Piggybacking off hedgepig’s Shoes thread I thought I’d kick off another on a sartorial accessory.

Your watch. What, if anything, is strapped to your wrist?

It’s a very recent interest of mine that seems to have sprung up from the tedium of lockdown and home working. I’ve liked watches for quite a while, and my wife has periodically bought me interesting Swatch pieces. Those strikingly designed quartz watches aimed at a rather younger demographic than me at this stage in my so called life.

I’ve developed an interest in mechanical and automatic watches, those with non-quartz movements. The ones you have to wind up a tiny bundle of cogs, springs and escapements. It’s almost beguiling to me that these small and delicate arrangements actually keep time. Even though they did adequately for some hundreds of years before quartz accuracy arrived at the end of the ‘60s. Fascinating things.

I’ve bought a couple of automatics recently, a Seiko 5 and an Orient Ray II. The former a cheap dress/everyday and the latter a cheap Divers watch.

Wonderful things. At just over £100 each. I’d love a Tudor Black Bay, a Longines Hydro Conquest or a Hamilton Chronomatic but each … Continue reading A bit of wrist action