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
As an 11 year old Northern Youth, I dabbled at designing football (soccer) shoes that would ideally be useful for young players (i.e. kids with little to no spending money) who worked summer jobs to pay for their soccer registrations and their soccer gear. In my case, this meant shining shoes, washing golf shoes, cleaning the men's locker room and running (in hindsight) very dubious errands for the local captains of industry (a few, who in hindsight, were members of a certain fraternal organization that WAS NOT the Elks). That March (1980 if memory serves) our first game of the spring season was snowed out. So I grabbed a few of my father's many pens and very crudely sketched out a design for a pair of soccer shoes. And being the rather impetuous kid that I was, I mailed them off with a rather sloppily composed letter asking the then mighty Mitre shoe company to consider it.
About a month later, the phone rang (a yellow, wall-mounted rotary dial model from the good folks at GTE) and it was someone at Mitre USA calling all the way from Tennessee. They informed me that they got my design and wanted to send me a pair of Mitre Missile Shoes. How in God's name they got my phone number, I will never know. They asked me my size, which I timidly told them was a size 6 (that's particularly wee) and I remember my father's nearly apoplectic reaction to my not asking for a larger size so that I could get more use out of them. You would have had to know him at the time. He was a great coach with a somewhat short fuse around the house.
The shoes arrived a week later, and I wore them TO DEATH. I did, naturally, grow out of them and all the way through my youth career was a dedicated customer of Mitre, my last pair being the "Pro Model" in high school. I went on to play semi-professional soccer (football) up until I turned 23, when it became clear that my time playing at that competitive level had come and gone. But I still hold Mitre in high regard, and think of their shoes as my constant companion as a teenager dreaming of being the American Michel Platini ; )
And that story immediately came rushing back earlier this week as I was searching for the video from the recent Chronoswiss press presentation. I stumbled upon this video from a little over a year ago (if I read the date stamp correctly). It is a really, really nice story about a father and son and Chronoswiss. For Christmas, the son wanted to make his father something very special, and to that end, using drawings, images, a scalpel, colored pencils and paper, created a paper version of the Chronoswiss Opus Chronograph - his father's dream watch, a Chronoswiss Opus Chronograph -
Courtesy of Chronoswiss
The video speaks for itself, but bravo to Chronoswiss. This was a much needed "warm fuzzy" at a time when we all could really use it.
As
today is July 20th, I woke up with astronauts (and even cosmonauts) on
the brain. 41 years ago man first landed on the moon - and better yet
made it back in one piece!
My
aunt still remembers a Saturday in the late 1960's, when her shopping
companion grabbed the future Senator from Ohio in a Columbus department
store, and holding him in a near death grip exclaimed - "You're John
Glenn!" Without losing any of his composure despite being clutched by a
very excited housewife, he replied "I know lady, and who are you?"
John
Glenn did not go to the moon of course, but he always epitomized the
excitement of the space race. The captain of Friendship 7 was not even
the first man in space, his orbit followed the earlier exploits of
Gagarin and Titov, but his flight in 1962 captured the imagination of
the world.
Like
John Glenn, I do not suppose that this Speedmaster visited the moon
either, but what I can tell you with certainty was that it was
manufactured in 1969 - the same year that Apollo 11 landed on the moon.
Growing up, I imagined we'd be having weekend getaways to the moon, or even Mars by now. Perhaps in another 40 years.
So I was asked about "trends" at BaselWorld. Well first and foremost was the "hipster beard". No, I'm not talking "Ben Clymeresque" studiously curated stubble - no, I'm talking living in Canton, Ohio but trying to project that I live in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. These were beards of truly epic scale that essentially made me question whether these "bros" had significant others or possibly they just all hung out in "tragically ironic" dive bars drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon and taking selfies of their Bremonts and Shinolas. Just sayin'....
But rather than further discuss the "Amish Outlaws", I'd rather focus on another trend and that was the "camo" look. And Eberhard and Graham were the two brands to successfully harness the feeling.
So some basics:
A chronograph with seconds and a 30 minute counter. The date is in a refreshingly unusual location at 8 o'clock. Powered by Graham's Calibre G1747 and boasting a power reserve of 48 hours.
The case is of black PVD stainless steel and measure s 47 mm in diameter. The "fast action" left-hand 'trigger' lever is constructed of black carbon. The reset pusher is black rubber.
The bezel is black ceramic, and the sapphire crystal is domed sapphire. The back display crystal is "smoked".
Water resistance is rated at 100 meters, 330 feet or for the more nautical of you out there - 10 bars.
The dial is painted in a green camouflage motif, with an identification number on the seconds counter. This is based on regimental numbers.
This piece makes up art of the Black Arrow Trilogy - but more on that later.
I think for many of us, our fathers' watches hold a special place for us. Even if they are not exactly our style at the time, like your brothers and sisters you grow to be quite good friends as adults.
This Mido Ocean Star was my father's. It was given to him on a fairly hot and muggy July day back in 1968 in Zanesville, Ohio - one day before I was born. Ironically enough, his father had planned to have the watch engraved July 10th (the next day), but had held off on doing anything until I made my debut.
My friend Ali and I were talking about fathers and sons as he finished the servicing of my dad's old Mido, and he shared with me an old saying he often heard - "If you're grown up, healthy and can look after yourself, then he (your father) did his job. And you even got a watch in the bargain!"
Leave it to Mr. Athari to put things in perspective!
