This afternoon Natalie was going through some of the boxes in the garage. We’ve recently moved (or, as they say across the pond, “moved house”), and the garage is loaded with boxes of stuff that we haven’t been missing…so to speak. Someone’s got to go through the damned things, and it’s not going to be me. I’d rather call up the Salvation Army and have them load up the entire garage.
Regardless, she happened upon my box of “keeper” stuff. In that box was my great grandfather’s pocket watch, as is pictured. I don’t know when the watch was made, as I haven’t opened it up to check the movement for a serial number. But what I do know is that it’s elegantly crafted, and it works like an absolute champ…after at least 50 years.
Finding the watch evoked a strange sense of inapplicable nostalgia. I can’t help but get all wacky, sitting in my geeked-out office, thinking of how cool it would have been to live in a time when men wore hats when they were outdoors, wore suits to church on Sundays, and carried pocket watches like the one I have here.
There’s something classy about the watch. Sure, it’s old. Yeah, it’s attractive. But the fact that it functions flawlessly – over 50 years later – is symbolic of a craftsmanship that I sometimes think is lost today. It’s like a little glimpse into a time when people carried gold watches because they served a purpose.
Can you believe that it’s actually occurred to me that maybe I should carry the watch? Heh. It’d go fabulously next to my laptop, desktop, smartphone, digital camera, external HD, etc.
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