Ben Clymer of Hodinkee!!!!!!! Ben was so nice to chat for a little bit about watches and what he was wearing that day (an FP Journe)!! I didn't want to weird him out by being too excited so I kept it short (he was with his friends) and got a photo with him. Terrific and humble guy! This was in the Soho area of NYC.
Very cool. For as much as Dink readers feel like they "know" him, I've always thought it was pretty cool that we don't truly know much about him outside of the articles. Still waiting on the Talking Watches with his full collection (not the snippets from other publications that have floated around a couple times).
Clymer and the Hodinkee crew are fairly pleasant dudes in person, I've met them a couple times at some of their events in New York and though they've obviously been busy, as the OP mentions they are always happy to spend a few minutes discussing watches.
Wow, that's so cool, he even looks like he does on Hodinkee! Whoa, a FPJ Resonance, that's a pretty cool watch indeed... in plat to boot!
I would sooooo love to own an FP Journe..... if they weren't mostly 43 mm. Give me a 37 mm version with one of their cool dials (and a long layaway program)!
The older Resonances were 38mm. They wear slightly larger like a 39mm. (not mine, but a colleague's) Waaay out of my budget but they are astoundingly beautiful in the metal.
The biggest ballers are the most discrete. He probably has a Patek anklet on. And an AP locket with a chunk of JC Biver's long lost afro inside.
For me it's not the size, but getting past those ghastly hands... Not much talk of the independents here, but honestly the stuff being produced by the big brands is pretty bad compared to what these guys can do overall.
Good luck finding one - I've only seen 2 for sale on the secondary market ever, and the 200 made were sold out almost a decade ago. If 37 is too large, he also made them in 34 - this is Mr. Dufour's personal Simplicity - I didn't feel right fully strapping it on my wrist at the time... On his wrist, in his atelier: Cheers, Al
I believe ThomasM, founder of PuristS, sold his a few years ago and replaced it with Philippe Dufour Duality. It's only paper and about a ten year waiting list - then. Now you can order one for your unborn child
Yes, there are even fewer of the Duality models out there - I believe 9 in total were made, and here is one that luckily for me was in his atelier at the same time I was: The simple dial belies the complexity of the movement: I'm not so sure you can even order a Simplicity. The second edition of 100 watches that he announced (bringing the total to 200 only) was sold out almost immediately, and that was at least 8 years ago. Unless something changed and Mr. Dufour decided to make more (which he told me he was not going to, as he wanted to start a new project once all these simple watches were done) they were all spoken for long ago. Cheers, Al
