Interview
What is your full name? My full name is [Your Name]. Within my family, it holds substantial personal and cultural meaning that I wear on my sleeve and carry proudly throughout the course of my life.
May I see your ID? Of course, here it is. Feel free to check it out.
Where are you from? I’m originally from [Your City/Country]. It is a dynamic and culturally rich place, and growing up there heavily influenced my worldview, values, and sense of self.
Do you work or study? I am studying at university doing [Your Field]. It is a rigorous but truly fulfilling programme, and I found myself igniting interest in its theory as well as its practice.
Do you wear a watch? Yes I do wear a watch — it is a simpleish analogue timepiece that has adorned my wrist for several years now. I am, of course, aware that it has intending function but as far as what I truly enjoy about wearing an analogue quarter — the physical presence on the wrist absorbed into its mechanics rather than simply wheeled ticker timing away to which time digitising numerics it just read with tens in cast manner feels so hard to describe in abstract terms. I am also fairly aware of minimizing phone-checking, and wearing a watch helps significantly to usher in the hour without the temptation of whatever notifications come along with making my eyes meet the phone screen.
Have you ever received a watch as a present? Indeed, my first truly significant timepiece was given to me by my parents to reflect the completion of schooling — something they purposefully gifted me with as a means to acknowledge this life transition with an item that is durable and wearable. The watch itself was not terribly expensive, but the thoughtfulness behind the gift — an understanding that I was hitting a milestone in my life — gave it far greater value than what you could put on it physically. I have worn it with great affection ever since and it carries a kind of emotional heft, I believe no other watch will be able to replicate, as well.
None of the watches are cheap to purchase, so there are many reasons that people wear expensive watches. The reasons for wearing expensive watches are complex and much deeper than simply telling the time. For many wearers, an immaculate mechanical watch embodies a concept of investment in timeless craftsmanship — the artistry of engineering precision, artisanal quality, and material integrity present in a great watch can be prized appreciation without any context of social signalling. To some others, an expensive watch is more of a status symbol — a subtle non-verbal signal that you do well enough to choose and afford such timepieces in professional or social environments where people wear these markers on their sleeves. There is also an aspect of collecting and connoisseurship — many serious watch enthusiasts at the highest levels appreciate the mechanical ingenuity involved along with associational history in a manner similar to other forms of high-end collecting. Each of the three — aesthetic enjoyment, are still overlapping within single individuals.
Is a Watch Really Necessary? Why? And I suppose part of this is also due to the practical obsoletion of most dedicated timekeeping devices with the proliferation of smartphones, which serve all but the most hardcore horology enthusiasts a functional watch far more advanced than almost any traditional wrist-worn piece you can imagine. Yet more generally, something to be said for wearing — one could say managing a conscious intent — an engagement with time itself is real and arguably more crucial than even before the rise of their digital rivals. That’s the thing about a watch: it is a constant and non-distracting reminder that time is passing, which creates a quality of temporal awareness that I consider genuinely useful for productivity and punctuality, but also just in terms of living life less reactively.