The First Watch

Published by

Clarissa

April 16, 2016

I still remember the time when getting your first watch was a big deal. The kids who already had their watches looked down on the simpletons who didn’t have theirs yet. It was a rite of passage to get a watch and I was over the moon when I got mine at the age of 12. I felt like such a serious, adult woman. My first watch was what we called “mechanical.” It means there wasn’t a battery in it. Instead, the watch had a complex mechanism that had to be attended by a person whose job it was to peer into the insides of watches through a magnifying glass he wore over his right eye.

This was back in 1988 but I’m thinking that this might be cultural. Was getting one’s first watch still a big deal in the US? What was the last generation to see the first watch as a rite of passage? Who still remembers a transition from “real” watches to battery watches? Who has visited a real watch repairman (is there a word for this profession in English?)

I wonder if watches will really come back into fashion by the time Klara grows up. Will she want one or will most people still rely on phones to check time?

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12 responses to “The First Watch”

matt

April 16, 2016

It is amazing how fast time moves / culture moves. I was born in 1988 and watches were never a thing for anyone I knew (sure a few had them, but cell phones were the thing around age 13-16.. now it is age 8-10… crazy).

Pretty much zero chance Klara’s generation will wear mechanical watch.. perhaps apple watch type / techno-innovation.

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cliff arroyo

April 16, 2016

It wasn’t that much a thing when I was 12 or so (though getting a watch, specifically a mickey mouse watch [hippy times] was kind of minor accomplishment). The only must do accomplishment was getting a learner’s permit for driving around 15

I gave up metal watches because my skin discolors and corodes metal (and have had no success in finding out what can cause that). I wore digital watches for a long time and now just use my phone (or computer).

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 16, 2016
  
  I bought a Mickey Mouse watch for my sister in 1990, and the was the most chic kid in her school because of it. 🙂 Nobody had seen anything of the kind back then.
  
  I can now safely say: I’m not old, I was simply born in the USSR. 🙂
  
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Fie Upon This Quiet Life

April 16, 2016

I don’t remember it being a rite of passage to get a watch. I’m the same age as you.

However, I did start wearing a watch about two years ago because it’s so much easier to be subtle in checking the time if you wear a watch. If you use your phone, it’s completely obvious that you’re checking the time and perhaps are bored with the conversation you’re in. It annoys me when people have their phones out constantly, too, so when they are constantly looking at the time on them, it feels like I’m somehow a nuisance. So I bought a watch, and I will wear one until I die. (Not an Apple watch — just a time/date watch. You wouldn’t believe how often I check the date on it! It really surprised me!)

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 16, 2016
  
  I have gone back to wearing a real watch, too, for the same reason as you. And I also check the date a lot, especially now that I’m on maternity leave and not teaching.
  
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  1. Fie Upon This Quiet Life
    
    April 17, 2016
    
    When I’m not teaching, I have no idea what day of the week it is. If I didn’t have kids, I’d probably just sleep away the entire summer.
    
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Good Enough Professor

April 16, 2016

Born in 1967 and it was definitely a big deal when I got a watch at the age of…10, 11 maybe? Not exactly a right of passage, but still a sufficiently expensive present that I still remember the occasion. It had a battery, and that too was a pretty big deal (both my parents had the watches they’d worn their entire adult lives, which had to be wound).

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delagar

April 16, 2016

I was just looking at a picture taken when my kid was about a year old, and in it I am wearing a watch. “Wow,” I thought. “When’s the last time I even owned a watch, much less wore one?”

That would have been, maybe, 1999? Or 2000. I always hated watches, I remember that. Now, occasionally, when I’m in a terrible classroom without access to a clock, it’s annoying to have no way to check how many minutes are left in a class session (I never carry a phone), but other than that I don’t miss owning a watch at all.

Also I can always ask my students how much longer we have left. Mostly they won’t lie to me. 🙂

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Pen

April 16, 2016

I saw my getting a watch as a rite of passage, but then I really, really wanted a watch (I was maybe eight or nine at the time). I had a locket watch that had belonged to my grandfather, and I really wanted an old-fashioned pocket watch. When the locket watch died, I insisted we take it to the repair person — there was a jewelry place at the mall that had a watchmaker. He took a look at it there in the store, but it was going to be so expensive that we never ended up getting it fixed. I did, however, get my own watch shortly after. I remember wearing it everywhere.

Then again, I was not exactly a normal child. I still like watches, though. And I still want a pocketwatch. I don’t, however, remember the transition from mechanical to battery. That was a little before my time. :p

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fluffymog

April 17, 2016

Born in 1968, in the UK, and getting that first watch was a real rite of passage for us too – mine was a Seconda, and clockwork so it needed winding daily. I’m very clumsy, so often banged my watch into things, and NOT wearing it Outside teaching semester was part of my ritual for marking the seasons… about five years ago I put it “somewhere safe” and couldn’t find it come the new semester… I have a locket watch, but I miss my wrist watch for ease of checking…. I met look for it again…

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Crystallizing Chaos

April 17, 2016

I was born in ’85 in India and watches were definitely a big thing for us as teenagers. Also for adults. Changed when cell phones became common in the 2000s.

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1. Clarissa
  
  April 17, 2016
  
  Finally, somebody with an experience similar to mine! 🙂
  
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