Patek Philippe

Does human behavior really not change at all?  I didn't start my infatuation for Patek Philippe with Mr. Veblen manipulating my head, hands and legs.  But still I became a puppet of Leisure Class behavior.  As my buddies looked at Omegas and Tags, something told me to holdout.  I painstakingly set about to acquire a Rolex Daytona.  After 14 months of courting the AD, dreaming, saving and daily sacrifice I finally congratulated myself on victory.  A month of proud ownership later it dawned on me that 35,000 others acquired the exact same watch that year and every year before and since.  Not counting 100X replicas of it.  My trophy turned pedestrian and too attainable.

Then a period of curiosity and discovery toward exclusivity.  My parameters were based solely on what I might be able to afford if I saved for 3 years.  As such Patek was not front and center - instead it loomed overhead like Thorstein's ghost.  So many historic watch houses vied for attention - each spanning generations, wars, political changes, romance and hardships.  I needed to attach and buy in.  I learned of Vacheron, Audemars, Breguet, Blancpain, Girard-Perregaux, Jaeger-LeCoultre, Longines, etc.  Dang, even Zenith was established 1865!  Rabbit holes and brain freeze.  My imagination had to focus.  l had no clue many of these once grand houses couldn't support themselves and belonged to ownership groups.  I had no idea of value, quality, workmanship nor what I was doing. 

The best action was to save money, buy nothing and get educated.  Let passing time by my friend.  I simply kept my eyes and ears open.  Repeat: buy NOTHING.  When my wife and I would walk pass multi-brand watch boutiques I noticed that certain men would involuntarily peel away from their spouse/family and stare at the relatively simple Patek Philippe display.  Then other well-heeled men would take notice of that first guy and wait their turn to also stare at the two or three Pateks on display.  They didn't crowd each other.  Did they have a secret?  After looking at Patek they didn't shift over to another brand's display of spinning, brilliantly lighted pieces.  They wholesale walked away to catch up and continue down the sidewalk.  I walked over and tried staring at the Pateks.  I tried to learn the secret but it wasn't clear.

Why was this time only, plain-dialed Calatrava so compelling?  To me it was still another minimalistic classic design offered by Nomos or Baume and Mercier.  Yet the Calatrava was six times the price.  My small imagination wouldn't allow me to contemplate the more complicated Pateks, there was only so much capacity for what was possible.  I thought I was comparing oranges to oranges.  The more I tried to learn the more my brain broke.  

I'll continue this some other time.  I ended up buying nothing (though intensely occupied with watches) for the next eight long years.  Thorstein was whispering to me, or sneering at me.

Best,

Robert   

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