Hello Woodsy
As a child I had a series of wristwatches from around age 10.
Early ones were Ingersoll which claimed they were indestructible, they weren't.
On a holiday in Switzerland in 1962 as a teen I was given a watch, brand unknown, that came from the equivalent of a Woolworth Store.
That survived through college until 1971 when my parents gave me a Tissot Sidereal watch. The attraction was a fiberglass case and plastic band as my skin was reacting to treated leather bands and some steel watch cases. The disadvantage was the band wore out frequently and was replaced free of charge by Tissot. Careless technicians would break the fiberglass case and when replacing the case, dirt got into the movement effecting the self winding mechanism. Tissot claimed that was my fault. That so annoyed me that I avoid Swiss made watches and switched to a mechanical TIMEX made in the US.
Working in the advertising industry I would wear different advertising watches and when my daughter was born in 1984, I was wearing a mechanical TIMEX Heinz Ketchup watch with a ketchup bottle as the sweep hand. I now wear it once a year on my daughter's birthday.
As an uprooted Londoner, on trips back to London I might wear my quartz London Underground watch.
Some years ago I discovered a company that customized watches to supplied designs. For a small charge they would make one sample so over a few years I made first a Desperate Dan watch and then my Dan Dare watch.
On a daily basis I wear a cheap Casio quartz watch which keeps good time and the only attention it requires is putting the time forward in the Spring and back an hour in the Autumn, with a new battery around every 18 months.
On remembering these watches I recalled a watch that I bought for a young cousin in the UK as a gift. I kept one, it dates from the early 80's, made by GameTime in Hong Kong it played video games like Space Invaders. I played mine on the flight to the UK and it put me off video games for life. Just brain numbing play. I dug it out for the attached photo. I think the then 10 year old cousin enjoyed it.
Brian B
NYC
No comments:
Post a Comment