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.

We sail tonight for Singapore...

Don't fall asleep while you're ashore...

Courtesy of the FH

Now on the surface, this continuing upward climb is encouraging.
But when digging into the actual numbers, this latest report from the FH brings up more questions than it actually answers.

Interesting to relate, Singapore rocketed into the third position for September's numbers.  In fact, Singapore's rapid rise is curious at best, or to put it more plainly, somewhat dubious.  And I think the numbers as reported by the FH bear this dubious curiosity out:

1.  Hong Kong 213.4 Million CHF, 12.1% export share, an increase of 13.7%.

2.  USA 198.8 Million CHF,  10.9% export share, a decrease of -0.6%.

3.  Singapore 122.2 Million CHF, 10.1% export share, an increase of - wait for it - 89.6%!

Un petit mystère, n'est-ce pas?

Or as that other great watch commentator, Tom Waits noted -

We sail tonight for Singapore
Don't fall asleep while you're ashore
Cross your heart and hope to die
When you hear the children cry
Let marrow bone and cleaver choose
While making feet for children's shoes
Through the alley
Back from Hell
When you hear that steeple bell
You must say goodbye to me
Tom Waits, Singapore

Or to put it more plainly, while these numbers are numbers, they simply don't add up.  Or to put it even more plainly, these curious spikes of exports bound for increasingly random locations further bear out the possibility that what we are really seeing is the further push to clear the supply line pipes prior to the new Swissness regulations.

Let me state this in a different context - Puerto Rico represents one of the least publicly acknowledged, yet most important destinations for watches in the "US" market.  Confused?  Don't be, despite what a certain orange-hued fellow might have you believe, Puerto Rico is a territory of the US.  More pertinent to this conversation?  The reality of natural disasters that have hit Texas, Florida, and Puerto Rico.  And why is Puerto Rico important to the North American watch retail numbers?  Because of the sheer number of watches that go in and out bound for the wrists of tourists (and parallel markets). Just as the wildfires raging through Northern California will radically impact the wine market in the coming years, the inability of retailers to sell (or shift) the very large quantities of watches in locations like Puerto Rico will, naturally, have a knock-on impact on already anemic sales in North America.  

Now to be fair, there are some watch brands and retailers who reported good sales in August.  And I sincerely hope that these were one-off months.  Like everyone else involved in the watch business, I have a personal stake in this particular game of poker, and I hope we all get some winning cards dealt.  But card-counting and gaming the system are not long-term solutions to very real problems.