While playing tennis on Sunday, I heard one of the guys brag that he hasn’t worn a watch since he was 19. The man is in his 50s. Really? That struck me as odd. I love watches. I remember as a boy of around ten years old getting a Timex and thinking it was the coolest gift ever. I put it on my wrist and couldn’t stop staring at it. You’d think I was looking at the face of the most beautiful woman on the planet.
That affection for wrist watches didn’t wane over the years. Slowly, I acquired a number of time pieces. Nothing fancy. In fact, at least half of my very small collection are novelty watches. Some were gifts from my wife, others, I purchased.
The second watch on the left was awarded to my dad upon retirement after 42 years with the same company. It might just be the cheapest watch in the lot, but also, the most treasured. That same affection goes for the pocket watch. I don’t know the story behind it because I found it amongst my dad’s belongings after he passed away. I know it is 105 years old. My father was born in 1925, so that suggests it was owned by his dad. Cool.
Like the collections of ties currently gathering dust on the tie rack in my closet, my watches reflect my personality. As you can see, I have two M&M’s watches, a Baskin-Robbins 31 flavors ice cream watch, a Snoopy watch, a Bugs Bunny watch, a holiday watch, and a keyboard watch. Could owning watches that convey youth have anything to do with why I don’t look my age?
When I acquired a cell phone, I stopped wearing a watch. Now my watches spend most of their time in a drawer in my night stand. My friend’s comment, though, has me thinking I should pull them out and put them to use again. And maybe add a new watch this Christmas, and again on my birthday. It will be interesting to see how my tastes have changed with the passage of time.
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