Joy & Timekeeping

What happens when you leave your smartwatch at home and strap on a mechanical analog timepiece? Joy.

Here’s what I didn’t notice as I fell into the habit of wearing an Apple Watch: The convenience of having easy access to data, right there on my wrist, turned into a never-ending series of micro obligations. Forget summoning info when I needed it. Even with alerts toned down to what I thought was a manageable level, the watched constantly nagged me. Look. At. Me. it said.

As I was packing for a weekend trip I was about to grab my Watch charger and thought, screw that. One more thing to plug into the wall? No thanks.

I grabbed my Seiko instead. It’s not a precious watch, or valuable. It’s a tool, albeit one with a nice-enough mechanical movement that keeps decent time. It’s not subtle either, because it’s got some heft and a bright orange dial. The name of this model, Monster, suits it.

An hour after putting it on, I noticed something. My watch wasn’t talking to me or giving me inaudible but intrusive feedback. It sat there on my wrist, ticking and waiting to tell me the time, when I wanted it. Joy.

I wore it after I returned from my trip. I’m wearing it today. I’ll probably wear it tomorrow, too.