Holiday Gifts for Him, a Super Short Guide

I was reading an article online (and now that I want to blog about it I can't seem to find it anymore) about holiday gift trends. It talked about grooming items being a hot choice as gifts for men this season.

Now, as someone who deals with grooming items 24/7, I wanted to see what else was there outside of this arena. As I'm only listing four products, this could be the shortest holiday gift guide in history. It's also sort of an old-fashioned one, no gadgets or flavor-or-the-week Cool Aid here. These were the items that caught my eye:

Leather Shoe Shine Kit from Pottery Barn: I enjoy taking care of my shoes, but don't own a shoe shine kit. I think this is one of those staples that every man should have. So if the Mrs. is reading this, please take note, dear.

Dashboard Tray from Williams-Sonoma: a very sleek way of delimiting your area of influence at home. It wouldn't hurt getting it together with the coaster set, decanter and glasses to hold the single-malt.

Mr. Beer Home Brewing Kit from Red Envelope: This looks like an interesting experience, but I have the slight fear that the beer will be crappy, just because I made it myself. I mean, can I really beat the pros at this? But definitely cool to try out.

The Mustache Ornament at Urban Outfitters: this is an odd one, but I guess not bad if I wanted to bring a bit of holiday spirit into the office. Not as garish and over-the-top as most tree ornaments out there. OK for a stocking-stuffer, I guess.

I hope the fact that I didn't discuss any grooming- or shaving-related gifts is not a disappointment. For ideas in this department, you can always head to the gift set section at the store. We've put our experience to the task to build sets that will work well together. So that's always an option.

Gillette FatBoy, Revisited

When I started shaving with a double-edge razor, several years back, everyone on the wet-shaving forums was singing praises to the old Gillette FatBoy. This is an adjustable, butterfly opening razor produced by Gillette in the late '50s, early '60s. The razor was well built, sturdy and with good heft. Consequently, Gillette stopped its production after a while and moved towards slimmer, lighter, crappier models with the plastic disposable being the frosting on that cake.

You might think that I was a big fan of the model from the get-go. Wrong, I actually didn't like it at the beginning. The shave was rough and unpleasant. "Must be the razor and not my technique" I thought at the time and, disgusted, I relegated the almost mint Fat-Boy to a corner of my storage room. Yes, you heard it right, it didn't even manage to secure a dusty corner in my bathroom cabinet.

As it turns out, it actually was my technique. Several months ago I decided to give another shot at my collection of old Gillette razors. Since the first experiences with a Gillette British Aristocrat #66 and a Red-Tip were encouraging, I took the courage to try the Fat Boy this morning. I guess all those wet-shavers were actually right, this is a great razor; nice smooth shave and with almost no nicks and irritation at all, and while using a Feather (a blade so sharp that is better suited for those who like auto-flagellation rather than those who enjoy a good shave).

You can still find a Fat Boy on Ebay these days, but expect to cough up $100 or more for a model in good condition.

Fendrihan, Classic Safety Razors

Tabac Aftershaves and Shaving Soaps

The classic scent of Tabac was created by the house of Maurer & Wirtz in 1959. And its reputation is still going strong. You can now find Tabac aftershaves and shaving soaps at the Fendrihan Shaving Shop. Also for a very close look at their scent (if you're not familiar with it), go to basenotes, where you'll find a comprehensive breakdown of the fragrance and lots of user reviews.

How to Use Sharpening Pastes to Maintain your Straight Razor

Straight Razor Sharpening Pastes

You can now find at Fendrihan a great article about straight razor maintenance, compliments of Thiers Issard. It covers the matter deep and wide and is a must read for straight razor owners or anyone considering to buy one. There you will find information about grits, strops, techniques and routines needed to maintain, restore or make your straight razor ready for that first shave.

Thiers Issard at the Fendrihan Shaving Shop

Big In Japan

Campanola CTR57-1001

Probably the name is not quite fitting. However, I like the 80's Aphaville hit, so here we go.

(Big in Japan refers to failed Western celebrities who found success in Japan.)

The watches, mechanical high end watches, I'm going to talk about were actually never offered in the Western world. They were produced by Japanese companies for the Japan market only.

Even though we know the Japanese watchmakers like Seiko or Citizen as producers of affordable and reliable timepieces, they actually produce some very high end mechanical watches as well. The bad news is that these watches are offered to the Japanese market only (sometimes available in Hong Kong and Singapore as well).

Seiko by far is the company that has the largest and most prestigious portfolio of high end time pieces. Credor line watches (produced by Seiko Corporation) can retail for as high as $150,000 (no it's not a typo). Case in point: this Spring Drive Sonnerie.

Detail of The Credor Spring Drive Sonnerie

I'm far from an expert in Japan-only models but I'll list some names though. It is up to you to study and find more about them:

• Grand Seiko; high end watches that can retail for as much as a Rolex, if not higher. The watch connoisseurs are willing to swear this watches are as good as the high-end Swiss timepieces, if not better. One model I really like is the Grand Seiko, High-Beat 36000. Only one other manufacturer is making a 36000 beat movement (Zenith). Rolex used to buy these calibers for their Daytona chronographs .
• As mentioned earlier: Credor. Their timepieces tend to be elegant, dressy models.
• Izul, also owned by Seiko. High-end mechanical complications.
• Galante, you guessed it, Seiko again. A rather fashionable line of superb watches.
• Campanola, (not a Japan only brand) by Citizen. Mostly high end mechanical complications. As far as I know, they are actually available worldwide.
• Royal Orient, superb (and somewhat more affordable mechanical watches) produced by Orient (company in which Seiko has a 52% controlling stake).

Taiwanese magazine ad for Orient Japan

So, the natural question would be: How can you buy such a watch? Well... they are not cheap but at least they are hard to get.

Higuchi and Seiya are two known japanese based retailers (as far as I know with regular brick-and-mortar stores) who will sell to Westerners. I have dealt only with Higuchi and the customer service was very good. Many watch enthusiasts will say the same about Seiya. Even if they don't have a particular model listed on their web-site, they are willing to accommodate and source you a particular watch, if available.

One word of caution. Market forces are very much at work here, and I'm referring to high demand and low offer, so don't expect huge discounts when purchasing. Prices will tend to be rather close to MSRP.

Katsu-san, the owner and manager of Higuchi, has a very interesting blog as well. BTW, from blog pictures you can easily deduct that he likes good food as much as he likes watches.

Another good option would be the sales forums on different watch aficionado forums (i.e. Timezone or Watchuseek, etc..). However, don't hold your breath, you might have to wait a long time until a Japan-only model is posted for sale (as I said, these models are rare).

Sartoria Caraceni

Men tend to have fewer choices when it comes to their wardrobe, so quality becomes essential. It's not unlike Japanese real estate. Scarcity taught them to value the small spaces and forced them to invest more into fewer but better pieces of home decor or furniture.

Modern men fashion has barely changed for the past 150 years or so. It's a continue variation on the same theme: trousers, jacket and tie. Sometimes tighter on the body, sometimes looser; also, the length of the trousers might vary across the decades and from time to time the double-breasted suits come back into fashion. But in the end the men's uniform remains the same. This, I guess, speaks about men's lack of imagination or about women's lack of observation acumen, or both.

This might be the reason why Sartoria Caraceni can continue doing the same thing, superbly handcrafted men's suits, and still be enormously popular and fashionable with the European elites. Their clients, past and present, include: Silvio Berlusconi , Giovanni Agnelli and Yves Saint Laurent.

This famous Italian tailoring house makes only about 400 suits a year while employing 8 full time tailors. This translates, if my math is correct, in about 1 suit, per tailor, per week. Enough to say that they take their time, and that in a country famous for its people's impatience. Obviously all this comes at a cost, about $4000 per suit (might be more now due to the collapse of the US$ vs the Euro).

Fendrihan - Wet-Shaving Supplies

Plisson-Joris Fine Shaving Brushes, Razors and Toiletries

We are pleased to introduce the fine French brands of Plisson and Joris to our Fendrihan Shaving Store. Plisson's exquisite badger hair made an appearance in my past (and rather explanatory) post about shaving brushes, as an example of the best and most select hair available in today's market.

Receiving this shipment was like Christmas come early for me; go to the store and see for yourself what I mean. These are expertly crafted, elegant products, in my opinion. You will also find their shaving creams, soaps and natural hair brushes (for combing your hair, I mean).

For the past 200 years, Plisson France has been at the forefront of the manufacturing of grooming tools for men. Each product that leaves the hands of their expert craftsmen attests to their drive to produce quality, traditional products with no compromise on style.