I've been thinking about watches. I've lost count of the number of watches I've given to children, husbands, grandchildren, and am constantly bewildered by the variety of prices among watches which often look basically identical. You can buy a perfectly good watch for about £20 (I have a plastic one for riding - £10, and lovely bright red). When buying presents, I probably spend more than I need to as I don't like feeling mean, but I never spend a huge amount.
And watch advertisements....think about it. Who really needs a watch that's accurate too within a tenth of a second in a million years? How long exactly are people expecting to live? And how many watch-owners are going to dive to hundreds of feet under water, which seems to be what a lot of watches are made for? When all you really need is one that won't die in the shower?
And then there's the infuriating advert "you never really own this watch....just hold it in trust for the next generation". What? Imagine the conversation:
"Son, here's my watch. I've been keeping it in trust for you."
"What, that old thing? Nah. Thanks all the same .I think I'll give it a miss."
But for those lucky few who will live, largely underwater, for a million years, and have grateful offspring (who are presumably equally blessed in the longevity stakes), watches such as these could be just the answer.
After I owned serveral garishly coloured cheap plastic watches in my teens (we're talking 1980s - need I say more?), I have completely stopped wearing watches in the 1990s when I started working at a publisher's. Somehow the watch was always in the way when handling printing materials and working on layouts, and nowadays, I can see the time on my mobile phome, my computer, the clocks in my flat or the large ones at the train stations (where time REALLY matters).
ReplyDeleteMeike, I couldn't manage without a watch. Each to his (her) own!
DeleteThese days after 6 decades of wearing a watch everywhere except in the shower, I very rarely wear any of my watches because if I need to know the time I look at my phone (or, like Meike, anything else that is around me). However young aficionados do wear old (and often valuable) watches as jewellery. Given that the really expensive watches are usually unreliable and cost more than my car to have serviced each year I cannot fathom out why.
ReplyDeletePS My sister-in-law today chose a watch with the money I'd given her (I lack any sort of imagination) for her birthday.
DeleteGraham, my mobile is often in the back pocket of my jeans, and not really accessible enough. I like watches (inexpensive ones, naturally) and would hate to be without.
DeleteIf I had a £7000 watch, I'd leave it at home for fear of losing or damaging it, so it wouldn't do me any good at all.
ReplyDeletePatsy, if that watch were mine, I'd flog it straight away. You can buy a lot with £7000!
DeleteWe saw a watch in a shop the other day which had a completely blank dial. You had to press a button on the side to find out the time. Erm, slight design flaw?
ReplyDeleteThese days after 6 decades of wearing a watch everywhere except in the shower,
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