Author: Kim du Toit

Something Different

Toys

Even though I’ve pretty much decided that the Tissot Classic is my watch for life (background here), that doesn’t stop me looking around at other watches.  And if I’m doing the Lottery Dream stuff, I look even more.

Here’s my problem (stop me if you’ve heard this before):  my criteria are firm, and immutable.  They are:

  • manual wind only
  • as plain as possible (no silly moon phases, tourbouillons, etc.)
  • no “diver” watches
  • no steel straps
  • no gold case:  rose, yellow, white, whatever;  steel only
  • no “trendy” brands (which would include Rolex, Omega, Tudor etc.)
  • cost:  no higher than $6,000 (in the Lottery Dream category)

Then in my wanderings, I discovered Schaumburg watches, and I got excited.  From the blurb:

Schaumburg watches have been produced since 1998 in a small factory in the idyllic town of Rinteln, in the Schaumburg region of Germany. This exceptional watch brand specializes in producing mechanical watches of high quality and attractive design. Every Schaumburg watch is handmade, which is why the company’s watches are true works of art. Schaumburg watches are exceptional in every detail.

So, to recap:

  • New company (!)
  • German
  • hand-made
  • reasonably priced (for a hand-made watch)
  • high quality
  • interesting designs — different, even eccentric, but not self-consciously so)
  • hand-wound (also automatics, but no interest in those, of course).

Try these two.  First, the Unique 30:

…and the Unique 33:

I like that Industrial Revolution look, very much.  Had they been around back then, I feel that Isambard Brunel would have worn one, without question.  (They make IWC’s Engineer line look quite fussy, even effeminate.)

And each Unique is under the magic $6,000 mark.

Now… where did I put that lottery ticket?

Back Then

Advice

This idea was “borrowed” (okay, stolen) from a post by the Feral Irishman:

You wake up one morning and it’s 1995. 
The past 30 years have just been a dream.
What’s the first thing you do?

Here are some ideas that could see you comfortably situated thirty years later, i.e. today.

Buy:

  • Amazon.com shares, as many as you can afford
  • ditto Apple
  • other companies (specify)
  • that cherry ’71 Dino 246GT for $15,000 (I remember seeing some for about that price back then, and thinking they were crazy to expect so much)
  • a $100k house in Plano TX (which would be worth +/- $490K today) — pick your market

Your ideas in Comments.

Olde Pharrttes Not Wanted

Mocking Furriners, Old Fartism

At least the Japs are being honest about it:

A Tokyo chain pub has set a ban on older customers – in order to try to maintain the raucous, fun atmosphere for which it is known.  Tori Yaro Dogenzaka is an izakaya (an affordable Japanese pub) situated in Japan‘s capital city.

This year, the establishment propped up a sign outside the entrance, informing customers of the new rules.  The sign said: ‘Entrance limited to customers between the ages of 29 and 39. This is an izakaya for younger generations. Pub for under 40s only.’

I have no idea what constitutes the Japanese drinking demographic, but it must be different from us gaijin  because Over Here (and in the rest of the West) we know that Prime Drunk Age is between 16 and 28.  So if the Japs are anything like that, a “29-39” pub is not going to be a “raucous and fun” atmosphere;  it will be quiet and gloomy, with patrons drinking maybe a couple pints before leaving.  (I imagine the soaring price of booze in the Land Of The Rising Sun is if anything higher than it is in Western Civ, which defies comprehension.)

Can’t see a decent profit margin there, but whatever.

What I’d like to see is a bar exclusively for the 65+ age group, selling booze at prices that don’t insult us and are closer to what we used to pay back when we were in our Prime Drunk Age.  Make the place’s decor cozy and welcoming, play background music worth listening to (and not played at tinnitus-causing levels so we could, you know, converse without shouting), set up some chess- and backgammon boards, offer darts and dominoes, and provide affordable Uber rides home so the fuzz don’t get all excited when the elderly patrons come staggering out into the street.

At closing time, you’d have to drive me out at gunpoint.

I know, the accountants are going to tell me that such an establishment would be completely “unsustainable” or some such bollocks, but considering how today’s businesses have no problem with wasting jillions of bucks on specious bullshit (e.g. electric fucking cars and Pride Month parade sponsorships), I think that “Ye Olde Pharrttes Arms” concept is worth trying.

Oh, and one absolute and unbreakable stipulation:  NO LIVE MUSIC.

Classic Modern Beauty: Kim Novak

Classic Beauty

What I like most about Kim Novak is not just her astonishing beauty — that alone would get her onto this back porch of mine — but also the fact that she was a wonderful actress, right out of the gate of her first movie.  Award followed award, but because she was also determined not to be screwed by Hollywood, she often fought with the studios who wanted to underpay her and / or play the stereotypical part of The Cute Little Blonde (which she utterly refused to allow).  And she mostly won.

All that, and a brilliant actress as well?  Have mercy.

I’ll show Miss Novak in glorious color at some later date…