Of course if you happen to have any suggestions about other mechanical alarm watches, they will be greatly appreciated. ![]() But anyway, both of these watches represent a substantial investment for me, so if the Vulcain proved to be worthless from an horological standpoint, I'd be ready to wait and save the 9200€ (£6500) necessary to buy the Jaeger-LeCoultre.Īs a faithful reader of your work in these columns, I'm sure you can be of great help and I was wondering what your thoughts were about these watches. ![]() The fact that it is less expensive matters to me as well, as I am far from being a man of great means. For the moment, I favor the Vulcain for its manual winding movement, vintage looks, elegant pusher and perfect 39mm size. I narrowed it down to two watches: The Master Memovox from Jaeger-LeCoultre, and the 50s Presidents’ Watch 39 mm Heritage from Vulcain. I've been collecting vintage watches featuring the AS1475 movement or its Poljot 2612 copy, but as much as I enjoy the alarm feature, those watches lack style, finish and quality, which is why I decided to acquire an alarm watch that would be a significant timepiece and that I would wear daily. Watch Alarms I really appreciate the alarm function in mechanical watches, which I find to be a useful and delightful yet underrated complication. The problem is that for every Agnelli, there are a legion of apes who imitate the gesture without understanding its dynamics, and just end up looking absurd. It’s not so much a question of luxury in this case, as it is a question of an extremely accurate sense of what does or doesn’t work. Pairing high and low - or, in his case, almost effetely elegant with almost intolerably utilitarian - is a tricky business and succeeds to the extent that it is an exercise in extremes. The original PloProf was one of those objects so pure in its uncompromising utilitarianism as to rise to the level of luxury, exactly because that was the last thing on its mind.Īgnelli - sartorially, at least - is also an interesting case in point. Luxury has many faces - at its worst, the word is used as a flabby excuse for slipshod quality having its way with predatory pricing at its best, it is the unplanned for consequence of difficulty in craft, rarity of materials, or excellence in design. Well, sir, I happen to think that in fact there are circumstances in which the utilitarian can rise to the level of luxury, and the PloProf is an interesting case in point - an enormous, almost brutal case in point, but a case in point notwithstanding. This is an almost disturbingly erudite inquiry for something as intelligently considered to have landed in what passes for my inbox makes me wonder whether or not the rumored apocalypse is in the making. I’m interested in your general opinion of this particular watch, but more so in your take on the more philosophical question of whether utilitarianism is antithetical to luxury or if the two concepts can be reconciled. Now the PloProf clearly leans towards one (perhaps two) of these. It seems to me that you seek precisely these qualities in wristwatches. There’s no accounting for taste, though it’s sometimes said that a good design exemplifies the three Vitruvian virtues of function, quality and beauty. ![]() My emotional connection to this particular timepiece aside, it isn't particularly elegant - something Omega itself alluded to in an advertisement that sported the headline “it may not look pretty on the surface, but deep down it’s beautiful.” Yet fashion icon Gianni Agnelli - named by Esquire as one of the five best-dressed men in the history of the world - found the watch so stylish that he commonly wore it on the outside of his shirt sleeve. While I cherish his watch almost as much as his fish stories, I never wear it outside my home as I am neither a diver nor a jackass. My humble watch collection began when my father bestowed upon me the Omega Seamaster 600 “PloProf” he had purchased four decades ago for diving. Of 2 Omega Seamaster 600 “PloProf” Dear Watch Snob,
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