In my high school days my good friend Cale and I spent some time working as porters at a local car dealership. The job involved quite a bit of general grunt work, tons of new car prep and a helluva lot of car washing. Washing cars in the summer is one thing, but washing cars in the middle of a Cleveland winter is an altogether different thing. It sucks.

Our job also involved transporting inventory between the main dealership lot and the storage lot which was tucked away in a secluded area about five hundred yards from the dealership. Often we used a trade-in to shuttle over there to get whatever new cars the sales manager had ordered us to bring up. You’d probably be surprised to know that nobody really gave two shits about those trade-in cars, which meant my buddy Cale and I didn’t feel too bad about using them to perfect our tactical driving skills. And by tactical driving skills, I mean learning the intricacies of the relationship between the gas pedal and the hand brake.

15 Comments

While out in Vegas I was chatting with a designer friend and his watch happened to catch my eye. It was pretty classic looking, and upon further inspection, I noticed a red star and a few Chinese characters on its face. Intrigued, I needed to know more and inquired as to it. “It’s a reproduction Chinese pilot’s watch from the ’60s.” my friend said. I took a few photos and when I got home did a little investigating on the internets. Sure enough the watch is called the Seagull 1963 and it has been recently reissued. Seems like the heritage trend has even extended all the way to China.

55 Comments

One of the great stores has no walls and, in fact, isn’t even a store at all.  Consider the Andrews of Arcadia stall at Spitalfields Market in London.  Every Thursday, John Andrews sets up his booth of vintage fishing tackle and it couldn’t be improved on by all the art directors on Madison Avenue.  Antique angling wares—bamboo rods, cork floats, checkered sailing flags, restored reels, the odd canvas bucket—all laid out perfectly, priced fairly, and described with care and not a trace of snobbery.  It’s a very sweet thing.  Then lunch across the street at St. John Bread & Wine, and you’re enjoying the better part of civilized life.

11 Comments

After the SIHH watch fair, we took the train from Geneva to the German speaking side of Switzerland to visit the offices and factory of watchmaker IWC. Located about an hour outside of Zurich, the town of Schaffhausen is a small enclave on the Rhine river that has become famous for high end watch manufacturing. The IWC headquarters look almost exactly as you would expect. The older part of the building was at one point merged with a perfectly modern, clean and stylish building expansion. The resulting structure is classic and modern all together in one piece. The interiors of the office are outfitted almost exclusively with USM Modular furniture, which made me feel like I was in a Star Destroyer, or at least a Nebulon-B frigate. What I’m trying to say is the place is pretty space aged and cool.

28 Comments

Madison Avenue, New York City | 10:34 am Monday, February 7th, 2011.

46 Comments