And dear god I'm still here! And I'm chuffed to bits to report that my 50th birthday watch is giving me just as much joy as the 40th birthday watch did way back at the start. It feels like the flippiest days are behind me. I've worn a lot of brilliant watches over the years. I'm delighted to have added a Schofield to the 'permanent collection'
Schofield - why?
A while back somewhere in an Offtopic chat about watches, cameras, guitars and other things I remember remarking that I 'just love having conversations with enthusiastic people - and I don't really care what you're enthusiastic about' ...
When we buy 'stuff' we often just see as far as this:
but that's not enough though is it? Not for many of us here. Watches mean more to us for our own set of reasons.
My experience of researching and saving for a Schofield watch has been that Giles Ellis (CEO and general enthusiast) busts that Black Box wide, and shares his passion for the whole process - raw materials, where they're sourced and what processes you apply to them; the whole design process (his background amongst other enthusiasms is in product design); machining and manufacturing- who does it and how it's done; packaging; decisions, so many decisions and all of them we can be enthusiastic and even passionate about. And we can share in them and add to our joy in the final product.
This is a clip of a lecture Giles gave at Salon QP a few years back. This is a big chunk of why I love my Schofield - because I think I love process and people and ideas as much as product.
[youtube]https://youtube.com/watch?v=ZwgdbpFTNI4 ... Nob2ZpZWxk[/youtube]
The Schofield logo is of a lighthouse beam. But it's not just a shape chosen to go on the crown - you can find Giles' thoughts on coasts and coastlines somewhere along the way. He builds watches and also worlds within watches. My young years were very tough so I went down to the sea most days, under the gaze of a local lighthouse. So why this watch? Because lighthouses aren't just lighthouses. And watches aren't worth the owning if you can't scratch the surface a bit (metaphorically !) to find out what they mean to you...
And the watch?
It's a field watch with GMT. It's Schofieldy in certain features (the slashed 0 at the top; the two tone ( but subtly done) dial; the over-designed but brilliant crown (the part of the watch you interact physically with most after all). I've been wearing it for a few weeks now and it has every bit of the joy-in-wearing that I was expecting from a Schofield watch. Wrist presence; no shoutiness. Solid, but so many lovely rounded things like the handset, the numerals, the pink GMT blob, the flow of the case around the crown. Part of the joy also comes from the strapmonstrous nature of Schofield watches. Schofield has just grown an offshoot called Sugar Free Straps, and my friends bought me the pink suede strap for my birthday. There are plenty more straps to choose from, they're all a bit different, and the watch looks great on everything I've tried so far.
Giles can describe and explain his watches better than anyone ever could, so details and specs on the website if you're keen. Here below some pics of my one
