Metro

‘What. I drink every day!’

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(NY Post: Dave Blezow)

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He’s accused of driving rip-roaring drunk through the gate of a Rockefeller Center parking garage and nearly toppling 12 stories worth of scaffolding, but the 88-year-old boss of one of the city’s most prestigious watch-repair firms doesn’t seem to think it’s any big deal.

“What. I had a few drinks,” Werner Sonn, chairman of the board of the Henri Stern Watch Agency at 1 Rockefeller Center, told cops Tuesday after smashing his gray Cadillac convertible into another car — injuring that driver and mangling the scaffolding outside the Variety Cafe on West 48th Street (right).

“I drink every day!” Sonn (left yesterday) explained, according to police statements revealed at his Manhattan Criminal Court arraignment.

The horologist blew .154 during a blood-alcohol breath test the evening of the crash, officials said — nearly double the .08 cutoff for drunken driving.

Sonn smelled of alcohol, had watery, bloodshot eyes and slurred speech, and was unsteady on his feet, according to the complaint against him.

When emergency personnel asked Sonn if he’d been driving drunk, Sonn responded, “I don’t know about that, but I was definitely drinking!”

A Manhattan judge was not pleased.

“I am directing that you have a screening for alcohol abuse,” Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Laura Johnson told Sonn. “And, perhaps more importantly, I am suspending your driver’s license.

“You can’t drive.”

It was around 5 p.m. Tuesday when Sonn allegedly barreled through the gate of the West 48th Street garage where he parks for work.

He immediately struck a black Acura, sending both vehicles careening into scaffolding outside the Variety Cafe across the street, officials and witnesses said.

The occupant of the Acura suffered severe back and neck pain, according to the criminal complaint charging Sonn with reckless endangerment, vehicular assault and drunken driving.

Prosecutor Anthony Arioli had asked for $5,000 bail, but the judge sprung Sonn without bail. Back at his home in a ritzy area of Manhassett, LI, Sonn’s wife, Vivian, 91, told The Post, “He was out with friends. He had one drink. That’s all he ever has. I’ve never seen him drunk.”

Sonn, who spent Tuesday night in jail, will find out on July 23 whether he has been indicted. He cheerfully declined to comment following his arraignment yesterday, saying only, “Thank you very much.”