Robert65
1033
'The San Remo' Central Park West
(Screenshots from web)
Over the years, the "Generations" campaign has always been motivational for me. It made me feel something. As I became more vested, the ads made me appreciate emotional heirloom value - which never crossed my mind before. Now many years later I look at the actual watches featured in the ads and thought "with that sky high real estate and lifestyle I would imagine the Patek owner wearing a Perpetual Calendar Chrono or Minute Repeater! But at the time I was first experiencing these Patek ads all I needed was motivation and inspiration... not an encyclopedic knowledge of Patek's reference offerings.
Only recently when I was reading about the possibility of John Lennon's ref. 2499 "(Just Like) Starting Over Love Yoko 10-9-1980 N.Y.C." going up for auction in the near future... I went down the rabbit hole of Patek and New York City. So far down the hole that I learned that this 1996 Patek ad was filmed in an upper apartment of the prestigious twin-tower San Remo which is situated one and a half city blocks from John and Yoko's "The Dakota" residential building also on Central Park West. Sadly John was shot when entering the Dakota two months after having been gifted the watch.
Dakota (Green roof) and San Remo (twin towers) from Central Park
The San Remo has been an A-list magnet with $50M+ apartments with previous residents including Steve Jobs,
Diane Keaton, Dustin Hoffman, Glenn Close, Demi Moore, Bruce Willis, Mary Tyler Moore, Steve Martin, Bono, Barry Manilow, Stephen Sondheim, Mick Jagger, Steven Spielberg and Tiger Woods).
The blonde hostess wearing a Patek Twenty-4 comforted her tired daughter (models from Elite or Ford agencies) in front of another group of impossibly attractive guests overlooking a jaw dropping night cityscape. Powerful images.
Best,
Robert
Dakota (Green roof) and San Remo (twin towers) from Central Park
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'The San Remo' Central Park West
(Screenshots from web) Over the years, the "Generations" campaign has always been motivational for me. It made me feel something. As I became more vested, the ads made me appreciate emotional heirloom value - which never crossed my mind before. Now many y...
Thank you Orahu!
When I think of the sordid history of John's 2499 - and all the careless hands it passed through during it's 'kidnapping years' I shudder!
Thanks Robert for an informative post ! A decade ago, we went to Central Park with a
photographer and took family photos with San Remo in the background. The background is the money shot from the park but I never knew the name of the building. After reading your post, I did searches and read some fastinating history for the San Remo! Wond...
GLau, your family fotos must be gorgeous
You gave me something to ponder... how my Pateks are sitting in that building?! Also I wonder if residents have wall safes installed by contractors to keep the pieces away from casual observation from people passing through their apartments day to day? In...
Cool. I took a ton of pictures when I was in NY to see Hamilton in 2017 but I never knew what the buildings were named.
Thanks for the history lesson. ...
Blanksy - thank you for sharing. Wonderful fotos
I've never been to the Strawberry Fields section of the park nor did I know about the Imagine mosaic. You captured the San Remo towers beautifully. Very complex framing technique. Lovely! Best, Robert
We were there in late July and it was like 95 degrees with 95% humidity, and we stayed across the street....
from Central Park. We spent a lot of time walking around the park which is an amazing place. I think the only building we identified was the Dakota.