who can do something to help others and then follow through above and beyond what is asked of them.

In Action

Again, I would like to thank everyone involved, James Henderson, Gary Girdvainis of iW and About Time Magazine,Ray Grenon of Grenon's of Newport, Charles at Ollech & Wajs and Ellen from Citizen watches; you made our jobs much safer, productive and directly affected the outcome of our patients in a positive way due to your generosity.

Sincerely,

Daniel Wentzel

Heroes and Villains - Citizen, Ollech & Wajs, Grenons, and Some Amazing Vets!

I was struck again today by something we don't really get to see too often in Watch Town - selflessness.

You may recall this past spring, just as COVID-19 looked certain to put the lights out in New York City for good. A group of former military medics mobilized and all converged on the city, taking temporary positions to provide desperately needed assistance to help stem the ever rising tide. I wanted to dust this off and re-share it for anyone who missed it the first time, because while in the US we are having a monumental identity crisis as to who we are as a country - a number of those Standard Issue Heroes are HEADING BACK to New York City to take up the fight again, and try to get us safely through this pandemic. 

Good Luck and Godspeed.

Weaponizing Empathy

Or - A funny thing happened on the way to New York City

COVID-19 has, in the words of an old university chum of mine who is now a professor of theology and Sunday School teacher, "Kicked the snot out of us."  It continues to be a challenging situation.

I will ask you to go back with me to April 11th.  It was a Saturday, and I was cooking dinner when my Facebook Messenger pinged. It was my friend Daniel Wentzel.  At first I thought that maybe my watch repair was finished - Daniel is a highly skilled watchmaker here in Massachusetts and more than once he has taken pity on my mechanical babies and repaired them.  But this message did not involve any of my watches, it was actually a request for help. Because in addition to being a very talented watchmaker, Daniel is also a proud US Army veteran who, just so happened to have served as a medic.  And as it happened, Daniel was in New York City with a flood of other military vets who also had medical training. They had all converged on the city and surrounding area to help support the various hospitals and pop-up centers that were struggling to keep up with the flood of patients coming in.  And believe it or don't, but there was one key thing that was needed by this massive group of volunteers -

Wrist Watches.

Now in normal situations (that means back in December and January here in the US), a nurse or EMT wears a watch with a second function OR they had a nice big wall clock with a LARGE, RED second hand so that they can take accurate vital signs.  Curious to relate?  A smart watch is not going to be reliable as you frequently need to move your wrist to "wake up" the watch face.  A cell phone will also do you no good as it requires another set of hands to hold it.  And as many of these facilities were hastily assembled? Let's just say that there was a dearth of wall clocks.  Long story short?  Plenty of people to take pulses and blood pressure, very few of them had a watch that would do something so basic as indicate seconds elapsed!

Daniel's message was short and to the point: "We need basic quartz wristwatches with a central second.  People will need to be able to disinfect them between shifts.  And if possible, we need them by Tuesday.  Could you reach out to your contacts for help?"

Ironically, a simple $15 watch that could be had (again, pre-lock down) on virtually any street in New York City would do the trick. That was before the lockdown.  Oh, one other thing?  This was the Saturday night before Easter!  Oh, one other small detail -

They needed about 200 watches!

I told Daniel that I would do what I could.  I reached out to Gary Girdvainis, the publisher of iW and About Time magazines and the two of us reached out to all of our contacts in the watch world.  And what happened next was pretty amazing.

On Easter, which is a pretty big deal in Europe as they tend to stay closed from Friday to Tuesday, I received a response from Yasmina Pedrini of Frederique Constant / Alpina in Switzerland. She wished Wendy and me a happy Easter, and she said that they would love to help, but with shipping times, etc. it was not going to be as quick as was needed.  But that she would reach out to her colleagues in the US.  Monday morning an email came in to Gary at iW from Ellen Seckler of Citizen Watches in North America (Citizen is the parent company of Frederique Constant), asking what they could do to help.  Without putting too fine a point on it, mountains were moved.  Somehow, watches were tracked down, retrieved from a secure location, and delivered most riki-tik! 
For those of you unfamiliar with this expression, per the Urban Dictionary: riki-tik

Derived from a story in "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. The story featured a mongoose named Rikki Tikki who exhibited great speed. To do something "riki-tik" or "most riki-tik" is to do it very quickly. The phrase has common usage in the US armed forces. by SpenserPS May 27, 2009)

How the people at Citizen made this happened is still pretty remarkable, but within a very short time span, 175 Citizen watches arrived in New York City!

Courtesy of Citizen

Courtesy of Citizen

But Watch Town was not done!  The owner of Ollech & Wajs had been working with folks in a few different countries to help them produce face masks for medical staff. He is based in Belgium, but his mother was born in the US, and he wanted to help. While Ollech & Wajs was a watch brand, they make mechanical watches, not quartz.  So an order was made to a "third party retailer" and a good amount of another brand's watches were purchased and delivered.  

And then there was Ray Grenon, of Grenon's of Newport in Rhode Island. Ray made it personal by donating a large number of his personal quartz collection.  On the Monday morning after Easter, he replaced all of the batteries in his watches and shipped them all down to NYC.

Curious to relate?  There really wasn't anything in this for the folks who donated. These were volunteers they were giving watches to, not an official charity.  There will be no tax credit statement, no mention in the monthly newsletter, no champagne thank you at the annual gala.  They all stepped up and helped without expecting a thank you.

But I wanted to personally thank them all, Gary, Ray, Ollech & Wajs, Yasmina, Ellen, Citizen, and most of all?  I wanted to thank Daniel and his incredibly dedicated band of brothers and sisters who stepped up to help us all be safer.  There are no words sufficient.  

But Daniel wanted to be sure that this story got told, so I am going to turn this part over to him -

May 21, 2020

Daniel Wentzel on his way to the hot zone

So my journey to the field hospitals of New York City began way back in 2009. I had just returned from deployment to Iraq as a Combat Medic in the US Army. I suffered injuries to my hips having had to have them both replaced over the next ensuing years. Prior to my deployment to Iraq, I was a Paramedic Supervisor in Elizabethtown PA providing pre-hospital EMS, among many other management related duties. When I had my Hip joints replaced I could no longer pass the physical requirements needed to perform as a pre-hospital EMS. 

I decided that I would change careers and become a watchmaker, I enjoy working with my hands and true watchmaking requires critical thinking and problem solving. I then attended the York Time Institute for 2 yrs and graduated with a Diploma in Watch/ Clock Repair and Restoration. I was hired directly our of school in a high end Jewelry store in Massachusetts, I worked there for almost 3 years. It was hard for me to adjust to the environment with my old employer, I didn’t fit in with their culture, like most vets I am not a yes man. I decided to start my own watch repair/watch making home based business in January of 2019 working on my own endeavors. 

Then came COVID-19, my clients dried up and I really had to sit down and figure out what I really wanted to do. I decided that I needed to give back to society again, my whole adult life has been about heling others, this is what made me truly happy deep down. I soon put out the feelers for jobs in the healthcare field where my experience and expertise could be best utilized. I was not having much success, lots of applications with little feedback. I then received a post on social media calling for prior service Medical Corp veterans to volunteer to staff a field hospital in NYC for treating COVID-19 patients. I applied Monday and got accepted the next day and was on a flight to NYC to be a medical provider at the Ryan Larkin Field Hospital-New York Presbyterian Hospital. I spent the next month providing care to patients stricken by COVID-19. 

Medic in action

When I arrived in NYC I saw a need for wrist watches, most of the younger generation uses cell phones and smart watches for timing, they are not easily accessed in the controlled environments that were required in the “Bubble” COVID ward. I reached out to my friend James Henderson, who moved mountains to get the project moving; within a week's time he had already arranged several wristwatches to be set to NYC. I cannot thank him enough for all his hard work and to all the people who made the wristwatch mission happen. It is heart-warming know that there are people who can do something to help others and then follow through above and beyond what is asked of them.

In Action

Again, I would like to thank everyone involved, James Henderson, Gary Girdvainis of iW and About Time Magazine, Ray Grenon of Grenon's of Newport, Charles at Ollech & Wajs and Ellen from Citizen watches; you made our jobs much safer, productive and directly affected the outcome of our patients in a positive way due to your generosity.

Sincerely, 

Daniel Wentzel

Weaponizing Empathy

Or - A funny thing happened on the way to New York City

COVID-19 has, in the words of an old university chum of mine who is now a professor of theology and Sunday School teacher, "Kicked the snot out of us."  It continues to be a challenging situation.

I will ask you to go back with me to April 11th.  It was a Saturday, and I was cooking dinner when my Facebook Messenger pinged. It was my friend Daniel Wentzel.  At first I thought that maybe my watch repair was finished - Daniel is a highly skilled watchmaker here in Massachusetts and more than once he has taken pity on my mechanical babies and repaired them.  But this message did not involve any of my watches, it was actually a request for help. Because in addition to being a very talented watchmaker, Daniel is also a proud US Army veteran who, just so happened to have served as a medic.  And as it happened, Daniel was in New York City with a flood of other military vets who also had medical training. They had all converged on the city and surrounding area to help support the various hospitals and pop-up centers that were struggling to keep up with the flood of patients coming in.  And believe it or don't, but there was one key thing that was needed by this massive group of volunteers -

Wrist Watches.

Now in normal situations (that means back in December and January here in the US), a nurse or EMT wears a watch with a second function OR they had a nice big wall clock with a LARGE, RED second hand so that they can take accurate vital signs.  Curious to relate?  A smart watch is not going to be reliable as you frequently need to move your wrist to "wake up" the watch face.  A cell phone will also do you no good as it requires another set of hands to hold it.  And as many of these facilities were hastily assembled? Let's just say that there was a dearth of wall clocks.  Long story short?  Plenty of people to take pulses and blood pressure, very few of them had a watch that would do something so basic as indicate seconds elapsed!

Daniel's message was short and to the point: "We need basic quartz wristwatches with a central second.  People will need to be able to disinfect them between shifts.  And if possible, we need them by Tuesday.  Could you reach out to your contacts for help?"

Ironically, a simple $15 watch that could be had (again, pre-lock down) on virtually any street in New York City would do the trick. That was before the lockdown.  Oh, one other thing?  This was the Saturday night before Easter!  Oh, one other small detail -

They needed about 200 watches!

I told Daniel that I would do what I could.  I reached out to Gary Girdvainis, the publisher of iW and About Time magazines and the two of us reached out to all of our contacts in the watch world.  And what happened next was pretty amazing.

On Easter, which is a pretty big deal in Europe as they tend to stay closed from Friday to Tuesday, I received a response from Yasmina Pedrini of Frederique Constant / Alpina in Switzerland. She wished Wendy and me a happy Easter, and she said that they would love to help, but with shipping times, etc. it was not going to be as quick as was needed.  But that she would reach out to her colleagues in the US.  Monday morning an email came in to Gary at iW from Ellen Seckler of Citizen Watches in North America (Citizen is the parent company of Frederique Constant), asking what they could do to help.  Without putting too fine a point on it, mountains were moved.  Somehow, watches were tracked down, retrieved from a secure location, and delivered most riki-tik! 
For those of you unfamiliar with this expression, per the Urban Dictionary: riki-tik

Derived from a story in "The Jungle Book" by Rudyard Kipling. The story featured a mongoose named Rikki Tikki who exhibited great speed. To do something "riki-tik" or "most riki-tik" is to do it very quickly. The phrase has common usage in the US armed forces. by SpenserPS May 27, 2009)

How the people at Citizen made this happened is still pretty remarkable, but within a very short time span, 175 Citizen watches arrived in New York City!

Courtesy of Citizen

Courtesy of Citizen

But Watch Town was not done!  The owner of Ollech & Wajs had been working with folks in a few different countries to help them produce face masks for medical staff. He is based in Belgium, but his mother was born in the US, and he wanted to help. While Ollech & Wajs was a watch brand, they make mechanical watches, not quartz.  So an order was made to a "third party retailer" and a good amount of another brand's watches were purchased and delivered.  

And then there was Ray Grenon, of Grenon's of Newport in Rhode Island. Ray made it personal by donating a large number of his personal quartz collection.  On the Monday morning after Easter, he replaced all of the batteries in his watches and shipped them all down to NYC.

Curious to relate?  There really wasn't anything in this for the folks who donated. These were volunteers they were giving watches to, not an official charity.  There will be no tax credit statement, no mention in the monthly newsletter, no champagne thank you at the annual gala.  They all stepped up and helped without expecting a thank you.

But I wanted to personally thank them all, Gary, Ray, Ollech & Wajs, Yasmina, Ellen, Citizen, and most of all?  I wanted to thank Daniel and his incredibly dedicated band of brothers and sisters who stepped up to help us all be safer.  There are no words sufficient.  

But Daniel wanted to be sure that this story got told, so I am going to turn this part over to him -

May 21, 2020

Daniel Wentzel on his way to the hot zone

So my journey to the field hospitals of New York City began way back in 2009. I had just returned from deployment to Iraq as a Combat Medic in the US Army. I suffered injuries to my hips having had to have them both replaced over the next ensuing years. Prior to my deployment to Iraq, I was a Paramedic Supervisor in Elizabethtown PA providing pre-hospital EMS, among many other management related duties. When I had my Hip joints replaced I could no longer pass the physical requirements needed to perform as a pre-hospital EMS.

I decided that I would change careers and become a watchmaker, I enjoy working with my hands and true watchmaking requires critical thinking and problem solving. I then attended the York Time Institute for 2 yrs and graduated with a Diploma in Watch/ Clock Repair and Restoration. I was hired directly our of school in a high end Jewelry store in Massachusetts, I worked there for almost 3 years. It was hard for me to adjust to the environment with my old employer, I didn’t fit in with their culture, like most vets I am not a yes man. I decided to start my own watch repair/watch making home based business in January of 2019 working on my own endeavors.

Then came COVID-19, my clients dried up and I really had to sit down and figure out what I really wanted to do. I decided that I needed to give back to society again, my whole adult life has been about heling others, this is what made me truly happy deep down. I soon put out the feelers for jobs in the healthcare field where my experience and expertise could be best utilized. I was not having much success, lots of applications with little feedback. I then received a post on social media calling for prior service Medical Corp veterans to volunteer to staff a field hospital in NYC for treating COVID-19 patients. I applied Monday and got accepted the next day and was on a flight to NYC to be a medical provider at the Ryan Larkin Field Hospital-New York Presbyterian Hospital. I spent the next month providing care to patients stricken by COVID-19.

Medic in action

When I arrived in NYC I saw a need for wrist watches, most of the younger generation uses cell phones and smart watches for timing, they are not easily accessed in the controlled environments that were required in the “Bubble” COVID ward. I reached out to my friend James Henderson, who moved mountains to get the project moving; within a week's time he had already arranged several wristwatches to be set to NYC. I cannot thank him enough for all his hard work and to all the people who made the wristwatch mission happen. It is heart-warming know that there are people who can do something to help others and then follow through above and beyond what is asked of them.

In Action

Again, I would like to thank everyone involved, James Henderson, Gary Girdvainis of iW and About Time Magazine,Ray Grenon of Grenon's of Newport, Charles at Ollech & Wajs and Ellen from Citizen watches; you made our jobs much safer, productive and directly affected the outcome of our patients in a positive way due to your generosity.

Sincerely,

Daniel Wentzel