Sunday, June 08, 2008

Early Father's Day Present


People were writing and calling about the "beautiful watch" that I got as an early Father's Day present. Here it is, an Omega Constellation, quartz variety. I really, really like it.

Carol has an Omega Constellation too, which I gave her for her birthday last year. It is smaller, of course, and has a white dial. I bought it at Buchwald Jewelers in the Seybold Arcade on Flagler Street in Downtown Miami. The Seybold Building is a famous old building in Miami, and its 10 floors are occupied by jewelry stores, watch repair shops, and allied retailers and wholesalers. The cream of the retail stores are along the Seybold Arcade, which is on the ground floor and runs across the block from the Flagler Street side to the NW First Street side.

I got to know the owner of Buchwald Jewelers 20 years ago. On the rare occasions I am able to afford to buy anything there, it is usually at the stainless steel edge of the product line; thus the watch shown above and thus a quartz movement. When I bought Carol's watch, I bought it on the basis of it being sold by Buchwald's, it was an Omega, which I had heard of, and I just thought it looked very nice. I had no idea what a Constellation was, but I did learn that there was a men's version. So after I bought Carol's, I read enough about them to know that I would like one myself, and so the Father's Day gift above.

In connection with finding the photo to paste on this post, I learned that the Omega Constellation has quite a tradition. There is a collector's blog here. (Don't be put off by the ugly "Frankenmonster" photo. A "Frankenmonster" is someone who makes fake Constellations by assembling various watch parts in Omega-like watch cases. There is a big problem with this, apparently, in Omega-land.)

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