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“When Rolex became aware [that] the watches were meant for the Nazi forces, they removed all Rolex hallmarks and signatures,” Webb’s auction house writes. “Rolex didn’t want to be associated with the Nazi regime but they kept sending watches to Florence in order to protect Giuseppe Panerai, his family, and his employees from harm.” There’s no evidence that the Nazi Rolex for sale reflects Hans Wilsdorf’s humanitarian instincts. And yet . . .
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If we could have a subtitle for this story, it would be “when a lousy personality becomes your biggest liability.” But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s start with this: what is a hairspring (a.k.a., balance spring) and why was its invention by Robert Hooke one of the most important innovations in all of horology? wikipedia.org:
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“As yet more proof of this insane situation, Antiquorum has just auctioned a Green Nautilus 5711, reaching a price of EUR 320,000 (before fees).” monochrome-watches.com reckons the fact that a Patek Philippe Nautilus Green Dial sold for $378k represents a trend that’s “killing the market.” A situation that restricts sales to “flippers and so-called investors with zero interest in what this watch actually represents in terms of watchmaking and history.” Nonsense . . .
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The Seiko C359-5000 takes us back to the late ’70’s. Hamilton’s Pulsar – the hugely expensive “touch to operate” watch that launched digital timekeeping – had been cut off at the knees by hundreds of cheap imitators. Seiko took the digital ball, put it on an LCD screen and ran with it, creating dozens of variations on the theme. None so cool as the C359-5000. None so important to me . . .
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The original Mickey Mouse (a.k.a., Steamboat Willie) was a troublemaker. Mickey’s evolution from rebel rodent to “good as Gold” symbol of the Disney empire is a sad reflection on corporate America. I reckon graffiti-artist Keith Haring shared that view (e.g., drinking/masturbating Mickey). The new, post-mortem Mickey Mouse SWATCH X Keith Haring collection reflects this early Mickey bias . . .
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