What time is it? An innocent question, but one I’m afraid I can’t answer. Remember the nervous breakdown inducing search for glasses that almost killed me last year? Well, get this, it’s happening again only this time with watches. You know when it’s someone’s birthday and you ask what they’d like and they say “oh I’ve no idea”, well I’m the exact opposite, at any time of the day or year I could give you a list as long as your arm of things I’d like but I honestly cant find a watch I like anywhere. Even if money was not a concern I’d struggle to find something I want to wear on my wrist all day long.
Watches are a strange accessory. They’re functional but in the days of mobile phones, when everyone already owns an accessory which tells the time they’re pretty much defunct. That means it’s kind of superfluous so it’s more of an optional fashion accessory. I think of it as very much a male accessory… We’re all meant to have some kind of status symbol piece on our wrists… No pressure eh?
I was lucky enough to receive a beautiful vintage Chronograph watch for Christmas. It’s something I’ve always wanted, a gold digital watch from the 1970’s with a red LED display. Something like the Bulova Drivers watch, it’d be like wearing a gold Delorean on your wrist.
They have a retro aesthetic brimming with all the futuristic promise of the digital age. There was one problem though, I’m allergic to it. A few hours on my wrist and I break out into itchy red spots. Never a good look. So I started looking for a replacement, something modern. My current watch collection consists almost entirely of retro digital watches, everything from Timex to Casio. But in the interest of looking more grown up I thought an ultra-sophisticated, wear-with-anything watch would be in order… An analog watch.
Oki-ni has the perfect one, their Uniform Wares watches are sublimely minimal. Their TSOVET range is also beautiful, similar to the gorgeous U-Boat watches that I love, but they’re all out of my price range. There’s something appealing about the sheer size of these watches. They make a statement piece out of a functional item and, really, why not?
Of course if I can’t settle on something grown up and sophisticated I could always throw caution to the wind and go completely balls out with a Jeremy Scott watch. His new collection for Swatch is typically amazing. Fantastically impractical with his signature sense of humour, I wouldn’t even mind if they didn’t tell the time…
Have you got a watch recommendation? Or maybe you just fancy telling me what time it is? Drop me a line… @robotmonsieur