Independents

bernard cheong
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It is piece specific, but Dufour wins...to me.

This is a good question.

I think the appreciation of watches by the connoisseur- consumer (henceforth to be called the class of buyer called the "con-com"), has reached a level to move up and onwards .

When Lange suddenly brought forth the subject of absolute finish, although in an industrial sense, the world of the con-com focused itself on finsh.

It has almost been a decade or more, as we draw to the end of 2007. Timely.

I admire Dufour. He made and still makes the "complete" soul of a watch...finish and the next level, "soul". The Lange lacked soul. This was and is not to be seen as a weakness..in fact, I like Lange, especially the Lange 1, because of its character, its coldness, its declaration of being man made and an artifact of man, hence.."lacking soul". The character of this watch is strong, and individual.

Dufour did the opposite, he took finish, and watch making, and combined them with his personality and his feelings, making it not "man made", but "Dufour made", hence, he infused his soul into it.

This cannot be seen in VC, Patek, AP, IWC, Lange,...or at least to the same intensity.

Kari has it. He has soul. He does infuse it. BUT..there is too much variation from his one model to the next, in the details. He can't have 2 or 3 souls. The bending over to please the masses, and the dilution of his own vision is understandable. It has brought him sales and sucess. BUT, I wish more artists, or independants to remain firm. We should as the con-com, bend over to understand them, and support their work. Even when at first we don't like what we see.

Look at the Goldpfiel Vianney, or the URWERK Opus V, if not for the intense interest in finish, and the interest drawn by Dufour's focus, they may have remained unknown..or the FREAK even. It has taken more than a decade for the con-com to even look at the Goldpfeil Vianney, the majority can't even begin to like it. When I first bought it, I did not understand or likeit, that intensely. I grew to like it intensely after I bought it. I bought it, at the time, to support Vianney's work.

Coming back to the question of Anthony's.

"Finsihing vs finishing" is a good topic, and should be classifed as one parameter. I feel, personally, that a new parameter, a more difficult one. should be created in the con-com mind..it is too amorphous at this moment, but it should incorporate (1) identity (2) character (3) elasticity between aesthetic and engineering/performance.

I feel that like Thomas, the boudaries of finishing, and more finishing, have been pushed far, not too far, as some still suck...but it is appropriate to see the watches as more complete entities, and as con-coms of the market, we should begin to see the products on wider horizons.

At this point, Dufour, to me, with the Simplicity, and the Duality, and his workshop, wins hands down.

His product's forte is point (3) elasticity between aesthetic and performance, weakness is point (2) character. The finish is not a parameter here, as it wins almost always, visible especially on very prominent displayed parts.

Kari is more even between all 3 points, but strong on none, at the moment.

I may be wrong, this is personal opinion.  I suppose we are here to discuss. And most of all, help each other, and the watch makers understand what we want, enjoy, and guide us as well. They have their problems.

 The more conglomerate and industrial players, like Chopard LUC, Patek, UN, FP Journe, AP etc ..have actually moved ahead to incorporate more elasticity into their products. Ironically, the indepedants are having a trying time to avoid the lure of mass appeal, and hence "sales", as they have a powerful character and identity, and therefore lack mass appeal. In diluting their character and identity, they get mass appeal.

The PuristS.com as a site for con-com vision, and direction, has to help give feedback, whether right or wrong, but with good intent, a feedback on what we see.

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