Acquisitions 1st Feb - 29th Feb 2016

Non-shaving related..but a very exciting acquisition for me - my new Slow Watch (JO 17).

Took me twenty-thirty minutes to 'adjust' to how it represents time but it's already second nature and the ability to view the whole day as one rotation on the watch does make a difference.
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The leather strap here is the 'roughest' and thickest that they have. The other leather ones are rather thin and buttery soft but I wanted something a bit more 'raw' to go with the stainless steel.
(The 'writing' on the back is from an un-peeled plastic sticker) :)
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So in the span of two weeks I've bought both a wallet and a watch - and the last time I bought either of those were 10+ years ago.
I think I'm all leathered-up for spring and summer to arrive. Really happy with both purchases.

Slow Jo 17 watch and Popov wallet.
May it be at least another ten years before I need to replace either of them.
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Darkbulb said:
Non-shaving related..but a very exciting acquisition for me - my new Slow Watch (JO 17).

Took me twenty-thirty minutes to 'adjust' to how it represents time but it's already second nature and the ability to view the whole day as one rotation on the watch does make a difference.
30w3zhh.jpg


The leather strap here is the 'roughest' and thickest that they have. The other leather ones are rather thin and buttery soft but I wanted something a bit more 'raw' to go with the stainless steel.
(The 'writing' on the back is from an un-peeled plastic sticker) :)
f0p08m.jpg
​

So in the span of two weeks I've bought both a wallet and a watch - and the last time I bought either of those were 10+ years ago.
I think I'm all leathered-up for spring and summer to arrive. Really happy with both purchases.

Slow Jo 17 watch and Popov wallet.
May it be at least another ten years before I need to replace either of them.
15phl3l.jpg
​
Click to expand...
OK - I tried to resist, but how do you tell the time on a slow watch? Or am I missing the point - is a slow watch meant to make you slow down and not care what the time is?
 
UKRob said:
OK - I tried to resist, but how do you tell the time on a slow watch? Or am I missing the point - is a slow watch meant to make you slow down and not care what the time is?
Click to expand...

It's pretty straight forward.
One cycle on the watch represents all 24 hours of the day. The bottom half is the 'evening' hours 6pm-6am and the upper half 6am-6pm with noon on the top.
Every notch between the full hours is a 15 min mark.

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The single dial does move continuously though so after some use it's easy to see that it's between two 15 min marks so you can get the rough time that way. I humour myself by being able to 'get it' w/in 2-3 minutes or so.

Now 24 hour watches is nothing new they've been around for as long as watches themselves and there are a few current manufacturers out there in addition to SlowWatch.

This is quite clearly not a watch for a person who needs to feel as if he knows that it's 15:51 or 15:53 (which quite honestly will differ anyway if you'd check other people's watches :)).

The perceived differences that the concept is attempting to bring are;
a) That it often doesn't really matter if it's 14:44 or 14:46 and that you should stop chasing minutes or think they matter.
Sure, meetings starts on time (kinda) and buses sometimes leave on time but one or two minutes doesn't really matter and odds are you're in front of a WebEx screen anyway looking at the intranet synced time there, and

b) That seeing a full day represented as a full cycle on a watch gives you a sense of 'how much of the day' you've used up, etc.
Now obviously we are all capable of conceptually understand that there's 24 hours in a day but the way we more and more treat time is as milestones: "It's 12:43, meeting starts in 7 minutes", "It's 17:28. I have to meet Lisa in 17 minutes", etc, etc. We've become very accustomed to treating time as a linear concept and not as a cyclical event.

Apart from all the hippie stuff above I truly love the watch and I will be honest it does have a bit of an impact on how I see and treat time. If a watch can make me become more conscious and aware - and slow down a bit it's worth what I've sometimes spent on a single razor :)

That and I think it looks awesome with its stainless steel case and rough leather.

As with everything in life - YMMV :)
 
Darkbulb said:
Non-shaving related..but a very exciting acquisition for me - my new Slow Watch (JO 17).

Took me twenty-thirty minutes to 'adjust' to how it represents time but it's already second nature and the ability to view the whole day as one rotation on the watch does make a difference.
30w3zhh.jpg


The leather strap here is the 'roughest' and thickest that they have. The other leather ones are rather thin and buttery soft but I wanted something a bit more 'raw' to go with the stainless steel.
(The 'writing' on the back is from an un-peeled plastic sticker) :)
f0p08m.jpg
​

So in the span of two weeks I've bought both a wallet and a watch - and the last time I bought either of those were 10+ years ago.
I think I'm all leathered-up for spring and summer to arrive. Really happy with both purchases.

Slow Jo 17 watch and Popov wallet.
May it be at least another ten years before I need to replace either of them.
15phl3l.jpg
​
Click to expand...
Beautiful watch!
 
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Muhle R41. Let the blood-letting begin!

Oh, and some Meissner Tremonia shaving cream samples and a freebie tuck of GSBs.

It's a pity I'd already shaved 30 minutes before this arrived. Never mind, gives me a day to decide which blade to shred myself with tomorrow ;)
 
My first Valet Autostrop VC-1 all the way from 'merica.

Already was in pretty clean condition but cleaned off any remaining gunk and it looks like new. I had fun loading a de-spined Gem blade - this must be the most dangerous-to-load razors ever invented! Carefully designed to make you slide the naked blade lengthwise into the blade retainer just asking for your fingers to slide along the blade's sharp edge. No blood was spilled but I wouldn't want to do this on a groggy early morning!
Apart from its danger the design is quite neat and the blade can easily be flipped around to rinse out after shaving.

On with the shave. Boy this is a scratchy little beast! It may be because it was the first use of this Gem blade which I find can be harsh on the first shaves so I'll have to see if the keenness wares off with use. Getting the angle right was very different to other SEs but you can see the blade (it's the whole top of the razor) so it's possible to lie it flat to the skin so I don't think I was scraping at the wrong angle. It will take some practice over the next few shaves to make a proper assessment but the word so far is careful.

Afterwards I thought I should have left on the blade's cardboard protector/wrapper while loading the blade to make a safer job. Maybe I should run in Gem blade in another razor first before de-spining and using in this one.

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The razor came in a neat metal box and 5 NOS Valet blades. Do you think I should use these or will their performance have degraded over time? No signs of rust and blades look new.
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That's a beaut, great condition. Those GEMs can be quite rough first time out but I think they are in any razor. Of the Valets, at the minute I only have the VC3 and VB4 but I'm not a huge fan of the Feathers and the reason I'm looking for a VC1 is to decide whether or not to keep those two. Regarding the Valet blades, try @pjgh as I'm sure he'll know what they are like, and help with loading. I have ten or so but didn't want to risk it when the advice I'd been given was to the contrary. Best of luck with the razor.
 
Recent purchases over the last couple of weeks.

Saponificio Varesino 70th anniversary Shaving Soap
Saponificio Varesino 70th anniversary Aftershave
Haslinger Schafmilch Shaving Soap
Haslinger Honey Shaving Soap
Speick Active Shaving Soap
De Vergulde Hand Shaving Soap

Saponificio Varesino lives up to the hype, have used it once and had a superb shave from it, and the aftershave spelt great, giving a fantastic skin feel afterwards. Haslinger soaps too, great shaves, especially from the astounding Schafmilch. These two are easily my soaps of choice now, and I will be buying another variety of the Saponificio in the very near future.

Acceptable shave from the De Vergulde Hand, one of those which I wanted to try, did a fine job but there are better out there.

Speick, really couldn't get a proper lather from, so that's one tried and that's it.

I'm off to New York after Easter, so will be paying a visit to Pasteurs. No more purchases until then, as I'll be spending some money there!
 
New razor arrived today; The Kraken 248.
And like its name suggests it's a bit of a monster.
This razor is a 3D printed slant razor with a sort of safety bar/open comb hybrid and a pretty cool handle.
Weighing in at just 13g (including the weight of the nut, bolt and washer) it's extremely light and has a substantial blade gap making this a very efficient, yet comfortable shave.
Costing just £20 delivered from Holland it's a fantastic razor. The only question is how durable this 3D printed stuff is.
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theymademedoit said:
New razor arrived today; The Kraken 248.
And like its name suggests it's a bit of a monster.
This razor is a 3D printed slant razor with a sort of safety bar/open comb hybrid and a pretty cool handle.
Weighing in at just 13g (including the weight of the nut, bolt and washer) it's extremely light and has a substantial blade gap making this a very efficient, yet comfortable shave.
Costing just £20 delivered from Holland it's a fantastic razor. The only question is how durable this 3D printed stuff is.
4cd77e092f09a71dca0a3ac0b7866bee.jpg

0885955f3378c0060e2ca53f72d4c0ff.jpg
Click to expand...

Love the look of it!
 
@theymademedoit That Kraken razor is superb! I've had a good nose at the maker's site and I think I'm going to be in for one. I don't "do" DEs, but when I did I was partial to a bit of slant action and it'll be nice to support this fellow is his simple, cheap and cheerful venture - it's certainly put a smile on my face :D

Like you @Gordy the Postman brought me a tub of Wickham's - it's Dandyism, thanks to @HugoRune and now completes my collection of the classic Super Smooth range. Bring on the new range @Fox!
 
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