TimeOut

I am sure many of you know Christopher’s online presence, Spangles, both here and on some other forums.  

But in addition to his presence online he was a core part of our small Greater NYC Purist crew.  We had several GTGs over the last decade or more as smaller and larger groups with The Mad Druid, KIH (an honorary member when in town), K-Lo, Fastwong, Joe P, Tony and many others. 

The first time I met Christopher in person was on one of Ken-san’s (KIH) regular visits to NYC.  The Maid Druid had arranged for lunch with Ken and both Christopher and I joined.  Christopher was wearing his F.P. Journe Octa Lune in PT with the Nacre Mother of Pearl dial.  A classy watch for a classy gentleman.

And he was a gentleman.  A little on the more formal side, always dressed in a button down and always politely spoken.  That was also his taste in watches, he was definitely drawn more towards the classical.  

Breguet was obviously his big love, but as The Mad Druid mentioned he had a broad love for independents too.  The Frodsham which we received a number of years ago was definitely a highlight of his collection.  

The last time I saw him in person (in the Spring of last year) he, his wife and I met for a quick coffee Downtown.  He had a sweet tooth and so my choice of venue worked out well!! 

On that meeting he shared with me some new acquisitions.  One, the beautiful rose gold Credor Ichi, and another a Grand Seiko with a very cool dial.  Both of which he shared here very recently together with the custom RGM with the Mother of Pearl dial he had just taken delivery of.

He was also excited to share news of other watches which were on order and that he looked forward wearing and enjoying.  We also spoke about his health.  At that time he and wife shared with me that his outlook was not so great.  Conventional medical treatment had been exhausted but there was hope for some more aggressive or experimental approaches and both he and his lovely wife maintained the positive outlook required to overcome steep odds.  These future incomings (as we like to refer to them as) were a part of this.  

It was then with great pleasure that he shared by email several weeks ago the arrival of one of those watches we had spoken of, the special RGM with the Mother of Pearl dial (a nice partner to his Nacre dial Journe), and he duly shared that watch here too.  

Unfortunately there are some watches that did not arrive in time for Christopher to enjoy and realize in the metal the product of his imagination.  

I will miss Christopher’s posts here.  As many of you know he had a deep horological knowledge, his technical knowledge was much much deeper than we got to see.  But he was more than happy to share his knowledge if one just asked.  

He was extremely well read.  For example I posed a technical question to him a couple months back, something which I’d spent some hours in the HSNY Library researching, and he was quickly able to point me to articles in The Horological Journal and other periodicals that answered my question. 

I also appreciated that he was one of our valued forum members that would not shy away from calling out the BS or correcting a misinformed poster.  Sometimes his replies were short and to the point, which can rub the folks on the recording end the wrong way sometimes.  But knowing Christopher I found this was based purely on his desire to share his knowledge and correct any misunderstandings.  

Rest In Peace Spangles, you will be truly missed.