As I got older the watch got consigned to the “bits-and-pieces” draw in the kitchen and eventually I think the back fell off and the innards spilled out and got lost in the ether. For many years I hardly wore a watch at all, then one day on holiday in the States I bought a quartz branded “Levi’s” of all things, just because it looked nice, was easy to read and just seemed to fit right. It did sterling service for some years until (for reasons that don’t bear going in to here) it became caked in ice and run over by the car! It didn’t work after that.
So, in search of a new watch I did a bit of research and became more interested and intrigued about what made a “good” watch. The Swiss, it seemed, still made the best movements / watches but, for someone who had never spent more than twenty quid on a watch, they also seemed a bit expensive. Especially when my cheapo “Levi’s” job had told the time perfectly adequately. In the end I got a relatively inexpensive Citizen Eco-Drive Chrono, which I still have and use regularly but, as I now need glasses to read, I can’t see the numbers on the sub-dials of chronos anymore. In fact I was pretty much in need of an easy to read watch, and who should make just the thing? None other than Timex! I am wearing my £19.99 Indiglo Easy Reader right now (the Indiglo light doesn’t work anymore, but only because I dropped it down the stairs the other day. Oops!), but it tells the time OK, I think it even looks reasonably good as I like a simple clear and clean face.
Did I get my Swiss watch? Oh yes. I have a Mondaine, again primarily for it’s clear, easy read design and a C5 Automatic. The Mondaine was a Christmas present and the C5 represented such good value I felt able to treat myself when my son was born just over a year ago. I had the watch engraved with his name and I love the fact that, like that Timex many years before, it is a little living machine and that becomes animate through the living movement of the wearer. One day when he’s older I’ll give the C5 to my son (I’m just minding it for him at the moment
), and in a way a bit of my life-force will pass on through the watch. He can have it when he’s 18, or maybe 21, or maybe when he finally leaves home (who knows when that will be!) or maybe he’ll have to wait until I finally peg it! In any event I fully expect the C5's heart to still be beating when my boy hands it on to one of his kids. But the first watch I am going to get him will be a Timex………..
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