A quick post here to vent, as is the custom when a watch I want (so bad) shows up, but I can't buy it. Damn it all to hell!
PROBLEMS
A semi-grail has emerged in the interwebs to taunt me, and maybe haunt me depending on how long it takes to sell. The Zenith Captain 03.2072.4054/01.C711 - it's a hellishly good value proposition, on sale at £4,125 with box and papers, in steel, offering an triple date annual calendar, and El Primero chronograph in a sexy, if chunky package. It's so, so nice. As I alluded to when previously lusting over the rose gold version, it is the kind of watch that might make me not consider another expensive watch for a while or ever. But with no money coming in at the moment, it would be extremely foolish and neither reasonable nor sensible to consider the purchase unless others were sold to make it so. I am, once again, in a pickle.
Source: Watchfinder.co.uk
What a paradoxical catch 22 bastard of a predicament for me
As I have a bit more time, being 'between contracts' as it were, I have been exercising and eating clean, it has been going well in terms of consistency and I can see results. This is quite nice considering I am now in my mid forties (bear with me, there is a watch related point here). I have always been a proactive mover, and exerciser, but in former decades I was very much focused on function over form. The form came with it but I wasn't bothered about being lean etc, I was not entirely ugly and that helped. Now as my looks fade away like a Michael Jordan jumpshot, for graceful aging, form and internal function my focus is on staying lean, for which success lies very much in the kitchen. It seems however, that the first place I lose fat and trim down is, you guessed it, my LEFT WRIST. What a paradoxical catch 22 bastard of a predicament for me.
The fix for this is to work on my arms and build muscle which in the forearms can add a bit of size to the wrists, though muscles in the wrist are few. I'm not too fussed about size any more and I don't want to eat protein like a T-Rex so I just have to deal with it (my kidneys are a bit dodgy but that's another story). What's more important, my ability to wear a variety of sizes of watches, or my ability to stay healthy and alive so I can check the time on a more restricted size of watch? I'm enjoying the Proxima at 37mm, I could get used to it, maybe I can use this as a stepping stone to dressing more smartly and focusing my collection - I mean reducing. Wow, this was not planned for, thinking on the page sometimes leads to unimagined insight and revelations, but this is as unwelcome as Will Smith at the Oscars. The wrist was the problem, but the solution is also a problem.
IDEAS
Anyway as I mentioned, I am not working at the moment, and stupid amounts of money continue to break the orbit of my bank account and wallet and fly into those of others, my 2025 motto of 'Reasonable & Sensible' is holding, kind of, strong. However, other ideas for obtaining more timepieces begin to gather - though now framed in the realms of dopamine I try to resist my brain chemicals. The most recent primary troubling idea of selling my Rolex Explorer II has been flitting around in my mind as a sensible way to buy a few more watches (as alluded to above). This impulse can only be hushed by actually putting it on and admiring it, this is working for now but I'm not sure how long it will last.
I did however order a watch as a birthday present to myself - it was a good deal indeed, but is on order from the manufacturer so will take a while to arrive, this is okay, I can wait. What may not be ok is that it is not Chinese, it is Swiss... Before then, having had the Proxima for a few weeks, I am impressed and comfortable enough to go in for another one, not entirely sensible but the price is reasonable and the design is very interesting. I feel my plan to translate my new motto into Latin and create a crest may be premature. After checking it - Rationabile et sensibile - is also too similar to English. I need a new one maybe cupiditas est radix omnium dolorum = desire is the root of all suffering, or I could go with dopamine is the root of all suffering.
THOUGHTS
I have recently seen Rolex Sky-Dweller prices tumbling from up there whence they dwell. The white dial, osyter bracelet have always been the most affordable falling under the RRP of £14,150 to the mid £13k mark. This was nice but still about £10k off the mark, however, it was surprising to see one - UK, 2020, box and papers, very good condition - for £12,295, that is an excellent price but does make me wonder what might be wrong with this particular example. Saying that, there is nothing immediately concerning - I know right, crazy. There are a handful of others between £12-£13k but not in the UK.
I watched the 2014 movie 'Interstellar' again, it's a marvellous piece of universal, cinematic storytelling with time and a couple of Hamilton timepieces in the fray. It's logical but grants a certain creative nonsense (as spacetime does) allowing the humble wristwatch to be the fulcrum of a story about spacetime and gravity as well as humanity and family. Isn't that exactly why we love watches! A wonderful film, it's only the second time I've watched it but it was as good as the first, an evocative, provocative pleasure.
I will attempt to post more regularly but it seems this will entail a wider variety of types of post, including stories, one of which I will post next week. It will be a short story, but a slightly longer form of post. I have done this before but it's been a while, it is a craft I would like to develop and this is place I will share. The stories will, of course, be watch themed, so I hope it will be of interest and be a fun read. I'm learning, I'm growing, kind and constructive criticism is welcome.
Yours Pickleishly,
Alvin
LINKS & THINGS
Watchfinder - Zenith
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