Green Rambles: Numbers Don’t Say Everything


Today I heard an interesting conversation between two people about cars. One argued that a certain Tesla was better than a Mercedes because it was faster and available at a lower price. I kept out of it, although hearing this conversation transported me about 25 years back in time when on a sunny summer day, I was a passenger in a then brand-new Lotus Elise driving at the circuit of Zandvoort. Even then, the Lotus was fast but most certainly not the fastest car around. However, it didn’t feel that that, as the thrill it gave when driving it was sensational. While I have since driven quite a few, far more powerful cars, replicating that feeling with the Elise has been rare.

There is no substitute for trying a watch on your own wrist

This brings me back to watches, which are sometimes judged on their numbers rather than the experience they provide. I have also been guilty of this in my early days of collecting. Discarding watches because they were too large, too thick, too small, and so on, often without having ever seen or even worn them in real life. I have come back from that, as I have learned that there are indeed 44mm large watches that sit perfectly on my modestly sized wrist, while I also know a few 42mm watches that I deem too large, simply because the case is constructed in a completely different way.

Panerai Shoot- Jimmy Chin

While numbers can give an indication of what to expect, the experience of the real thing might be completely different. Therefor, there is simply no substitute for trying out the real thing. When you make a decision based on numbers alone, you might rob yourself of a great experience, or in the very least, of the confirmation that you were, in fact, right all along.

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