Author Archives: tomvox1

Watch Collector’s Notebook: Chunky, funky Omega chronographs of the 70s

The great Swiss watch manufacturer Omega took the polar opposite approach to archrival Rolex’s conservatism during the turbulent 1960s and 70s. If Rolex was almost entirely unwilling to deviate from their main design concepts and stayed restrained in the face of the funky fashions sweeping the watch world, Omega was ready and willing to try a little bit of everything to capture the spirit of the times and the dollars, francs, pounds and yen of the trendsetters of that era. As characteristic of the 1970s as boot cut jeans and polyester leisure suits, Omega’s chunky and near Pop-art chronographs of this period make a retro statement like few other watches. They’re not to everybody’s taste to be sure but for those that enjoy wearing these colorful beasts there’s great fun to be had by taking a time trip to the past.

Jumping off from their enormously successful Speedmaster Professional (aka “The Moonwatch”), Omega decided to let their design team smoke a little of the good stuff and have some fun creating a new range of Speedmaster and Seamaster chronographs incorporating newly developed case shapes and calibers. At first designs like the Speedmaster Mark II & III had the traditional black dials/white hands like their predecessor but soon a veritable rainbow of colors was busting out all over. The newly launched manual wind caliber 861 and new automatic chrono caliber 1040, both Lemania-based, seemed to lend themselves to inventive case shapes and color schemes, as Omega chased fashion trends with massive tonneau cases and dispensed with conventional lugs altogether.

Omega cal. 861 housed in “Anakin” case

Of course, as a proud supplier to NASA, Omega were also intent on expanding on their “Professional” line to be maximally useful to the aeronautic industry. Continue reading →

What we’re listening to today — Hot Knives by Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes/Conor Oberst get a lot of shit for being pretentious/hysterical/naive/not Dylan (can we retire that comparison for all future singer-songwriters please?). But I’m a big fan of young Conor because I respect artists who lay everything out there and leave nothing held back, rendering themselves emotionally naked in front of an audience. A song like “Hot Knives” from 2007’s excellent Cassadaga does that in a subtle way, telling a complex and nuanced story with passion and a fine eye for human behavior, and that’s no small accomplishment to stuff into a hard charging 4-minute tune.

Not to mention that young Conor is seriously musically gifted (certainly another source of the sometimes irrational criticism he can provoke among the less talented), with a lyrical sensibility that can be poetic, strident, political and vulnerable, often within the same song. He doesn’t always find the mark and I wish he would lose the gimmick of adding long passages of mystical mumbo jumbo to certain album tracks. And some still carp that this is youth music, too agitating and hypersensitive to appeal to a mature audience. Having been to a Bright Eyes concert I’d have to agree that the fan base seems to be 25 or younger, as well as complete believers. But good Rock ‘n Roll has always largely been for and about the young and their passions and idealism and pain. To dismiss such ambitious and raucously independent music on those terms is to admit to trying to be some sort of arbiter of “mature tastes”. And who the hell wants to be that guy?

What we’re listening to today — Love

One of the great “lost” bands, Love were restored to their proper place in the Rock ‘n Roll pantheon by the CD-reissue mania of the 90s, when previously out-of-print LP recordings began to blessedly pop up en masse. For Love, and particularly with the adoring and comprehensive 1995 2-disc Rhino compilation, Love Story, this meant full access to most of their stunning catalog for the first time in decades. The effect of such wondrously original psychedelic music, with its heavy emphasis on brass and string sections, was nothing short of a revelation to the uninitiated and earned them a whole new generation of fans.

Just take a big ol’ toke on one of Love’s sublime and epic masterpieces, with the suitably trippy title “Maybe the People Would Be the Times or Between Clark and Hilldale”, to see what I’m talking about:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkbVosJFkpg

Led by the certifiable compositional genius Arthur Lee and with yeoman contributions from fellow songwriter, guitarist and vocalist Bryan MacLean, Love began by making amped up pop ravers in the style of early Stones or Kinks.

Continue reading →

The Fascination of Vintage Rolex, Pt. II — Wearability

Perhaps the best part of collecting vintage watches is that you get to wear them. They can augment your look, make you feel like a million bucks and express your unique personal aesthetic. Whether you are a one watch kind of guy or a polygamous collector like yours truly, odds are you will find more personal expression in a vintage piece that you have had to learn about, hunt and capture than something you can just walk into a retail store and buy brand new. Not that there’s anything wrong with a new watch and for some the risks of a vintage piece may outweigh the rewards. But once you strap on an older watch that displays its subtle out-of-time qualities so attractively–its years of use, its patina, its wabi-sabi–I think you’ll see the attraction.

Gilt Explorer ref. 1016, ca. 1963

And, while I definitely wear all of my vintage watches, there is arguably no better vintage watch to wear on a daily basis than a Rolex Oyster. This may sound like snobbery but in fact what I’m talking about here is toughness and suitability to the demands of day-to-day activities and exertions. Continue reading →

What we’re listening to today — Wild One by Thin Lizzy

Here’s a bitchin’ live TV version of the great Thin Lizzy song “Wild One” to start the week:

While these Irish rockers are best known for the arena rock staple, “The Boys Are Back in Town”, Thin Lizzy were far more than one hit wonders. Coming across a bit like a British Isles Bruce Springsteen, frontman and bassist Phil Lynott let his status as a black man in Dublin inform his stories of underdogs, outlaws and blue collar heroes sung in a wonderfully husky and nimble style. The harmonic twin guitar attack of Brian Robertson and Scott Gorham gave some Lizzy tunes the sweeter-than-metal appeal so evident on “Wild One” but more often a sharper edged, guitar hero power on tracks like “Boys”, “Do Anything You Want to Do” and “Jailbreak”. Brian Downey’s professional and powerful drumming holds down the beat with precision and provides the underpinnings for the band’s hard charging and hooky tunes.

With a great, distinctive singing voice and a brilliant understanding of how to compose killer rock songs, the death of Lynott in 1986 due to drug-related organ failure at the age of 36 was a major loss even if the band was never properly appreciated in their day amidst all the Punk and Disco. With the benefit of hindsight, it’s clear that Thin Lizzy were one of the major hard rock bands of the 70s and their body of work is still a pleasure to crank up and air guitar to. With all those great hits and their tough-sweet sound, they’ve earned our lasting Dedication.

Watch Collector’s Notebook: The Fascination of Vintage Rolex

Rolex is at once one of the most innovative companies and also one of the most deliberate. Because of Rolex’s conservative approach to changing their watches over the decades you can trace a straight line from the last of the plastic crystal Explorers in the 1980s, for example, back to the Oyster watches they produced in the 1940s. The designs are really quite similar even if some cosmetic things like the dimensions of the watches changed over time.

Speedking ref. 2280, ca. 1942

Explorer ref. 1016, ca. 1985

A Datejust from the 1950s looks relatively similar to a Datejust from the 60s, 70s or 80s.

Datejust re. 6605, ca. 1956

Datejust re. 1603, ca. 1971

And this creates a very comforting and satisfying continuity, the shared heritage of a Rolex Oyster’s ancestry always being present in the next iteration. But–and as a vintage collector this is what hooked me–despite the similarities, there are myriad very small differences. Learning about these subtle changes, sometimes as small as the font on a dial, is the fascinating part of Rolex collecting, as well as often being crucially important to the value and authenticity of a given example. Continue reading →

What we’re listening to today — Baby Blue by Badfinger

The song that’s still ringing in everyone’s ears after the Breaking Bad finale by the first and best band ever signed to the Beatles’ Apple Records:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03oVJ1WAO2U

The story of Badfinger is just about as sad and depressing as that of Walter White, albeit without the cathartic drug kingpin ego trip. Suffice to say that after an extremely promising start the group were run into the ground by the dishonesty of their manager who paid himself gobs of money from their massive escrow account and gave the artists a pittance in “allowance”; the band never really saw any profits from their amazing run of successful hit singles and lucrative record label contracts. The perception that they were merely Beatles doppelgangers also hurt them artistically as the 70s wore on and there were multiple legal imbroglios. All this bad luck and financial pressure led to the suicides of two of their key members, singer Pete Ham and guitarist Tom Evans, both of whom had also written the lion’s share of the classic hits. If ever there was a cautionary tale of how the seemingly glamorous world of Rock ‘n Roll can be a cesspool of exploitation and broken dreams, Badfinger are it. But Baby Blue and the other great hits survive the sadness and still soar–really great pop music that stands on its own merits, Beatles connections or no.

What we’re listening to today — Roadrunner by The Modern Lovers

Here’s a feisty little ditty to kick off the week: The definitive version of eternal boy-man Jonathan Richman’s rockin’ “Roadrunner” as performed by the original incarnation of The Modern Lovers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgRYncR1Nog

“Roadrunner (Twice)” is what happens when the Velvet Underground is cross-pollinated with Tommy James & the Shondells in the fertile pleathor bench seat of a salt-rusted Plymouth. Richman’s adenoidal warble declaims his love of Rock’ n Roll, driving the Massachusetts turnpike and AM radio while being urged on by future Talking Head Jerry Harrison’s dominant and dancing keyboards, future Car David Robinson’s hyper tom tom and cymbal-driven drumming and Ernie Brooks’ anchoring bass refrain. This cut is from the seminal LP The Modern Lovers, which was only released in 1976 on Beserkely Records, nearly 5 years after the demise of the original lineup. While Richman re-recorded the song several different ways (and later refused to play it in concert for many years) and he continued calling his backing bands “The Modern Lovers”, it’s this original version that made such a huge impression on the future of American DIY music. It packs a helluva lot of unbridled joy in its 4-minute run time and it arguably launched a multitude of geek-rockers from the Feelies to the Talking Heads to They Might Be Giants to Weezer and many more of the less-than-macho bands in the rock spectrum. In our age when nerds rule, Richman and Co. helped kick off the revolution.

What we’re drinking this weekend — Widow Jane Bourbon

A “Kentucky Bourbon Whiskey” utilizing limestone mineral water from Rosendale, NY and blended in Red Hook, Brooklyn, Widow Jane nonetheless exhibits the best qualities of really fine Bourbon: a hot, almost cognac-like nose; a sweet caramel first impression; a hint of charred oak middle; and a lingering warm burnt orange peel finish.

Widow Jane is one of many eclectic and palate-pleasing products offered by the remarkable Cacao Prieto chocolatier and distiller, which is based out of a beautiful old brick building on Conover Street in Red Hook. But along with their amazing rum, we find the latest batch of 7-years-in-American-oak Bourbon absolutely one of the best liquors we’ve tasted lately with no off notes and smooth-sipping sweetness. At about 91 proof, adding a little branch water or an ice cube is quite all right and will open up the subtle flavors that seem to unfold like a long, warm wave over your tongue. It’s a bit too refined and expensive to be a mixing whiskey (around $58 a fifth) so best to just take your time and enjoy it on its on with a good friend or two. There’s enough going on in each sip to satisfy your senses over the long haul, no additives required. If you’re really craving an Old Fashioned or sour, pull out some Jim Beam and save the Widow Jane for another time. She’s worth it.

We highly recommend paying a visit to Cacao Prieto in person to sample their fantastic chocolate, chocalate-based liquors, stellar white rum and to stock up on the Widow Jane whiskeys available. If you can’t make it out to rapidly rebounding Red Hook, you can order this fine Bourbon through Astor Wines, as well as the vendors listed at the Widow Jane site.

A Sunday photo from NYC: View from the East River Ferry

Out on a little day trip today with my lovely wife, I took this from the stern of the cool public East River Ferry service on the way back from Governor’s Island.

Leaving the weekend in our wake on a beautiful late Summer Sunday, the Manhattan & Brooklyn Bridges and the new Freedom Tower & Downtown New York recede in one of the world’s great urban panoramas. Finally, New York City has begun to take advantage of its fantastic waterways and the stunning views they provide. For 5 bucks, you and your bike can travel to Brooklyn and Manhattan by boat and take off from there to find food, fun and adventure in the greatest city in the world. Not too shabby and beats a cab if you’ve got the time. You’ll definitely get a better tan, as well.

Man's Fine Life

The Return of the Well-Rounded Gentleman