Earlier this month, Managing Editor Zach Kazan shared his thoughts on “Watches We Don’t Wear.” We thought this represented alternative to get our workers and Worn & Wound contributors collectively to seek out out what watches are simply form of sitting in their very own watch packing containers, and why. Discover these tales beneath, and tell us within the feedback when you have a watch you don’t put on, however simply can’t carry your self to half with.
Devin Pennypacker
Do you know which you can order a pack of clear acrylic watch stands on Amazon for lower than $15? Effectively, now you do. This yr, I lastly determined to do one thing with the pair of watches that paradoxically I cannot put on and but won’t ever eliminate. Close to and expensive to my coronary heart, these two watches spring from completely different eras of my watch enthusiasm and, in fact, my choice for gathering.
The primary is a black-on-black Nixon Time Teller fitted with a rubberized real fake leather-based strap. Useless way back, the blacked-out seconds hand sits idle which might sometimes trouble me however for the truth that it’s backdropped by black fingers and a black dial making legibility all however inconceivable. It was by no means sensible, however boy did I really feel cool sporting it. Stemming from my angsty youth and fascination with motion sports activities, I might ceaselessly cease into my native skate store to strive on visually loud Nike SB Dunks, flip via the clothes racks of black hoodies and cargo pants, and naturally, oggle the well-lit Nixon show case. So, after I bought my first job and earned some cash, I purchased a pair of Nixon watches. A very long time in the past I broke and misplaced the opposite piece, however the Time Teller lived on attending household weddings, graduations, and different life occasions the place I felt the necessity to “costume up” my look with a mature watch. Ultimately, it died and landed at the back of a drawer. That’s till a short time in the past after I pulled the be careful, gave it a smiling look, after which laid it out on my desk. Then, when that field confirmed up carrying an affordable pack of show stands, the Time Teller discovered one other new house strapped across the versatile C and lovingly positioned on my shelf. It should keep there as a reminder of my previous self in addition to a reminder to not take all of it so severely. Who is aware of, you could even catch me sporting it at a future meetup simply to listen to everybody say “Oh man, I keep in mind after I had one among these!”
The opposite watch is my Seiko 5 SNK808 Automated Stainless Metal Watch With Black Canvas Strap. You’ll have heard me discuss this watch earlier than as my “first severe watch” bought based mostly on my very outdated preferences and no small quantity of analysis. My parameters have been easy. It needed to have a black dial, be no bigger than 38mm, have an computerized motion, and be beneath $100. I used to be not spoiled for alternative. So after I stumbled throughout the Amazon itemizing for the steep worth of $70, I saved the hyperlink and stewed on it for just a few weeks. I lastly pulled the set off setting in movement a wild path I’m nonetheless strolling. This watch turned my on a regular basis piece all through plenty of milestones and misadventures. At one level whereas working as an ironworker, I ended up snagging the watch on a metal beam leaving a gouge within the case and breaking the spring bar sending the watch flying from my wrist. I wore that look ahead to the whole lot. Mountain climbing, biking, kayaking, backpacking, and so forth – this watch noticed plenty of abuse. That’s how, on one fateful day, the rotor fell proper off. Not desirous to waste cash on one other watch, I cracked the caseback off and tried to repair it myself to no avail. So, it too discovered itself at the back of my drawer leaving room on my wrist for a slew of watches to come back. The Seiko now additionally sits on my workplace shelf, proudly displayed on a plastic stand as a speaking piece for when different fanatics come over or see it on a video name.
These two watches will most certainly by no means get any wrist time, however one can dream. I understand that the romance behind sporting them once more immediately goes in opposition to the aim of this text, however how will you not assume again dreamy-eyed to the early days of your gathering journey wishing you can return to when the watches you wished didn’t require a financial savings account? I’m blissful to see the expansion in my style and assortment, however these items additionally function a reminder of my privileged place to even have Watches I Don’t Put on.
Nathan Schultz
If you realize somebody deep right into a pastime, you’ve in all probability discovered to not give them presents associated to it. With experience in practically each pursuit inherently linked with pickiness, your {golfing} obsessed pal is simply as probably to make use of these generic golf balls from Goal as your ultralight backpacking pal is to take that 4 pound rain jacket on their subsequent tour. However watches appear to be the uncommon exception to this rule. Certain, us self proclaimed specialists are choosy, however watch packing containers and wrists are typically all-inclusive when presents are concerned. In the event you’ve ever purchased a look ahead to that choosy horologist in your life and surprise in the event that they put on it, I’m blissful to report that they do. Heck, they even share footage of it with different nerds like me.
Like my fanatic friends, I’m sincerely honored each time a beloved one acknowledges my obsession by gifting me a watch. I put on all of them with pleasure, no matter whether or not they fall inside my specific wheelhouse. Considerably satirically, the one watch in my assortment that I don’t put on occurs to be a present that’s precisely in my wheelhouse: a classic Accutron. Apart from a private curiosity in all issues Bulova and a fascination with the small but historic blip that tuning fork actions performed within the evolution of correct timekeeping, this specific Accutron is significant as a result of it was gifted to me by my step dad. Previous to that, it had been worn by his dad. Together with a cracked crystal and layers of micro scratches that show a long time of constant but loving put on, the watch can also be inscribed with the date “3-22-1973” and the word “25 YRS SERVICE MICH BELL” to have fun 1 / 4 century of employment with the previous telecommunications firm. Contemplating staying with an employer for 25 years and firm gifted watches (not to mention ones that function at 360 Hz) are largely issues of the previous, the watch serves twin function as a household heirloom and a time capsule.
Not in contrast to different Accutrons of the period, this specific one is non-running and would require a service from a watchmaker specialised in tuning fork actions to get it buzzing once more. After I first acquired the watch I had grand plans of getting it operating quickly- a activity I’ve discovered is simpler to dream about than really accomplish. Unwilling to place a priceless watch within the mail and to date unable to discover a native watchmaker specialised in tuning fork actions, this well-worn, non-running Accutron has discovered a spot in my assortment as my most significant, but most unworn, watch.
Christoph McNeill
As a collector of principally classic watches, I do have a number of watches that I don’t put on and simply can’t carry myself to promote. Since classic watches are much less strong than their fashionable counterparts, I are inclined to principally put on the few fashionable items I’ve so I don’t actually have to fret about what’s on my wrist. That stated, I do put on my classic items on my days off or evenings after work (can’t put on any at work since I work in MRI…). Nevertheless, there are certainly a handful of watches that I merely by no means put on any extra, but I nonetheless love them.
I’m an enormous fan of Artwork Deco and Machine Age design aesthetics, and among the watches from the 1920’s and 1930’s are shining examples of this zenith of design. After I began gathering watches, these gems are partly what drew me to the pastime. I’ve owned dozens of Artwork Deco period watches, however through the years I ended up promoting most of them as they’re simply too dainty and fragile for normal put on for me. However, there are just a few that I can’t bear to half with. I’ve saved three classic Hamiltons, every of which is a primary instance of the artistry in design from a bygone period that sadly has been misplaced in fashionable instances.
The Drake is a primary instance of Streamline design, with its modern step-sided case. The white enamel dial has unimaginable Artwork Deco stylized Arabic numerals and basic blued metal leaf fingers. The Nelson has essentially the most gorgeous Machine Age case I’ve ever seen. The only step on the edges, and the multi-step case ends and lugs are pure poetry of design to my eyes. It jogs my memory of the Golden Gate bridge towers. The white dial has utilized gold Arabic numerals, additionally styled within the Artwork Deco vogue. Final however positively not least is the height of Artwork Deco watch design, the Putnam. The daring, step-sided case with its barely convex curves is just gorgeous. This magnificence has a white dial with the unique radium numeral dial and radium stuffed fingers. Radium is one other respectable cause to not put on this one! All three are prime examples of the height of business design in my view. Despite the fact that they beautiful a lot by no means grace my wrist, they’re just too stunning to promote…and they also stay in my watch cupboard.
Meg Tocci
As a brand new collector, you rapidly undergo phases of curiosity. With any pastime, there may be an ebb and a move to establishing your tastes: stuff you craved one season will not be the identical issues you end up having fun with the following. With time comes knowledge and one thing you liked as soon as doesn’t at all times comply with you into subsequent chapters of the journey. We all know this to be true in each watches and in life.
This Tissot Couturier was my first mechanical watch buy and I spent plenty of time researching precisely what I thought I wished. The Powermatic 80 motion, the coveted “Swiss made” designation on the dial, the air of ritual appropriate for a younger skilled… it checked all of my slightly meticulous packing containers. It’s even gold PVD coated, which, in accordance with my jewellery preferences, I ought to have beloved.
I purchased it as a present to myself a few years in the past: celebrating my birthday, ending my grasp’s diploma, and starting a brand new job all in the identical week. Although I had been given just a few watches by others within the months main as much as this acquisition, I hadn’t spent over $100 on any buy for myself, so it felt like a giant deal. I wore it with zeal the primary month however then got here one other addition: the Hamilton Khaki Area Murph 38mm. One thing clicked in my mind and I noticed what true watch love was alleged to really feel like. Certain, the Tissot was a bit dressy and the lug width was substantial (22mm lugs on a 39mm case feels extreme) however there wasn’t actually something fallacious with it. It simply wasn’t the one.
I hold telling myself I’m going to promote the Couturier to make room for one thing else and, two years later, I nonetheless haven’t. Each time I open eBay, the sentimentality of that week of celebration comes again to me. I feel I’ll half with it as soon as I’ve one thing to save lots of up for. Till then, it would stay a quiet and stylish presence in my watch field, plotting for the day I develop out of my subject watch obsession. Unlikely.
Brett Braley
After I bought my first publishing deal for my novel Arthur (which, ahem, makes a great stocking stuffer by the way), I promised myself I’d get a Cartier Tank. Fact be instructed, I knew nothing about watches and simply knew the title. This tracks for me, as I are typically enamored with an thought, versus the fact, of an object. However, nonetheless, I held agency to this promise and when my e book was really revealed (which, ahem, you will get in any respect main booksellers), I purchased myself a Tank Française. Sadly, it has since collected mud on a shelf in my house workplace.
The explanation I don’t put on it that usually is that it’s frankly simply too small. I by no means checked the size and simply went for the primary Tank that got here up after I searched low-to-high on a resale web site. Whereas some fashions — just like the Solo or Louis — are extra rectangular, which supplies even the smaller fashions a little bit of presence on the wrist. However with my Française, it’s too sq. and the teensy little case simply doesn’t look the most effective in opposition to my 7″ wrist. I’ve worn it extra as a bracelet, if something, in current months. Whereas it was a fantastic current to myself, I now know that if I’m going to drop a pair thousand on a watch…effectively, perhaps I ought to perform a little analysis first. Lesson discovered.
Marc Levesque
Three years in the past, my youngest son and I went thrifting in Ottawa. He was 17 on the time and was actually into modifying Nerf Blasters. Goodwill, the Salvation Military, and different thrift shops are the most effective locations to seek out used or barely broken Blasters. He may purchase them for simply a few {dollars}, repair them, or use the components to restore or create new ones. In the event you assume the watch modding neighborhood is energetic, it is best to see the Nerf Blasters neighborhood. They even set up Nerf wars, sharing their designs and latest gear whereas participating in all-out battles. RedBar Members ain’t bought nothing on Foam Warriors.
Ottawa is roughly the identical distance from my house as downtown Montreal, taking about an hour and a half to get to both place. My son had deliberate out the areas he wished to go to, and I meant to take him to some watch retailers alongside the best way. Since he was introducing me to his hobbies, I assumed it might even be truthful to share mine with him. I had plenty of enjoyable trying to find Blasters in thrift retailers, as they’re usually disorganized. You actually should dig round to seek out attention-grabbing objects. It felt like being on the present “American Pickers,” however in a retailer setting.
In direction of the top of the day, we determined to go to The Bay, a multilevel division retailer like Macy’s within the U.S. They usually have outdated toy sections the place you may generally discover nice bargains on Nerf merchandise. Whereas strolling via the watch part, I observed that they had the Timex Q watches I had solely seen on-line, one among which was white! I requested to see it and instantly beloved it, however I didn’t buy it then. I regretted that call all the best way house. A couple of days later, nonetheless enthusiastic about the watch, I noticed that The Bay was having its annual “Bay Days” sale. I rapidly grabbed one for 30% off!
I nonetheless like it, however I by no means put on it as a result of it’s a bit too small for my liking, and it does a quantity on my arm fuzz. So, it sits on my workplace desk, and I smile each time I take a look at it. It jogs my memory of the great day I spent pastime looking in our nation’s capital with my son.
Garrett Jones
Earlier than I joined the W&W staff, I feel I owned a grand whole of three watches: a Citizen Calendarier, a Seiko SNKN43, and a customized constructed Seiko mod. Of those watches, the Seiko Mod was the one watch I had that might match on a nylon strap, so I ceaselessly reached for it as I started to acquire an increasing number of straps and will change up the texture of the watch and it was even on my wrist throughout my first podcast look as we wrapped up Windup SF ’24.
Over the past six months my assortment has quadrupled, which is unbelievable, however I’ve discovered myself always reaching for brand spanking new and completely different items and passing over the modded Seiko. When Zach posed this query, I began enthusiastic about why this piece has “fallen from grace,” and I don’t have a fantastic reply. Strapping this watch on for a fast wristshot, I’m instantly reminded of all of the reminiscences hooked up to it, particularly all of the scratches and dings, every with their very own story. In spite of everything, this watch was as soon as my favourite items, and I recollect it being the “pinnacle of my assortment”.
I feel the most important subject I’ve with this watch is that it has 22mm lugs, whereas virtually all of my newer pickups have 20mm lugs. Now, I need to level out that having larger lugs doesn’t instantly disqualify a watch from being worn, however it simply so occurs that each one of my new straps, purchased alongside these different new purchases, have been in 20mm, making a bizarre imbalance of strap choices the place virtually none of them will match on this modded piece. Maybe the most effective answer to all of that is to only purchase extra straps, however this time in 22mm to get this piece again into the rotation, permitting it to function a visible reminder of simply how a lot issues have modified (for the higher) over the past six months.
Tommy DeMauro
Between my day by day drivers and the items situated on my metaphorical “Island of Misfit Watches” lie solely a handful of watches that can ceaselessly be part of my assortment however obtain little wrist time. For my contribution to this text, I need to deal with crucial piece of that handful: my 1944 military-issued Elgin Grade 554. I acquired it in the course of the 2020 vacation season whereas I used to be nonetheless in my undergraduate research––despatched house from faculty due to the COVID-19 pandemic with no job and, thus, no supply of standard revenue. I made a decision the worth was too good to cross up, purchased the watch, went into minor debt, and messaged the vendor to see if he had any data on the piece’s historical past. By this, I met Dale Hoffman––the son of the watch’s first proprietor, Sergeant First Class Joseph A. Habich. Initially a technician Fifth Grade within the 122nd Sign Radio Intelligence Firm of the Sign Corps throughout WWII, Habich would proceed his service all through the Korean and Vietnam Wars as a Chaplain and ultimately retire from obligation in 1972. Dale was variety sufficient to cross alongside dozens of scans containing Habich’s awards, private paperwork, and lots of of pictures his father had taken abroad in Europe and Africa throughout WWII. The watch turned a treasure trove of historical past that I used to be now answerable for preserving––a activity I used to be honored to tackle.
So, why not put on it out? For starters, I feel the preservation side is vital right here. Its patina is a bodily illustration of Habich and the watch’s historical past; I need to hold its aesthetics and situation as authentic as doable slightly than exchange them with my very own scratches and tales. Though the watch was serviced in 2010, I might additionally favor nothing mechanical break, thus forcing me to swap authentic components with replacements. Lastly, there are in fact the issues relating to radium and publicity to radioactive chemical compounds, particularly with the injury to the fabric on the handset as may be seen within the picture. Whereas the seals have been changed and the crystal is in nice form, I’m nonetheless comparatively aware of extended publicity to radium (even when the alpha, beta, and gamma ranges could also be comparatively low).
For me, Joseph Habich’s story and watch will ceaselessly be part of my assortment even when the piece sees little motion these days. It’s comparatively inevitable that with a large watch assortment like mine, some items could fall via the cracks and sit unworn for prolonged intervals of time. Whereas I counsel promoting items which have little significance to you and your assortment, respect the reminiscences and private historical past a watch could characterize. Certain, an additional $200 could look good in your checking account, however keep in mind while you wore that watch the night time you met your finest pal or while you watched your son’s first baseball sport with it on? Typically, it’s the irreplaceable reminiscences the watch symbolizes that maintain much more significance to your assortment than the wrist time it will get.
Griffin Bartsch
About two years in the past, a colleague of mine, upon discovering I’d by no means owned a G-Shock, got here into our workplace, tossed a Mudmaster throughout the room at me whereas proclaiming, “Everybody ought to expertise a massively over-spec’d G-Shock in some unspecified time in the future of their life.” They have been completely proper. The Casio G-Shock Mudmaster GWG1000-1A3 is a stupidly enjoyable watch. It’s huge (okay, monstrously giant), ridiculous, pointless, and superior. It packs in additional options than another wrist-worn merchandise I personal moreover probably (emphasis on ‘probably’) an Apple Watch and but, within the roughly two years because it was tossed at me, I’ve worn my Mudmaster out of the home perhaps three or 4 instances.
I like the Mudmaster as an object — its very existence makes me blissful — however it may be arduous to justify. Principally as a result of it’s large. I’m not a small man (I’m effectively over 6’ tall, with a 7.5” wrist), however even on my giant body, the 61mm Mudmaster is large, and at 18mm thick, it wears proud as effectively. Admittedly, because of some intelligent methods, the Mudmaster wears higher than it has any proper to, however, for the true world, it’s simply too huge. Nonetheless, I like having it on my desk, I like it, and I like preventing my means via the overcomplicated perform system to attempt to determine how the whole lot works. However greater than all that, I like having the ability to attain throughout my desk, choose up this hulking beast of a watch, and chuckle earlier than shifting on to one thing extra smart.
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