Comments on: A Guide To Wearing Men’s Bracelets (Tastefully) & The Bes

Classy Clutch Clock Proves There’s More To Rolex Than Just Watches

When you hear the name ‘Rolex‘, you immediately think of luxury, prestige, and above all, very nice watches. Founded by Hans Wilsdorf and Alfred Davis in London in 1905, the now Geneva-based firm makes some of the most handsome and desirable watches money can buy.While precision tool watches may be their raison d’être, Rolex has also turned their hands to many other different forms of timekeeping… And we’re not talking about the big fluted bezel wall clocks that hang outside their boutiques or at sporting events.British watch expert Charles Tearle – a former watch specialist/auctioneer at Sotheby’s, Antiquorum, Bonhams and a resident watch expert for the US version of The Antiques Roadshow – showed off a highly unusual Rolex purse watch that’s caught our eye.This Rolesium Sporting Princess from the 1930s is contained within a small, reptile-skin clutch, and features a delightful Art Deco design. Even more unusual is the green dial treatment: Rolex tends to save green for special occasions, with modern green Rolexes like the Submariner ‘Hulk’ enjoying incredible popularity among watch fans.

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A post shared by Charles Tearle (@charlestearle)

Eagle-eyed observers might notice the Stern’s logo on the dial. Fabrique de Cadrans Sterns Frères was a Swiss firm that supplied dials to many luxury watch brands, including Rolex and Patek Philippe. Indeed, the Stern family took ownership of Patek Phillipe during the Great Depression and were responsible for bringing the brand to the United States.That adds to this Rolex’s novelty – a weird, non-watch timepiece, in an exotic clutch, with a green dial made by their Patek Philippe rivals? No wonder Tearle remembers this piece fondly.Rolex isn’t the only watch brand that’s ventured out beyond their normal wristwatch repertoire.Since 2002, Breitling has had a close association with British luxury car marque Bentley, producing the onboard clock for vehicles like the Bentayga and Continental GT. Omega has a long association with the Olympics, having made stopwatches and timing equipment for judges for years. Watch brands like Breguet, Jaeger-LeCoultre and Panerai have long histories of making nautical instruments, just to name a few.Newer watch brands have got in on the action too: earlier this year, Bremont teamed up with Rolls-Royce Aviation to manufacture instruments and components for their ‘Spirit of Innovation’ all-electric speed record chasing plane.RELATED: Bremont & Rolls-Royce Take Horology To New Heights With Latest ChronometerFamously avant-garde brand Richard Mille has two of the weirdest non-watch offerings from a watch brand: the RM S05 mechanical fountain pen that features its own skeletonised movement, and the ‘Porte-Bonheur Clock’ which the brand gifted to Quebec City in 2008 that now stands next to its town hall.

L: a Longines marine chronometer from the 1940s. R: the Richard Mille ‘Porte-Bonheur Clock’ in Quebec City, Canada.

The reality is that if you throw enough dosh at a watch brand, they’ll be happy to make you your own ‘piece unique’ that can take the form of whatever you please.A Hublot pocket watch? Perhaps an Audemars Piguet sundial? And we already know that Jacob & Co. will indulge your wildest fantasies if money (and good taste) aren’t a concern…Time waits for no man, we suppose.

Mary’s Newtown

The Harbour City’s underground haven of burgers, beers and badass music is now also the home of ‘The Swift’.

6 Mary St, Newtown NSW 2042[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”276823″ img_size=”medium”][vc_column_text]

The Cat’s Meow

Uber cool cocktail bar in the heart of Sydney’s CBD that will blow your mind.

52 Oxford St, Darlinghurst NSW 2010[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”276824″ img_size=”medium”][vc_column_text]

Hendriks Cognac & Wine

Perfect for when you’re on the north side of the bridge and want to add some savoir-faire to your cocktail game.

Shop 5/29 Holtermann St, Crows Nest NSW 2065[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”276357″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][/vc_column][/vc_row]

The post 'The Swift' Could Be Australia's Answer To The Classic Negroni appeared first on DMARGE.

Australians Up In Arms Over PayPal ‘Extortion’

There’s a reason Australia gets called ‘The Lucky Country’ – we’re truly fortunate to live here.But something that we’re not so lucky with is money. The tyranny of distance and a small population; a weak, export-oriented dollar; a government more bent on kicking each other out of office than laying good policy and sheer misfortune mean we often get the short end of the stick when it comes to international trade.Speaking of short sticks (and short shrift) PayPal has recently come under fire from angry Australian Reddit users after a recent fee update.The American online payments business, if you didn’t know, is ubiquitous thanks to its association with eBay and e-commerce more broadly. Many Australian businesses rely on PayPal, especially for international purchases. While rival services like Stripe have started to gain traction, PayPal is still king of the hill.Perhaps aiming to topple them (or perhaps just get through to them), one aggrieved customer yesterday took to Reddit’s r/AusFinance community to claim the recent fee update is “extortion” in a thread entitled, “PayPal extortion – A real life test case.”

“PayPal has recently introduced a new ‘charge for lack of service’ 3% transfer fee on money being withdrawn in a currency other than your primary currency,” the user claimed.

“This is now costing any Aussie business that accepts USD through PayPal an additional 3% on top of their already exorbitant 3.6% +30c for receiving payments from an international customer.”

The Reddit user reckons PayPal further stings Australians by offering an incredibly unfair currency conversion rate, meaning you get even more screwed in the process.

“The moral to this story is PayPal are lower than a dog shit on hot asphalt and avoid them the same way… I thought it was illegal for financial institutions to charge fees for ‘services’ that cost them nothing to deliver (like transferring money from one account to another).”

Is there any class action lawsuits against @AskPayPal ? #ihatepaypal #paypal #paypalsucks

— Lyssadiamond (@LyssaDiamond) November 13, 2020

“I’ve also been impacted by this unfair change as I have many customers already signed up to PayPal subscriptions that I’m suddenly losing an additional 3% on,” another commenter weighed in.“I’ve asked the ACCC [Australian Competition and Consumer Commission] whether this is anti-competitive behaviour or a misuse of market power as they are effectively forcing businesses using PayPal as a payment processor to also use them as a FX conversion service. If you are negatively impacted it may be worth you making a report on the ACCC website also,” one recommends.PayPal refutes many of the Reddit users’ claims and has provided DMARGE with a list of corrections/counter points to the ideas expressed in a version of this article previously published.

“…businesses charge Australia more, simply because they think they can get away with it. Case in point: PayPal.”PayPal is not charging Australians more. The fee for transferring funds from an overseas PayPal account to a US bank account has been introduced in 35 markets. The fee is the same across all these countries worldwide.
“An incredibly opaque fee structure, which they’ve recently (and controversially) changed.” Our fees are listed publicly here. The vast majority of our fees are for business customers. For consumers, most of our services are free or low cost. We recently changed one fee that affects a tiny fraction (0.05%) of our active customer base in Australia. This doesn’t constitute a change in our fee structure.
“PayPal has recently introduced a new ‘charge for lack of service’ 3% transfer fee.” This fee is not connected in any way to ‘lack of service’. This comment may be confusing the US bank withdrawal fee with a separate inactivity fee that has been introduced in other countries but not in Australia.
“3% transfer fee on money being withdrawn in a currency other than your primary currency.” The fee only applies to customers who withdraw USD from their PayPal Australia account to a US bank account.
“I thought it was illegal for financial institutions to charge fees for ‘services’ that cost them nothing to deliver.” It is not true to suggest this service costs PayPal nothing.

It’s not the first time money fees have come under scrutiny in Australia. One of the findings of last year’s banking royal commission was that the ‘Big Four’ Aussie banks (ANZ, Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac) were charging customers “fees-for-no-service” for years, including people being charged ongoing fees by financial advisers – despite not even receiving a yearly review – as well as charges to accounts after customers had died, The New Daily reported.The Reddit thread wasn’t all just criticism of PayPal, however.

“You can just stop using Paypal – or markup your sales via paypal by 7% or more and let the customers pay the fees,” one commenter recommended.

“I personally like to use Paypal for everything online as I can see the transactions through their chatbots. I can stop any ongoing subscription charge by deleting the agreement from my end without having to deal with the customer service of the vendor. I can also make [a] direct claim from PayPal for any missing delivery of orders. A single valve for all my online transactions – would happily pay for that.”

PayPal has also provided DMARGE with a general statement in regards to this discussion on Reddit.

“Several weeks ago, we updated the fee for customers to withdraw USD from a PayPal Australia account to a US bank account. This change is not exclusive to Australia and applies in more than 30 markets around the world. Only a very small fraction of our customers in Australia use this feature. For the majority of our customers in Australia who withdraw funds in AUD, there is little or no cost. We only adjust our policies when we are confident the changes are aligned with the value that our services bring to our customers.”

There’s two sides to every story, we suppose.

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