Sorry, Gene. I stopped wearing watches at least 20 years ago (probably longer) when I started carrying a cell phone. I now wear a smart watch since I can see who's calling me without having to take out my phone, I can read texts, I can control my music, plus all the reasons you mentioned that Rachel wears one. Is it really any different than the tuning fork watch, though? That watch was the height of technology when it was developed. The smart watch is the height of technology (or pretty close) today. The main difference of then vs. now is the speed of technology development.
It's not exactly an either / or question. I wear an analog watch (sometimes) for going out but a digital for working out. Sometimes I'm just like the current crowd and pass on the watch when out, referring to my phone as needed.
I thought this article was fun. I love that you got the fine watch for nearly nothing and gave it another life. I also enjoyed thinking about Bulova and Seiko, big names for watches I remember from, I assume, the 70s.
You love the accutron because you love the story…it resonates with you like the tuning fork in the watch. We all operate at a different frequency, if you will, so different things resonate for you than for Rachel. And isn’t that fortunate!!
Rachel's watch would keep me up nights; increase my blood pressure; reduce the oxygen in my blood; and cause me to be exhausted from sleeplessness.
A couple year's ago I received a check in the mail from a large well known bank, telling me, that since they closed my credit card account due to my lack of use, they owed me money. It sounded fishy, so I called the phone number on the back of my credit card and asked one of their humans about it. "Oh yes", she said, "It's real. Feel free to go ahead and cash the check."
The check was for, roughly, $465". Like finding money on the street. I needed a watch. So I bought myself a nice Swiss watch, with a face not too large, but large enough that my 72 year old eyes can easily read it. It has the date, but that is really so teeny weeny you need a magnifying glass to that, but I don't care. Knowing the date won't usually help me figure out what day it is anyway. The watch has beautiful steel hands with a slight blue hue to them, and second hand. It has a really pretty face, and a lovely leather band. It keeps perfect time and is still running on the original battery. Best of all, I still had a hundred bucks remaining after I bought the watch.
Each man measures his time; some with hope, some with joy, some with fear. But Sam Forstmann measures his allotted time by a grandfather's clock, a unique mechanism whose pendulum swings between life and death, a very special clock that keeps a special kind of time—in the Twilight Zone.
I have a 15-20 year-old TIMEX Illuminator when I press the side button, it lights up the face for reading time in darkness. It’s battery-operated. I have owned three or four TIMEXes in my lifetime. It’s good enough for me. I get all that other info from my phone, although recent cataract surgery has left me with close-in reading problems. Ah,first world old peoples problems.
Yep. Cataract surgery is the worst for close in reading. I had mine done in January and I still struggle with menus, small print books, and so forth. Like you said, good problems to have.
For my cataract surgery I was asked how I wanted my vision optimized. I said same as going in -- excellent no-glasses near vision (reading, computer, TV) and willing to wear glasses to drive. That's what I got -- I can read mouseprint two inches from my eyes and I just threaded a needle with a REALLY tiny/narrow eye my wife couldn't manage.
That was probably smart, though actually, even though I'd been increasingly myopic all my life, my near vision was beginning to be affected by the time I got my surgery. After a lifetime of wearing glasses, I succumbed to the temptation of being 20/20, and now I have to have reading glasses in every room in the house. <sigh>
I knew someone who asked for close-in vision in one eye, and distance vision in the other eye. Apparently the brain adapts, but I still wonder how they have any depth perception now.
I was offered that choice, declined - complexity increases risk and progressive glasses are complicated enough. Wear glasses outside, inside put glasses on hall tree, nicely simple.
I don’t like clunky things strapped to my wrist. At all. The Accutron looks slimmer than the wart, so it wins my vote. Plus the wart needs frequent charging and messing with - it has a power level indicator right there - and we’re talking about something I’m already not fond of, so I don’t want to have to devote extra attention to its care and feeding as well. But kudos to Rachel for getting her steps in.
The first watch I ever had was a Timex, a disposable. The 2d was something I wanted for Xmas--and got. An Accutron. In the early 60s. It was gorgeous & indeed kept perfect time. Having just googled, if I still had it I couldn't afford to wear it. Mozel tov!
I remember your love of watches, but here is something you need to know about this one. The date, May 3, is correct, but the time, 3:23, is not. My Apple Watch says it's 4:34 p.m., so yours is already running slow. Sorry.
I have noticed you like to use ball peen hammer, because you have noticed it's always funny. Amazing, right? I use it, too. I do the same thing with Mr. Potatohead....
The watch I loved the best was an Omega (gold, with a "silk" strap) that my husband gave me for an anniversary present when my previous watch (which my mother had received at age 16 and given me when I was 16) finally gave up the ghost. I had had it serviced numerous times, but the last time, the watchmaker said it needed a new mainspring, and he was apparently unable to find one. He suggested replacing the movement with a quartz one. I stupidly agreed, and that was the end of that watch because he could never get the original watch face to stick to the new movement properly, so 12 was always a little out of plumb. I wish I had asked for the parts back while I still had the chance; I could have taken it to be better watchmaker to look at.
Like many in the comments, I rarely wear a watch. When I do, it is my grandfather‘s retirement watch, an IWC. It resembles the Accutron visually, having also been designed in the 1960s. The advantage is that you have to wind it, which I find to be a relaxing and Zen-like ritual. Buying a battery does not have the same effect.
I used to be a watch collector, until I realized I didn't like to wear watches. The pinnacle of style was the asymmetrical Hamilton Ventura, but I never owned one. On my wedding day my father-in-law gifted me with his old Rolex Pearl which he never wore, which became the most expensive watch I ever owned. And for some reason, this broke my interest in watches. Collecting watches stopped being an aspirational thing. Plus, I realized that, for me, watches and clocks had become symbols of time itself, and collecting time pieces was a form of worship at that alter. I reasoned that there were more and better things to worship than time. A few years ago my mother in law gifted my wife and me a couple of iWatches for our 10th anniversary, and I'm still wearing mine. I do like that the watch does other things than tell me what time it is, and that is why I now wear one. Now I collect signed first-edition books and Godzilla iconography.
I have the good fortune to never have had to price an enema bag.
it's about a buck.
Sorry, Gene. I stopped wearing watches at least 20 years ago (probably longer) when I started carrying a cell phone. I now wear a smart watch since I can see who's calling me without having to take out my phone, I can read texts, I can control my music, plus all the reasons you mentioned that Rachel wears one. Is it really any different than the tuning fork watch, though? That watch was the height of technology when it was developed. The smart watch is the height of technology (or pretty close) today. The main difference of then vs. now is the speed of technology development.
Also: aesthetics.
It's not exactly an either / or question. I wear an analog watch (sometimes) for going out but a digital for working out. Sometimes I'm just like the current crowd and pass on the watch when out, referring to my phone as needed.
I thought this article was fun. I love that you got the fine watch for nearly nothing and gave it another life. I also enjoyed thinking about Bulova and Seiko, big names for watches I remember from, I assume, the 70s.
#truth
You love the accutron because you love the story…it resonates with you like the tuning fork in the watch. We all operate at a different frequency, if you will, so different things resonate for you than for Rachel. And isn’t that fortunate!!
Rachel's watch would keep me up nights; increase my blood pressure; reduce the oxygen in my blood; and cause me to be exhausted from sleeplessness.
A couple year's ago I received a check in the mail from a large well known bank, telling me, that since they closed my credit card account due to my lack of use, they owed me money. It sounded fishy, so I called the phone number on the back of my credit card and asked one of their humans about it. "Oh yes", she said, "It's real. Feel free to go ahead and cash the check."
The check was for, roughly, $465". Like finding money on the street. I needed a watch. So I bought myself a nice Swiss watch, with a face not too large, but large enough that my 72 year old eyes can easily read it. It has the date, but that is really so teeny weeny you need a magnifying glass to that, but I don't care. Knowing the date won't usually help me figure out what day it is anyway. The watch has beautiful steel hands with a slight blue hue to them, and second hand. It has a really pretty face, and a lovely leather band. It keeps perfect time and is still running on the original battery. Best of all, I still had a hundred bucks remaining after I bought the watch.
You have Ed Wynn-ian attributes:
Each man measures his time; some with hope, some with joy, some with fear. But Sam Forstmann measures his allotted time by a grandfather's clock, a unique mechanism whose pendulum swings between life and death, a very special clock that keeps a special kind of time—in the Twilight Zone.
I have a 15-20 year-old TIMEX Illuminator when I press the side button, it lights up the face for reading time in darkness. It’s battery-operated. I have owned three or four TIMEXes in my lifetime. It’s good enough for me. I get all that other info from my phone, although recent cataract surgery has left me with close-in reading problems. Ah,first world old peoples problems.
Yep. Cataract surgery is the worst for close in reading. I had mine done in January and I still struggle with menus, small print books, and so forth. Like you said, good problems to have.
For my cataract surgery I was asked how I wanted my vision optimized. I said same as going in -- excellent no-glasses near vision (reading, computer, TV) and willing to wear glasses to drive. That's what I got -- I can read mouseprint two inches from my eyes and I just threaded a needle with a REALLY tiny/narrow eye my wife couldn't manage.
That was probably smart, though actually, even though I'd been increasingly myopic all my life, my near vision was beginning to be affected by the time I got my surgery. After a lifetime of wearing glasses, I succumbed to the temptation of being 20/20, and now I have to have reading glasses in every room in the house. <sigh>
I knew someone who asked for close-in vision in one eye, and distance vision in the other eye. Apparently the brain adapts, but I still wonder how they have any depth perception now.
I was offered that choice, declined - complexity increases risk and progressive glasses are complicated enough. Wear glasses outside, inside put glasses on hall tree, nicely simple.
I don’t like clunky things strapped to my wrist. At all. The Accutron looks slimmer than the wart, so it wins my vote. Plus the wart needs frequent charging and messing with - it has a power level indicator right there - and we’re talking about something I’m already not fond of, so I don’t want to have to devote extra attention to its care and feeding as well. But kudos to Rachel for getting her steps in.
The first watch I ever had was a Timex, a disposable. The 2d was something I wanted for Xmas--and got. An Accutron. In the early 60s. It was gorgeous & indeed kept perfect time. Having just googled, if I still had it I couldn't afford to wear it. Mozel tov!
My Rolex Cosmograph Daytona gets me into and out of any prison in El Salvador.
KN
Gene, I invite you to read about another old timepiece: https://c-ville.com/keeping-time/
This is a beautiful story, perfectly told. Thank you.
I remember your love of watches, but here is something you need to know about this one. The date, May 3, is correct, but the time, 3:23, is not. My Apple Watch says it's 4:34 p.m., so yours is already running slow. Sorry.
Thank you, Bob. I have pulverized the watch with a ball peen hammer, because it is obviously malfunctioning.
I have noticed you like to use ball peen hammer, because you have noticed it's always funny. Amazing, right? I use it, too. I do the same thing with Mr. Potatohead....
The watch I loved the best was an Omega (gold, with a "silk" strap) that my husband gave me for an anniversary present when my previous watch (which my mother had received at age 16 and given me when I was 16) finally gave up the ghost. I had had it serviced numerous times, but the last time, the watchmaker said it needed a new mainspring, and he was apparently unable to find one. He suggested replacing the movement with a quartz one. I stupidly agreed, and that was the end of that watch because he could never get the original watch face to stick to the new movement properly, so 12 was always a little out of plumb. I wish I had asked for the parts back while I still had the chance; I could have taken it to be better watchmaker to look at.
Like many in the comments, I rarely wear a watch. When I do, it is my grandfather‘s retirement watch, an IWC. It resembles the Accutron visually, having also been designed in the 1960s. The advantage is that you have to wind it, which I find to be a relaxing and Zen-like ritual. Buying a battery does not have the same effect.
I used to be a watch collector, until I realized I didn't like to wear watches. The pinnacle of style was the asymmetrical Hamilton Ventura, but I never owned one. On my wedding day my father-in-law gifted me with his old Rolex Pearl which he never wore, which became the most expensive watch I ever owned. And for some reason, this broke my interest in watches. Collecting watches stopped being an aspirational thing. Plus, I realized that, for me, watches and clocks had become symbols of time itself, and collecting time pieces was a form of worship at that alter. I reasoned that there were more and better things to worship than time. A few years ago my mother in law gifted my wife and me a couple of iWatches for our 10th anniversary, and I'm still wearing mine. I do like that the watch does other things than tell me what time it is, and that is why I now wear one. Now I collect signed first-edition books and Godzilla iconography.
Sorry, I received an Apple Watch 3 years ago, and it is the only watch I now wear, for the same basic reasons Rachel wears her monstrosity.