REVOLUTION_International_Vol 56

FOUNDER’S NOTE
’ve been thinking about how our tastes as watch collectors will
be shaped by the crazy roller-coaster ride of 2020, which,
as I write this, coincides with second and even third waves of
resurgences of the COVID-19 pandemic around the world.
And my takeaway is this. First, it is absolutely incredible to me
how so many people think that not wearing a mask, socializing
in groups, arms around each other at dinner venues like chorus girls,
gyrating en masse at nightclubs and beaches while hosing each other
down with an Old Testament deluge of vapor molecules directly into
each other’s eyes, mouths, noses and, yes, lungs is totally unrelated to the
staggering, skyrocketing increase in infections that’s happening around
the world. Sorry, that was just a bit of me venting. Because as someone
who is normally caught up a perennial peripatetic transcontinental
whirlwind of an existence, I’ve found myself unexpectedly but very clearly
grounded for the foreseeable future.
Which brings me to my second point, which is the following: What
is clear to me is that each time we purchase something, especially a
non-essential luxury object, we are making a declaration about the
world we want to live in. And, for me, there has never been a time when
the underlying ethics and core philosophy of the companies producing
the things I want to consume are more important. What is my primary
consideration? Well, it’s pretty simple and if it sounds facile, please
forgive me. But I want any company that I am buying something from
to affect the world around it and the people working for it in a positive
way. Which means, does it treat its employees with dignity? OK, great.
Is it pillaging natural resources and blasting a hole the size of Texas into
the ozone layer? Ah… you see, this is not so f**king great. Is it trying
to empower women and minorities that work for it? Very cool. Does it
leave its staff with severe depression and chronic anxiety issues due to
the constant gonad-cupping, hyperaggressive workplace environment,
because its leader models his managerial style on Jordan Belfort of The
Wolf of Wallstreet? Ah, not so good. Does that company try to over-deliver
in terms of value for its consumers, or does it try to spin some vacuous
marketing yarn to distract from its criminal profit margin? Really, it
just comes down to this — you can either be an asshole destroying the
world we live in and f**king up the lives of the people in it because of
your selfishness and greed, or you can try to improve the planet and the
lives of the people living in it. It’s a pretty clear choice: Meshugaas or
Menschlichkeit. Assholedom or non-assholedom. I want to buy my luxury
good from the perpetuators of Menschlichkeit.
You might think that the big businesses are led by people following
the 20th-century philosophy of maximizing profit no matter its impact
on the planet and its citizens. But that’s not necessarily true. OK, you
have a point that the fourth richest man on Earth, Mark Zuckerberg, is
a class A asshole that seemingly has no issue spreading misinformation
for profit on the various social-media channels that he has what is in
essence a monopoly on. And that sh*t he pulled in 2017 when he filed
lawsuits against native Hawaiians who had owned tiny parcels of land
for generations, so that he could buy them up to “enhance the privacy”
of his 100-million-dollar, dick-wagging estate of douchebaggery.
It’s interesting how, in a decade, Zuckerberg has gone from nebbish,
quirky genius to full-blown draconian despot asshole. But there are
some good rich people too, and many of them are in the luxury watch
business. Despite a projected 600-billion-dollar downturn in the luxury
sector, many of the biggest groups like LVMH and Kering were quick
and generous to donate significantly in the fight against the COVID-19
pandemic. Incredibly, the CEO of Bvlgari, Jean-Christophe Babin, even
set up a virus eradication fund to empower scholarships for key medical
researchers of the future, including helping to fund the COVID-19
vaccine being developed by Oxford University. Does that make me feel
even better about wearing the new Octo Finissimo Chronograph GMT
Limited Edition that we are launching with Bvlgari — with a tachymeter
on the bezel and a fully luminous dial? You bet it does. And even though
it is a significant departure from the normal version of this chronograph,
we wanted to price it almost the same as the regular production watch,
because we believe in giving value to our readers and customers. Are we
going to donate part of our proceeds to the fight against COVID-19?
Yes, of course, we should and we will. Because just like anyone else, we
need to do our part.
We will and should be measured by you, our readers and customers,
in terms of our contribution to making this planet a better place. As
you know, six weeks ago, we launched our Revolution × The Rake
COVID-19 Solidarity Auction to generate funds for countries that have
been badly affected and that are still combating the virus. Thanks to our
amazing brand partners, we raised a total of USD282,945.
We had to convert the US-dollar amount donated to pounds in order
for Givergy in the UK to help us manage the final amount, which was
£219,619.34 (at the time of conversion).
Part of our auction promise was that we would allocate the funds to
any COVID-related charity that the winners wanted. Of the 38 winners,
we had two winners that wanted to do this. For the winner of the Sinn
“Dark Star” prototype (Lot 14), we donated his £4,130 to the YMCA
and Social Kitchen’s Feeding Children during COVID-19 in Singapore.
The winner of the Huitcinq 1988 bespoke watch strap (Lot 32) wanted
his £358 to go to the Gates Foundation’s COVID-19 Research Project.
That left a remaining £215,131.34 that we had to donate. We divided this
amount into five donation tranches of £43,026.26.
So this is how we’ve broken down the allocation of funds. We wanted
to target five countries around the world. (Please note that the following
statistics are accurate as of August 6th, 2020.)
The first is India where you can see that the COVID-19 pandemic
is still very much at its peak with 1.96 million cases and 40,772 deaths.
South Sudan in Africa was selected because while the COVID-19
pandemic is on the rise, the country’s already fragile healthcare
system is under real threat of collapse. There is much that can be
done if we act now, according to this article: https://news.un.org/en/
story/2020/06/1066952. For both India and South Sudan, we have
chosen to work with Save the Children.
Next is Mexico, where Revolution is proud to have one of our editions.
Mexico has been hard hit with 456,000 cases and 49,698 deaths.
Together with our editor for Mexico and Latin America, Israel Ortega,
we have selected the Mexican Red Cross as a beneficiary.
Italy was one of the countries that was truly devastated early on by
COVID-19 with 249,000 cases and 35,181 deaths. Yet we were deeply
touched by this wonderful country’s spirit of resilience and humanity
during the darkest hours of the crisis. Forza Italia, we love you.
Because we have an Italian edition and because the majority of
brand partners for The Rake are Italian, we wanted to show our care and
affection for this amazing country. For Italy, we have also selected the
Red Cross as the beneficiary of our auction.
Finally, we wanted to do something for the UK which was one of the
worst affected and has one of the highest rates of mortality in the world
with 307,000 cases and 46,364 deaths with both Prime Minister Boris
Johnson and Prince Charles contracting the disease. And yet the United
Kingdom was one of the most inspiring nations in the way it rallied
together to fight the pandemic.
When the National Health Service (NHS) asked the British public
for 250,000 volunteers in April, one million people signed up to help.
On April 6th, 2020, the 99-year-old Captain Tom Moore started to
walk laps around his garden with the aim to raise £1,000 for the NHS.
By the end of the 24 days leading up to his 100th birthday, he had raised
£32.9 million, and on July 17th, he was knighted by Queen Elizabeth.
Because we have a Revolution UK edition and because England is
the home of The Rake, and because we love the British people and their
enduring capacity to show immense courage and grace under fire, we
have selected the NHS as the final beneficiary of our charity auction.
But this result would not have been possible without the amazing
brands and individuals that donated such extraordinary auction lots to
the cause. And so I would like to take this opportunity to thank them all.
It is really because of their generosity, kindness and spirit of unity that we
were able to organize this auction at all.
From Bamford Watch Department, we would like to thank George
Bamford for the lovely Bamford GMT pièce unique in pink and green,
which achieved USD4,000. From Breitling, we would like to thank
the incomparable Georges Kern, Tim Sayler and Romy Hebden, who
arranged for us to auction Kern’s personal Navitimer PAN AM on an Air
Racer bracelet, which achieved USD9,000.
From Chopard, we would like to thank the amazing Karl-Friedrich
Scheufele and Celine Wackie-Eysten, who donated the prototype of the
Chopard Mille Miglia GTS Power Control Grigio Speciale worn by Ryan
Reynolds in the film 6 Underground, which achieved USD11,500.
From Girard-Perregaux, we would like to thank Patrick Pruniaux
and Meera Anand, who donated a wonderful prototype Place Girardet
watch engraved with “E Pulribus Unum,” which achieved USD14,050.
From Hublot, we would like to thank the great Ricardo Guadalupe
and Annabelle Garcia for the prototype of the Hublot Aerofusion
Chronograph “Molon Labe” for The Rake, which achieved USD15,000.
From IWC, we would to thank our dear friends Chris Grainger,
Riccardo Soliani and Jessica Gasser for donating the prototype of the
Spitfire Timezoner “Longest Flight,” along with a flight suit from pilot
Matt Jones, which achieved USD22,222.
From Panerai, we would like to thank the dynamic Jean-Marc
Pontroué and lovely Carla Salicini for donating the prototype of the
PAM01661 Luminor Marina Carbotech, which achieved USD16,600.
From Reservoir Watches, we would like to thank the wonderful
François Moreau and François-Marie Neycensas for donating the
prototype of the bronze Hydrosphere “Fari Islands” edition, which
achieved USD4,500.
From Roger Dubuis, we would like to thank the excellent Nicola
Andreatta and Laurent Toinet for the creation of the epic Excalibur
Essential Blue that achieved USD16,012.
From Van Cleef & Arpels, we would like to give a huge merci to the
brilliant Nicolas Bos and Hugues de Pins for the transcendent Midnight
Palais de la Chance Trefles, which achieved USD53,100.
From TAG Heuer, we would like to thank the epic Frédéric Arnault,
Stéphane Bianchi and Catherine Eberlé-Devaux for the amazing pièce
unique Heuer 02T Tourbillon Chronograph and Monaco F1 experience,
which achieved USD17,500.
From Time+Tide and DOXA, we would like to thank our buddies Jan
Edöcs, DOXA’s CEO, and Andrew McUtchen, Time+Tide’s founder, for
the Sub 300 Carbon Aqualung US Divers, which achieved USD5,050.
From Zenith, we would like to thank the phenomenal Julien Tornare
and Romain Marietta for donating the prototype of the 2020 edition
“Cover Girl” A3818, which achieved USD20,000.
We would like to thank the very kind individuals with the following
Instagram profiles: @hands.faces.cases for the Baltic × Worn &
Wound time-only watch that achieved USD1,850; Richard Lee for the
chronograph version of the same watch that achieved USD3,000;
@timeandgrooves for the vintage Caravelle diving watch, which achieved
USD900; and @zeaccesorios (Jose Girona) for the vintage Omega
Constellation that achieved USD1,800.
From the non-watch side of things, we would love to thank the
following people: My dear friend Ahmed “Shary” Rahman for the two
Goyard cigar cases, which achieved USD1,700 and USD1,600; the
geniuses Lorenzo and Massimo Cifonelli, and Romain Le Dantec for the
Cifonelli bespoke suit, which achieved USD7,000; the lovely Caroline
Andrew for the bespoke suit, which achieved USD4,801; the great
George Glasgow Sr. and Jr. for the bespoke George Cleverley shoes that
achieved USD4,100; the dynamic Thom Whiddett and Luke Sweeney of
Thom Sweeney for the bespoke suit that achieved USD5,150.
The kind Fabien Fryns for the artwork by Jia Aili that achieved
USD3,200; Assouline for the book Rolex: The Impossible Collection, which
achieved USD1,000; Ettinger for the Overnight Bag and Double Watch
Roll, which achieved USD800; the wonderful Vicente Castellano and
Globe-Trotter for the aluminum travel case, which achieved USD4,500;
Jemma Freeman and Hunters & Frankau for the El Rey del Mundo “La
Reina” Regional Edition cigars, which achieved USD 1,050.
Our friend Federico De Peppo and Huitcinq 1988 for the bespoke
watch strap that achieved USD450; Linley for the Azure Vermillion
Jewelry Box, which achieved USD1,350; New & Lingwood and Fratelli
Piacenza for the vicuña gown that achieved USD4,800; Purdey for
the titanium sunglasses that achieved USD1,000; the Royal Berkshire
Shooting School experience that achieved USD650; our friends James
Fayed and Jonathan Baker, and Turnbull & Asser for the bespoke shirting
experience, which achieved USD900; and the inimitable Alexander
Kraft for the stay and cocktails with him at his Provençal hotel La Maison
Bleue, which achieved USD3,750.
Lastly, I would like to personally thank all bidders and winners for
their amazing generosity!!! Because, like everyone in this wonderful
industry we love, we are trying to do our small part to contribute and,
most importantly, avoid being assholes.
Wei Koh, Founder
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