Theowrist /ˈθɪərɪst/
noun
a single, specific, one of a kind person concerned with the horological and theoretical aspects of watches and time; someone who considers given facts and comes up with a possible explanation about watches and time; one who observes various watch based phenomena and uses reasoning to come up with practical ideas about buying watches that must be proven but might also be reformed because theories can never be proven correct, which is a bit weird.
Be gone, this is no place for logic and well considered theories, this is a place for art and passion, for precision irrationality, guilloched bank accounts, and chronometer certified lug-to-lug iridescent daydreams.
So, that would make me a horological theorist, or theowrist if you will (you don't have a choice). Ok, so what does this Theowrist think he can explain or achieve? What is he doing in the romantic and irrational realm of the wristwatch? Be gone, this is no place for logic and well considered theories, this realm of wrist time is a place for art and passion, for precision irrationality, guilloched bank accounts, and chronometer certified lug-to-lug iridescent daydreams. It's ok, fear not, I am by your side, I will not be using logic to destory your desire, I will use it to fan the flames of your love for the indubitable and enduring timepiece. There are so many questions I have asked myself many times whilst surfing the interweb synchronously researching timepieces and burning holes in my eyeholes, and my wallet.
Theorists come up with abstract ideas and then spend their lives trying to prove them. Well then, this is a pursuit I've been on for a while, trying to figure out what it is about watches that is oh so deliciously interesting, inspiring and spellbinding. I have been privately investigating and theorizing as to why watches are so awesome in a vain attempt to justify my own issues and interest, now I bring my plight into the public domain, because I want to practice writing and I want some exposure for my theories to help them develop, to immortalize them like a silicon hairspring, and maybe even stoke some discussion. I know I am not alone in my pursuit to try and understand why on earth I, and many others, like and love a relic of a time past, deemed unnecessary by many a logical soul. People have been sharing their thoughts on this subject for decades, and there are some valid theories out there. They make sense, but everyone is a little different, so I'm exploring, but unfortunately without an Explorer in my watchbox (got a SARB035 though so it's not to bad).
The truth of each watchbox, as so often the case, comes down to resources, mine are finite so I need to exercise restraint and theorize, put my logicians cap on to sensibly decide my next purchase or even decide that I should not buy an expensive watch. Maybe until I sell one I already own, or maybe just never buy another...
I have cycled between loving watches and buying regularly, to not buying or looking at or taking photos of, at all. I love, then at a point I convince myself that I am wasting money until I convince myself that I am not. Throughout these uncertain and crazy years, I have always worn a watch when I leave the house, and often wearing one when I'm at home (often changing watches throughout the day). I change straps and adjust bracelets, I am an artist and designer, and have an appreciation of the history and engineering of the timepiece, but one can have and be these things without spending excessively, without owning, can't one? Sounds like I'm just bad with money, well that's something to be explored as well.
So that's where I'm at, and I have asked myself all of the above, and all of the below questions as to what on earth I am doing. I am in general quite the logical old soul (and actually old now), rather boring, always reading, happy cooking and eating, wine-drinking, travelling and thinking. I have consciously and happily created a framework based on logic and risk management for living a half decent life and taking care of my business.
The one thing I have been unable to reconcile is the blasted wristwatch, I have been compromised by this implicit sense of something more, contained in a simple timekeeping device, a practical consumer good or luxury item. While it is these thing it is more, some might call it an inanimate object but of course we know it has a beating heart. They give you a measurement of the intangible and somehow bring it to life. Do watches and clocks cross a boundary from the unseen in science and bring it into reality on our wrists? Do digital watches do the same? No they don't, that's one thing sorted. I am a fan of digital but, there is a time and a place.
This is the kind of illogical horological lustiness I hope to get under control and understand by sharing various ideas, theories and stories, and doing serious analyses which may require buying a watch or two to draw new and old information into a systematic and logical grand unifying theory. Maybe one of my theories or a rejig of an existing theory will help you find your way through this maze of balance wheels, straps and lugs, or maybe they will help you justify buying a really expensive/special (not the same thing) watch to yourself, or to you significant other with pure unadulterated logic. I hope you can join me on this purely scientific (f.p) journey.
Alvin aka The Theowrist.
#watches #watch #watchblog #watchblogger #time #thetheowrist #seiko #tudor #luxurywatch #divewatch #horology