Burned out on watches, I head back to the Waldorf-Astoria. By the time I get to my room I'm perspiring all over, even though it's pretty cool outside. I'll stay in Colorado, I'm thinking, even though the watch stores are better here. At least the air is dry. I splash some cold water on my face, take off my shirt and wash the sweat off, and put the shirt back on. I look at my watch. Only 5:15. I should at least visit Philip for a few minutes. I take the elevator to the lobby and go into Cellini.
Phillip is sitting exactly where he was when I left him, only now he's reading a computer magazine. He looks up. "Hi, Philip," I call out, as if I'm greeting a close friend. "You haven't moved all day!"
"No, I was waiting for you," he jokes. He puts the magazine away and we chat for a few minutes. I rave about Kenjo, and tell him it really doesn't compete with him at all, which it doesn't. I tell him Tourneau has lots of watches, but isn't really special, and that Wempe is very off-putting. We continue to talk. The conversation turns to TimeZone. Philip has interacted a bit on the public forum, and he knows of Richard,
who he's exchanged messages with.
Philip makes no attempt to ask me if I plan to buy a watch, and I don't say I am, because I'm not. No watch today. Just two old friends talking.
There's an awkward silence, mainly because it is my turn to talk and I failed to speak
One part of my brain has decided to call it quits and has shut down, and now the other part takes over and seizes control of my mouth. "Let me see the Lange 1 again, the black one." He takes it out of the window and puts it down.
I haven't exactly jumped off the cliff, I've only just gone to the edge to look down. I can still step back and ask Philip to put the watch away.
I'm staring at the face of the Lange 1, which I thought was stupid when I first saw it on the cover of Watches, and which now I love. The Lange is staring back at the face of me. The Pateks, APs, and Eternas now recede, and the Lange 1 jumps into sharp focus. Its excellence overwhelms everything else I looked at today. If I'm going to buy a watch today, which I thought a few minutes ago I was not, it is going to be the Lange 1, or nothing. But, it is not going to be the Lange 1, because I am not buying a watch today.
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