Horological Meandering

edwardwchang
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authentic sweaters

G

Really enjoyed your erudite posts.  I have some comments, particularly about the Lange.

Lange and Panerai are two of the most popular brands that were resurrected from the dead circa 1994.  No doubt that the datograph and split seconds are meritorious mechanically speaking, but to the extent that lange's marketing cashes in on the historical fiction of the house of adolph lange, the modern lange watches are the opposite of authentic.  Even mechanically, there is a good amount of fakery with the Lange, for example, the three quarter plate is outdated compared to bridge construction, but modern lange builds three quarter plates with lasers.  How is that authentic?  Its as authentic as copying a Monet painting with a laser printer.

Likewise with the Panerai, purists demand that Panerai basically copy its 1950s self, hence the fiddy PAM127, PAM372, PAM390 but when the company tries to do something new like the monopulsante chronographs, paneresti consider those modern efforts not authentic.  This is ridiculous on its face.

Consider how something like the 1950s or 372 was developed, it was basically "lets give the market what they want"  Is that authentic? Or is that pandering? Is copying yourself authentic?

Whereas something like the monopulsante GMT chronos, that was probably developed by some guys saying, "we want to make something that is useful for travellers (GMT function) and sportsmen (chrono function)"  form fitting function IS authentic.

I think you are having difficulty reconciling your intellect and erudition with the vanity of your conspicuous consumption.  Basically you are trying to convince yourself that "its ok that I spent 100k on this watch because I really thought it through."

Unfortunately, I think you are too smart to trick yourself with that argument.  I play poker in Macau regularly with a lot of noveau riche chinese industrialists (read: sweatshop factory owners) who all wear nice watches but these Chinese clearly lack the intellectual sophistication with which you consume luxury goods i.e. they have awful taste.

Is your watch consumption any more enlightened than that of these Chinese?  You are lying to yourself with intellectual sophistry.  To a watch company, their money is as good as yours and a watch company separating a fool from his money is probably the only authentic paradigm in the luxury watch industry.

PS Brunello Cucinelli is more authentic than Loro Piana