MASTER MECHANICS

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Upstairs to upmarket
To see more upmarket watches, we take the escalator up to the Didier
Guérin shop, which is affiliated with L’Or du Temps, but is decorated in
soft pastel tan shades and has seemingly thicker display cases.The most
expensive watch—if we understood correctly—is a Dior, selling for
7,600 euros, much higher than the prices at its counterpart downstairs.
Myriam and Caroline, mother and daughter from Neuilly-sur-Marne, a
town in Seine-Saint-Denis, have come to Rosny 2 to look for a present
for Caroline’s boyfriend, Luis. Of Spanish origin, Luis will be 23 in a few
days. Together the two women will chose the gift, obviously a watch.
Luis, however, does not know about it, so it will be a surprise. “He likes
brands,” says Myriam, who seems to have a good opinion of the young
man. “I am looking for something classy, simple, not bling-bling,” adds
Caroline in a neutral tone. “He likes to dress well. He has a Diesel,
which I bought him for 139 euros.” Luis offered his girlfriend a diamond
pendant. “She likes jewellery. She likes everything,” remarks her
mother. Both women decide on an Armani, which is rectangular, reasonably
thick, and has a light grey dial with Roman numerals. It costs
179 euros. “I am the one who is paying,” smiles Caroline.
With the next customer, Olivier, the search turns more technical. A 32year
old commercial engineer, he came to the Didier Guérin boutique
with his wife. A native of department 93, he works for Solidworks, a
subsidiary of Dassault Systèmes. “We have developed software that
measures the resistance of materials in 3D constructions,” explains this
aficionado of higher-end watches. He is wearing a Baume & Mercier
that he says cost him 1,900 euros.“Among our clients,” explains Olivier
cheerfully, “is the Swiss watch brand, Frédérique Constant, as well as
Zenith, which was doing badly but should do better after its acquisition
by LVMH. Zenith even brought out a 30th Anniversary model for 7,900
euros…” He goes on to say, reassuringly,“Watches are moving again.”
Moving north
We leave the warm cocoon of Rosny 2 for the dry cold of the Porte de
Clignancourt, at the northern edge of Paris.The divide between the capital
and the suburbs is as clear as the guardrail that separates the road
from the shoulder. On one side are the Haussmann style buildings, however
faded, while on the other side is urban claptrap, where the ring road
looms over cheap buildings, small hotels and surviving homes of the
working-class inner suburbs.Welcome to Clignancourt, realm of the flea
market and the counterfeit everything. Here, the prices of watches fall
sharply, adapting to a more modest clientele. Small shops run by Indians
and Pakistanis offer a little of everything—gloves, scarves, handbags,
jewellery, and of course watches. Real, fake? Very few people even ask
the question. The brands have names that have never graced the pages
of a glossy magazine— Firmax, Ernest, FLR, Celsior… Most are sold for
less than 20 euros, some even as low as 5. Only some strange Citizen
models break the 50-euro barrier, displaying the single price of 69.90
euros in a small shop the size of a food stall, located in the lower level at
the entrance to the metro.
It would be a mistake to think that outside the ring road lives a lumpenproletariat
that buys only ugly watches. First of all, everything is not
lumpen in the suburbs.A middle class lives there quite comfortably.And,
as our little visit to the Rosny 2 shopping centre shows, the choices of
watches are varied, with something for all prices and all tastes.
All tastes? Well maybe not all. Mehdi, 18 years old, living in Saint-
Ouen, in Seine-Saint-Denis, in his first year of university in Paris, would
probably not have found the Lego watch designed by Jean-Charles de
Castelbajac that he is wearing. “I bought it for 100 euros in Paris in a
Castelbajac boutique,” he says. It is colourful—yellow, green, and red,
with a black dial. “I don’t use it for telling time,” he adds. “I have my
mobile phone for that, but I like its colours. I find it attractive.” And,
yes, in the suburbs, we also find boys who like pop art.O
Antoine Menusier