The Presidents And Vulcain - George Bush The Elder

The presentation of a Vulcain Cricket to George Herbert Walker Bush (President 41) did not provide the same logistical challenges as the one sent to his presidential predecessor. The Paajanens dispatched a Vulcain Cricket to the US Embassy in Helsinki.

Official White House Portrait - Credit White House and National Archives

The watch was received, and a thank you letter sent -

Letter Courtesy of Paajanen Family Collection

President Bush (the Elder) was presented with a Vulcain Cricket like this one -

Courtesy Paajanen Family Archives

There are no reported sightings of President Bush wearing the Cricket, and like the one presented to President Reagan, it most likely found its way to the Office of Protocol where it likely still remains to this day.

But none of this really tells us much about the man himself, who like John Adams would only serve 1 term, and also like John Adams, his son would follow in his footsteps to become a future President.  

George Bush in many ways was a bit of an anachronism. On the one hand, it is safe to say that he was "born under a lucky star".  He grew up in what was in all honesty, a fairly wealthy family in Greenwich, CT and attending Phillips Academy in Andover, MA which at the time was one of the most elite boarding schools in the US. And if you hit the pause button there, you would be forgiven for thinking - "Born with a silver spoon in his mouth". But there was a fair bit more to George H.W. Bush than that. 

Around the time most of us are thinking about high school graduation, getting out on our own, maybe going to college? Well for George H.W. Bush that plan took on a whole new meaning when Pearl Harbor was attacked. Rather than enjoying a "Grand Tour" in Europe as Philips Academy graduates might have done in the 20s and 30s, George H.W. Bush turned 18 on the 12th of June and promptly enlisted in the US Navy with the intention of becoming a naval aviator. And it was here that history might have changed dramatically, as he was shot and had to bail out of his plane over the Pacific. He managed to pull himself into a small life raft and we ultimately picked up by a submarine, the USS Finback.

Following the war, he returned home, married in 1945, and managed to graduate from Yale Phi Beta Kappa in a little over half time time of the typical 4 year course of study through an accelerated program.

He eventually moved into the political scene with somewhat mixed results, finally winning a congressional seat (from Texas) and then losing a second bid for the US Senate in 1970. Following this, he then was appointed the US Ambassador to the United Nations, followed by a stint in China and finally he was made the head of the CIA, where he served for one year. And then fate would take another turn.

Although unsuccessful in his own bid for to be the Presidential candidate on the Republican ticket in the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan selected him as his running mate, and he served for 2 terms as Vice President. He won the 1988 election, and served one term.

And like so many Presidents before and since, he found a second life, where he truly embraced public service, even befriending his political rival and successor in the White House, Bill Clinton as they joined forces to help in the aftermath of the tsunami in 2004. 

The next President to receive a Vulcain Cricket actually preceded both Reagan and Bush in the White House. And the Cricket was set to land on perhaps the most unlikely person ever (at least to that time) to sit at the desk in the Oval Office.

Vulcain Cricket - the (semi) untold story

Okay, I realize that many of you out there have never been to Finland, and even if you have, you may not have visited Helsinki.  And even if you have visited Helsinki, you may never have visited a small family jeweler down town just off the Esplanade.  And unless you were there between 1995 and 2000 or 2001, you would not have cause to know that in that little shop they were selling the Vulcain Cricket - AND - they were maintaining the tradition of presenting a Vulcain Cricket watch to any US president who happened to have visited Finland.  This tradition started with Harry Truman and continued for a brief period, but then stopped for many years.  Vulcain presented a watch to Truman, to Eisenhower and to LBJ.  And while it is true that later presidents received one, it was not from Vulcain.

Fast forward about 30 years or so.  It was simply dumb luck that I discovered the Vulcain Cricket one day.   It was a Friday afternoon and I had just returned to Helsinki after my Summer teaching job at St. Andrews in Scotland.  I had finished a teaching job with Nokia,  not too far away and had some time to kill, and so I was doing some window shopping.  At the time I was obsessed with the idea of owning a Rolex GMT with the blue and red bezel - confession time, I am a HARD CORE Magnum PI fan all the way back to jump street.

And there it was in a window on the first floor of a shopping center.  There were stainless steel, and stainless steel with gold bezels.  It was beyond infatuation, but not quite love, not yet...

This is not one of the Vulcain Crickets that was presented to the US Presidents past and present in Finland.  This is the one that the new Vulcain company presented to President Obama following his inauguration and the photo is courtesy of the Vulcain Press/PR department, so credit please where it is due.

Not so long ago, Vulcain was bought and sold once again.  They have definitely put some research and development money into the new line, and they are beautiful watches.

To be clear, I think that it is wonderful that Vulcain is back and making the Cricket again.  But for those of you who were not aware, the brand for at least a small period of time was owned and operated by Revue Thommen.  And under special license they produced and manufactured a limited number of "Vulcain Cricket" watches for this jeweler in Helsinki.  The jeweler would then present one each time a US President or former US President would visit Finland.  The list included Gerald Ford, Ronald Reagan (I believe) and Bill Clinton as well as George Bush Senior.  Let's be clear about something - this was not the watch company stumping up the money to do so, this was a small family jeweler that did this.  This was just as the internet was in its infancy (certainly by today's standards) and the Facebook founders were probably years away from even working on their college applications.  In other words - from a PR perspective - there was not much in it for them.

So remember that it is not always a large company backing PR initiatives, and giving things away.  Sometimes it is a small family business far away from the watch making world, doing it because of their passion for what they are selling.

To see today's Vulcain watches, you can check out their collection here:

http://www.vulcain-watches.ch/