Bulletin Board 19

A great watch repair resource, the most packable blazer, and a toothbrush love affair

I GOTTA GUY 

When it comes to watch maintenance and repair, I shy away from going to the brands themselves, particularly with vintage watches. The brands are often very expensive, take forever, and sometimes they replace things that didn’t need replacing. Or, they flat out won't work on it. It's sort of like bringing your car back to the dealership. You're paying premium prices for repairs–and you’ll  always be better off finding a thoughtful independent mechanic to take care of the job.

Still, while I’m fine stopping into any jewelry shop to change a link or replace a battery, I was recently looking for some serious work on some vintage watches. 

My good friend Vincent Brasesco who heads the watch department at Sotheby’s suggested I contact Harris Freeman, the founder and head watchmaker at NYC Watchmaking (@nycwatchmaking), a full service watch repair shop. I asked him to help out on a vintage Rolex 5508 Submariner that I’d bought at auction, which hadn't been serviced in decades. Harris gave it his standard full overhaul — fully disassembled the movement, put it through his cleaning machine, oiled and greased the parts, reassembled it, adjusted the timing, and got it cased back up for quality control. Additionally, the case got a light cleaning with soap, water and a toothbrush. Not just that, but when he got into the movement, he noticed that a bridge screw and a dial screw were missing altogether, and ordered period replacements for both.

Repairing vintage watches can be a tricky business, very much like fixing vintage cars. You need someone who has talent, patience, is thoughtful, knowledgeable and knows how to source difficult to find original parts. I am happy when my watches are running well and the soul and the integrity of the watch has been kept alive.

OBSESSION

I just love these Curaprox 12460 Velvet Toothbrushes. For me, two great joys in life are buying new tires for my car, and getting new toothbrushes. My mother was obsessed with oral hygiene, so there was always a huge package of new Oral-Bs in the house always in red, blue, and yellow, but when I first discovered these Swiss toothbrushes in Italy years ago, I instantly loved their more austere designed look (more neutral, interesting colors in contrast to the juicy fruit colored Oral-Bs).

They’re the best in their class — thoughtfully designed, with a great handle and shape, and a whopping 12,460 bristles on every brush. I usually buy the black, gray and clear ones with contrasting bristle heads. They come with these great slip-on travel caps, which is convenient, and I like that the brush size is fairly small, which means you use less toothpaste and can be more precise as you brush (more like a dentists tool!). My dentist advises using only soft bristles, and the name of their ‘Velvet’ line gives you a sense of how these bristles feel. At $8.49, they're not the cheapest, but you only have one set of chompers! I always have one in my Dopp kit, and one at home. And I’m happy to say I see them stocked in my favorite Brooklyn drug store as well as most European pharmacies.

RADAR

Lastly, I want to talk about this incredible Fox Brothers cloth–specifically their 100% wool, 15 ounce basket weave hopsack number FB 312 No661/66.  If you’re unfamiliar, a hopsack jacket is an Ivy Style/country club  preppy favorite most commonly found in navy (sometimes green–think Masters) with brass buttons. Also  if you were at a club and forgot your jacket, the hopsack is the standard loaner you would be offered in most cases. 

My desire for my jacket was inspired by a very nice hopsack suit I saw on the masterful Sid Mashburn in Atlanta. It was heavy, in an earthy olive, and sadly Sid was sold out of my size. When I got back to New York, I started looking at the Fox fabric swatch book at J. Mueser, and found this really nice, earthy brown swatch of heavy wool hopsack that stopped me in my tracks. Jake and I then planned to make me a softer unlined version of the preppy classic–ours less rigid and constructed, and with antique brass buttons instead of shiny polished ones. A versatile hopsack jacket to pair with everything from white denim, to gray flannels.

It’s absolutely bulletproof. You can roll it up, pack it in your bag, and it comes out 90 percent wrinkle-free, 100 percent of the time. I will just shake it out, hang it up and it is ready to throw on in no time. This particular hopsack cloth is reasonably heavy but somehow light enough to wear in a temperate climate (say, Rome or Charleston), and still hardy enough for warmth in a cooler one (like a cool NorCal evening or winter afternoon stroll in Spain, where I tested it too). This is just a very versatile and handsome jacket in a cloth and color, that is certainly not your granddad’s country club blazer.