Watchlords

"Context – political, sociological and cultural. When I put on any vintage watch I try to imagine what it was like to wear that particular watch back in the time it was new and fresh. When I put on the Harvel Date-O-Graph in the morning, I just can’t un-see the advert from 1943 published in LIFE magazine. In it, across half a page, there is a detailed shot of a hand holding a burning cigarette between the fingers. You can also see a bit of the shirt sleeve sticking out from beneath a sharply ironed jacket. And of course, the Harvel Date-O-Graph is there too.

I instantly imagined some important or wannabe important businessman sitting on an airplane filled with smoke, with a bunch of other passengers on their way from New York to LA. Looking at the advert today, it is unimaginable for my generation (I turned fifteen in 1998) – to sit on a plane with smoke everywhere in the cabin. Your eyes stinging, throat choking, feeling the urge to scrape off layers of ick from your clothes. I like to imagine this Harvel Date-O-Graph was onboard during such cloudy trips. Anytime I put it on today it reminds me how fragile, short and ephemeral the present moment is. It makes me think of how society can change in decades to come. We don’t know yet, but I am sure my Harvel Date-O-Graph will be there to witness it. Remembering what it was like in 1950, 2020 and even 2100."

https://www.fratellowatches.com/harvel-date-o-graph/

An interesting article; thanks, Russ!

I liked the advertisement with the smoking cigarette.

smellody wrote:I liked the advertisement with the smoking cigarette.

Quite so; it certainly takes me back. I recall being able to fire up a butt on an airplane trip--it made traveling in coach somewhat bearable. It was certainly wonderful being able to light a Marlboro while wedged into a five-across seat, presumably engineered for a Somali fakir, in the middle of a 747, after 375 tons of it struggled up to cruising altitude, which shouldn't have happened, according to the laws of physics and common sense. I have to admit it was, in hindsight, a pretty bad idea, allowing people to smoke inside a sealed aluminum tube, at thirty thousand feet--I myself started to get kind of sick by the end of the flight.

Of course, the Health Nazis are going to ruin every small sin we can indulge in. I recall reading of a death row inmate being asked, on the eve of his execution, what he wanted for his last dinner; he said that he wasn't hungry, but would really like a last cigarette. He was told sorry, but this is a non-smoking institution, and was denied a last cigarette. This, I thought, was chickenshit. Even the fucking commies would allow a last cigarette to the condemned before shooting them. I don't even care what the guy was convicted of, how many people he murdered, or how horribly. The guy was about to get ten thousand volts run through his ass--give the motherfucker a last smoke, for fuck's sakes.

I like their ice cream cakes.

foghorn wrote:I like their ice cream cakes.

I used to enjoy their commercials with the gravelly voice of Tom Harvel.... (what, have we hijacked the thread already?)

Cookie Puss. And for St. Patricks day there was Cookie O'Puss.


One of the more horologically correct members needs to chime in and end this Cecil.