The Unfortunate Decline of the Watch

I have been spending the last few weeks researching the subject of time management for my forthcoming book entitled 'Time Management in the 21st-Century'. I am chasing a publishing deadline of March 2013. A natural component of the research has been to look at how people monitor and tell the time nowadays. I have to admit to have been taken by surprise by some of my findings.

Apparently the most popular method of timekeeping nowadays is one's cellphone, followed by any form of time display on people's computer screen. Indeed, in the five and a half years since my beautiful wife (BW) and I have been together I have rarely seen her wear a wrist watch - instead she relies almost exclusively on her cellphone. Considering how 'obsessed' we seem to be with time (or rather our lack of it) nowadays it seems sad to me about we have neglected that most personal of items, the watch.

The use of a watch, like most important accessories, allows us to demonstrate our individualism and therefore our personal style. I only own two wristwatches, the first is a hideous aluminium type construction which has a digital display, which I purely use whilst out exercising, because it has an excellent stopwatch and lap counter built into it.

My other watch has the benefit of three interchangeable leather straps. The black one is the most formal which I wear most of the time. The dark brown is more of a weekend strap and the lighter brown only tends to see the light of day during the summer months when I'm dressing down more. The face is simple (not lots of unnecessary sub-dials) and has the added benefit of luminous hands so I can see the time should I ever be in darkness. Simple, slim, multifunctional. The perfect accessory, and of course simply stylish.

I am adding a third watch now to my collection. My mother in England recently gave me a pocket watch which belonged to my grandfather and great-grandfather. I have spent the last few weeks carefully polishing and restoring the silver casing, and the front glass casing. It requires a key to wind it which is accessed through the dropping of the back panel. Unfortunately the key had been mislaid many years ago. I was delighted to find yesterday online a key manufacturer in the United States who is going to ship to me a selection of keys of varying grades (00 - 14) one of which will fit this watch. I will then be able to wind up the mechanism and see a timepiece, which I understand is over 100 years old, spring back into life.







Regular readers will know my admiration of the style of the earliest part of the 20th century and this pocket watch fits nicely into that environment. The next challenge will be how to adapt the use of this stylish and timeless (if I can use the pun) accessory, yet find a way to use it in a contemporary setting. Perhaps I need to find a vintage watch chain and then ask my tailor to make me a waistcoat with my next suit? An interesting thought...