Nows and Forevers

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/09/fashion/watches-manual-wind-oris.html

The New York Times is telling me today that old-style timepieces are back in fashion.

It’s been a long time since I have worn a watch — I think the last time was the early ‘90s when I was trying to be polite to my grandparents, who bought me a watch for Christmas — although from time to time I’ve experimented with sports watches to time my running. And for a bit, I wore a FitBit, although that was doomed from the start.

You see a lot of watches these days, but they’re all Apple Watches. I know a few people who wear them. I never have had the urge, because A, I don’t like wearing something on my wrist and B, I have always found another way of telling the time.

It’s funny, though, someone whose career depends on deadlines, and who lives by at least two every day, not wearing a watch. Well, it’s been easier in the smartphone and cell phone era. But even before that, I found other ways.

The last watch I had was a manual timepiece, but it still had a battery. The one I had before that, when I was a kid in the ‘80s, was manual and you did have to wind it. I remember not quite understanding at first why my watch, which also was a Christmas present (see a theme?), stopped working.

You have to wind it up every once in a while, my grandfather told me. He wore a watch his entire life.

I guess for some reason I thought watches just worked, like Foucault’s Pendulum, tied to the rhythm of the days and nights and the moon or something. Science has never been one of my strong suits.

The Times’ article says that people are going back to the manual-winding watch because “people are feeling overwhelmed and want to hit pause on pretty much everything,” including anything digital.

That’s probably true. I sure have tried to spend less time in the digital world in my personal life, whether it’s writing more by hand or going off social media or reading a physical book instead of a Kindle.

The co-CEO of a watch company, Oris, told the Times that winding a watch is “a moment of contemplation, a moment to take for yourself.” I think that’s probably true, although I remember winding a watch and pretty much wondering if I was getting it right. That must have just been the impatience of a teenager.

Of course, this desire for contemplation and thinking about your life in the moment seems to come at a cost. The watches mentioned in the article cost between $4,400 and $12,300, which is way more than I can afford for a watch, unless it will somehow take me back in time. If that’s the case, then it’s definitely in my budget.

Other than that, I’ll find the time the old-fashioned way: Looking at my iPhone.