So I’ve become obsessed with wristwatches lately. It’s been going on for the past few months. Like the wine obsession from a couple years ago, I am immersing myself in the minutiae of the hobby. Everything from knowing the history of some brand name that goes back to the 1800s to model numbers of current product lines.
Comparing it to the wine obsession, I think I am attracted to complication and order. When I was reading about wine, the trivia that stuck in my head and that was most enjoyable to read, were all the weird ways they organized the European appellations. The “New World” stuff seemed too chaotic to remember.
My path to the Horological world started with looking at all the different “Men’s Accessories”, cufflinks, watches, lighters, etc. Watches have complication and order to them though, and I got hooked. Unfortunately, I found I prefer the spring and gear driven mechanical type of watch as opposed to the electronic, battery powered quartz watch. This is unfortunate because the cost of mechanicals can get pretty insane.
The first watch I really noticed was a Glashütte Original PanoMatic Lunar. When I found out they actually make watches with a see-through back, and that the makers actually spend time to polish and decorate the internals so it looks good through the back, I was hooked. Unfortunately, the “cheap” version of this watch costs about $6500! Maybe someday…
Since then, I’ve purchased 2 “inexpensive” mechanical watches I.E. < $500. And one “middle tier” watch which I got a great deal on. IWC is a classic company that goes way back and I was just amazed at the deal I got. I would put IWC at about the same level as Rolex, when it comes to price range. Not to mention it is a great looking watch! I finally got the tripod out and took a decent macro photo. Although, because of the demand and name recognition, Rolex will hold closer to the retail price after purchase. I used to think Rolex was supposed to be the best you could get, but I never liked how they looked at all. Now I know there are brands out there that put Rolex to shame in price and quality. Crazy!
My wine obsession did last quite a long time, so I’m worried about the kind of money I’m going to sink into this one. Also, around the time of my poker and wine phases, they were somewhat mainstream. We’ll see if wristwatches also follow that trend.

I had somewhat relaxed holidays. Didn’t go any where. I just stayed in New York. Armando and Humberto’s mom drove up from Brownsville and stayed with us. We saw a lot of Bill and Adelina as well, which is always cool.
On Christmas Eve, we went to Adelina’s apartment in the Nolita area. Adelina made a rib roast, sides and pumpkin cheese cake (if I remember correctly). I brought some wine, and we had a great time. Unfortunately, Bill was in Richmond and wasn’t there for Christmas. He did make it back for New Year’s, which was also a blast.
Christmas Day I went over to Brooklyn and hung out with Risa. She had some Lambic beer. Most beer, lager and ale, is made from pre-chosen yeasts, but lambic “wild” yeast is made like they way they make sourdough starters. More info on the Wikipedia link. I was totally digging the lambic, although it did strike me as a little “girlie”. I’ll have to research further. We moved on to some Riesling that I brought and had some spaghetti, sausage and peppers. We watched Best in Show and Drop Dead Gorgeous. Both were a lot funnier than I remembered. Another good day.

New Year’s was better than I expected, not that I wasn’t expecting to have a good time. Humby’s family and I went to the Hell’s Kitchen restaurant. We were talking about this place with Humby’s mom for 2 weeks and we got reservations for 10pm. Bill and Adelina brought a bottle of Piper-Heidsieck Brut NV, and the corkage ended up being only half of what we expected. The food was somehow better than I remembered it, the champagne was better than I was expecting from a Piper-Heidsieck. I was reading an article on champagnes, and the section on Piper-Heidsieck was right next to the Bollinger section. It said that Bollinger is the James Bond champagne of choice. We were talking about James Bond accessories, and I confused Bollinger with Piper-Heidsieck and was convinced we were drinking 007 champagne! I can’t remember which order this happened, but now I’m wondering if the champagne being better than expected made me think it was the Bond brand, or if thinking it was the Bond brand made the champagne seem better than it was! A lot of it is mental I guess. In any case, it was all great. Midnight came around and we had a good toast and eventually made it out. We walked slowly home and marveled at all the people that were out. As we passed Snug, Rob saw me and said that he could totally sneak me in. I eventually came back and finished the night at Snug. All the regulars and staff were there. I didn’t buy a VIP ticket because I don’t really have friends there other than the staff, but I still had a great time. Again, better than expected! I ended up staying out until 4 that night. Great time!