Amortization and marginal utilities

I brunched at Cantine this morning. My friend was a bit late meeting me so I wandered into the nearby kitchen supply store to browse. There were lots of great gadgets and cute little cake and tart pans that I would have loved to bring home with me, but given that I won't be moving into my own place for another year and a half and the hard fact that we're in the middle of a home reno so there'd be nowhere to put it in the meantime, I walked out of there empty-handed.

I was famished for food and the cornmeal bread we were served while we waited was perfectly toasted and perfectly yummy. The coffee was great and the eggs benny I had ordered was just runny enough. On a purely superficial level, my only complaint is the skimpy serving of potatoes I got, since I didn't finish them all anyway. Because the plate was on the large side, and the eggs benny didn't take up even a 1/3 of it, the small pile of roasted potatoes on my plate just looked a bit sad despite their tastiness.

It was hot hot hot but we wanted to check out the MO851 sale (up to 75% off!) so we walked over to St. Thomas Street, browsing the various shoe stores along the way as I'm still on the hunt for a pair of shoes to go with the gold silk brocade dress I bought in London to wear to my friend's wedding later this month.

I didn't find anything I had to have, although for a few seconds there, I flirted with a vanilla-coloured, blazer-style, super-soft nubuck leather jacket. Sanity and fiscal responsibility prevailed though, because much as I loved the jacket...it was still $300. If it was perhaps $150, I might have picked it up just because...but it wasn't so I was safe from temptation.

We also went into a couple of jewellery stores as I've also been thinking about getting a new watch. I've been wanting a Longines DolceVita ever since I tried one on while waiting for my flight home at the Chek Lap Kok Airport in Hong Kong a couple years ago.

I love this one with the diamonds along the side of the case and the beautiful blue of the dial. Aside from being a lovely dress watch, it's got roman numerals so I can actually tell the time! I have my everyday Movado which I love but it's the iconic black dial without any indicators for the hour so form definitely triumphs over function in this instance.

I walked into Royal de Versailles Jewellers on Bloor thinking they carried Longines but they don't (Birks does, so I went there afterwards.) Instead, I tried on the Cartier Tank Francaise, which I wanted long before I ever spied the DolceVita. It was so perfectly classic on my wrist. The price tag was not so much.

This 18K gold version with the sapphire cabochon crown would set me back $5400+(!!) I've also tried the stainless steel version, but it just doesn't compare, so why settle for a pale, albeit still Cartier, imitation?

I know, you're probably thinking my logic's faulty when I won't pay $300 for a leather jacket but would consider $5400 for a watch. But it makes complete sense to me when you consider that the Tank Francaise is a classic timepiece that can be passed through the generations while a leather jacket is fashionable and not nearly as enduring.

Because I'm a geek, I'll often rationalize the purchase of an expensive item by amortizing its cost over the number of times I think I'll wear it. When you compare the amortization period of the watch, which could span generations, to that of the jacket, then the watch makes complete sense. I could probably also rationalize in economic terms too by talking about the marginal utility of an additional jacket, of which I have many, to that of a watch, of which I have only one, but I was only ever an indifferent student of economics at best.

Considering that I have closing costs to save for before the mortgage payments for my condo even kick in, it'll be a long-time coming before this lovely graces my wrist again. At least I have a new milestone gift for myself to work towards. Now if only I had a milestone to work towards!