Dead Watches

I have a thing for watches. I love them a lot. I like hearing them tick. I like watching the hands move. I like discovering new and elegant designs.

My first watch I ever owned was a plastic green Little Mermaid watch. I got it in the sixth grade. It had a cover that you had to flip up to see the time. It was digital, and I can still remember how the buttons on the face felt when I pushed them. Alas, I no longer have that watch. That was a long time ago.

I am especially drawn to pocketwatches. They are so beautiful and round and shiny. My first pocketwatch was one that had a deer on the front:

It wasn't my favorite design, but it was the best of the pocketwatches the store carried, and I was determined to buy a pocket watch right then. I was very young. I didn't know I could look at a different store later. I didn't know they made pocketwatches that were less manly.

My first watch as an adult was a Harry Potter wristwatch I bought from the store I worked at:

I still have this watch, but it functions more like a pocket watch, as it no longer has any straps.

When I went to Prague in 2002, I bought an incredible pocket watch, the kind you wind up. (I like wind-ups because then you don't have to replace the battery.) It's a truly stunning watch. It's silver and has a stylized bird on the front, with ornate Roman numerals on the face. Almost without fail, when people see this pocketwatch and open it up, they have the same response: "Wow." I love this pocketwatch. Oh, and it ticks at 180 bpm, too.

 

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Many years ago, this my favorite pocketwatch stopped working. I have taken it to multiple watch shops, and they have told me different things. One says it needs a new part, but it's not Swiss or Japanese movement, so they can't get the piece. One says it needs to be taken apart cog by cog and cleaned. One says it's dead forever. I like the cleaning answer the best, but that would cost upwards of $250, and I haven't bothered to spring for that so far.

While I lived in California I needed a watch that was more respectable-looking than a black-banded Harry Potter watch, so Mother Edit gave me this beautiful watch for my birthday:

This is my regular watch that I wear most of the time. I like it because it's simple and pretty, and most people don't notice it's Mickey until you point it out. It's a little heavy, so I have to wear it on my left wrist instead of my right, but I've gotten used to that by now.

Since then, I've also purchased this fantastic pocketwatch (photo copyright Tokyoflash)...

...along with this unique wristwatch (photo copyright Tokyoflash):

They're both actually very easy to tell time on, but when you first look at them it seems very complex. Fun times.

Most recently, I purchased this cute little owl pocketwatch necklace for cheap while at an expo:

So basically, I have a lot of watches.

My regular Mickey watch has been losing time over the past few months. I suspect it needs a new battery, since I haven't changed the battery from when I bought it four years ago. I like wearing a watch, however, so today I evaluated my options.

• First on my list was my Round Trip pocket watch from Tokyoflash. Unfortunately, when I push the button to make the screen light up, it only flashes for a second before going dark again. It's not supposed to do this. I need to figure out how to fix that. At any rate, it was a no-go for carrying with me today.
• Second on my list was the owl pocketwatch necklace. Then I remembered that the battery had died. Too bad for that option.
• I didn't really feel like wearing my Hanko LED wristwatch (the funky one), so I dug out my Harry Potter watch, but its battery was dead as well.
• My old deer pocketwatch was residing with my Harry Potter watch, but of course the battery was dead on that too.
• The only choice was to wear the Hanko LED watch. So that is what I'm wearing. Well, right now it's sitting by my keyboard, because I don't like wearing a watch while I type, but when I leave my computer it will go back on my wrist.

How many dead watches is that? Six. One dead wind-up pocketwatch, one non-functioning LED pocketwatch, and four dead batteries.

This morning I pried open all four of the dead watches and pulled out the batteries. Soon I will purchase new watch batteries. I'm not sure I'll actually know which battery will go to which watch, since there were three different types of batteries and I forgot to keep track of which went where, but oh well. I'll figure it out.

And until then, I will wear my awesome Hanko watch.