Brown Tie & DB

Hiromitsu at R&Blues, Ginza Tokyo.

I want to start a quality of life revolution

From "Futuristic Jedi Grandpa" - Kelvinsense.tumblr.com

Tasukette!

I've decided my big, ugly mug isn't anywhere near hidden enough under my King George V beard, so I am looking for a ball cap. But one par excellence - A Cooperstown/ShadowCap model. All wool, horsehide sweat band, vintage short brim - the sort of thing that kids in the 40's would have worn to a ball game, drinking soda and eating hotdogs.

With a fellow fan of all things furugi, the search has begun. It appears the guys from Cooperstown disappeared with some not so gentle encouragement from Major League Baseball, but not before selling on some stock to 68&Brothers in NY, and making some cool pieces for Billionaire Boys Club. Anyone out there have any idea where they are, how we can support them, and how I can hide all 59cm of my head?

And with this comes yet another revelation of the lack of integrity in big brands out there. If I was a player in the MLB, and someone came along with a product made with care, attention to detail and absolute integrity, I'd be lobbying the big bosses upstairs to throw their considerable resources and support behind them. There just isn't enough people with the passion to do this, as consumers we have to do what we can to keep them going. Consider yourself a patron of a fine artist, and support the struggling apparell artist.

Birmingham Black Barons ballcap.... Negro League hosts of Willie Mays when he was all but 15.

Updates from R&Blues

I am a cheap wasp

It’s better to have one good pair of shoes than a half dozen cheap ones, because the cheap ones look cheap even when they’re new, but the new ones look good even when they’re old. Quality by definition is the best you can get for your money. If you buy a pair of shoes for $500 and they last you 10 years, that’s $50 per year. If you buy a pair for $100 and they last you six months, which was the more expensive? I think the Old Money WASP guys were just cheap, so they always bought the best.

Bruce Boyer

Buttons

Plain Anchor button on my MFSC Signal Vest. One of the sleeve buttons on my coat has trhe notorious "Fouled Anchor" buttons, a brief explanation of it's meaning below;

I recently took to my custom Barnstormer from Aero Leather in Galashiels, Scotland, with a score of vintage buttons and some 50's era Dragon Liberty Cuffs..

The Oxford Companion to ships & the sea, edited by Peter Kemp, 1976, has the following explanation:

"The use of the foul, or fouled anchor, an abomination to seamen when it occurs in practice, as the seal of the highest office of maritime administration is purely on the grounds of its decorative effect, the rope cable around the shank of the anchor giving a pleasing finish to the stark design of an anchor on its own. "

Helene Philibert, "Those Carried in the Tops of Ships," US Naval Institute Proceedings, March 1931, quotes Cmdr C. N. Robinson's book The British Fleet [1894] as follows:

"[Up to the late Tudor or Stuart period] the Admiralty badge was a crescent moon with a golden star between the horns, but about that time the crescent was replaced by the anchor which was also used a seal with a motto round it according to the fancy of the Lord High Admiral. When the Earl of Northumberland was in office, the anchor had a cable festooned about it in a wonderful manner. The Duke of York put this anchor into the Admiralty flag. About 1720 the foul anchor which had before been the badge of the victualling officer was taken for the Admiralty and it was put into the seal, badge and flag.In 1815, the clean anchor was restored to the flag, but the foul anchor remains the badge at Whitehall."

Goods with a story...

I always think that the true test of something you own is how it grows with you, how it fares over time, and how it's history or story increases it's value to you. As someone who spends his time in product development, it is this integrity I hope to one day achieve in my own products.

From my Horsehide Barnstormer, my Laguiole pocket knife, my Alden NST's or my Evis "Do Konjyo" garrison belt, I have a few of these things that I love more and more the longer I own them. All of them have their history that makes them irreplaceable to me, and I think that history would make them attractive to other like minded people.

The latest piece I have to add to that list is (another) vintage Omega. A transitional 861 Speedy to be exact, but a rebuilt monster that I would have over any perfectly preserved example.

6 or so months ago I bought for a very reasonable price what I thought was a stock standard Mark II Speedy online. It arrived and looked a bit off, so I took it to my watchmaker to find out the story. What it was, to my surprise, was a 861 transitional Speedmaster - applied logo, tritium dial etc. badly fitted into a Mark II case, with a very precisely, but not Omega applied, Mark II logo.

I thought the best I could do with this piece is bring it back to life to be my everyday watch, so the hunt was on to find all the requisite parts.

First was the case - a 145.022 was what it needed, but that was out of the question. I bought what I thought was a 145.0022 online, but it turned out to be a 145.0055. The difference, I do not know.

The bezel was absent, so I traded the Mark II case for a new Telemeter bezel with the good folks down at Watchco in Melbourne. They threw in a crown for good measure, and my great friened Mr Sintic began the work of restoring it.

Yesterday I picked it up and it is better than even I hoped. The Mark II is still written there - we couldnt get it off without damaging the dial, but in some ways I'm glad - it reminds me of the work I went through to get it on to my wrist...