FEATURE: Keeping Track of Wrist Time #4

 

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At the start of 2020 I decided to write down which watch I wore everyday and I managed to keep this up right until the end of December. I've actually carried on doing it in January too, but whether I will carry on all through 2021 I'm not quite sure. Perhaps I should, I mean, it's not exactly like it requires a massive 'effort' to keep a record and it does keep me mindful of trying to wear everything and not leave some pieces languishing in the safe indefinitely.

After the last 'Keeping Track of Wrist Time' post at the end of September I decided to try and wear two watches each day and I've largely managed this. I decided to do this because with over thirty watches in my collection it was taking me a month to get through them all, and since I tend to have a shower when I get home from work, switching watches for the evening was an easy habit to get into. 

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Obviously this had quite an impact on the number of 'wears' for some watches, since there were now two opportunities each day, and this probably accentuated the balance versus the (automatic) watches that tend to get 'saved for best'. Yes, I know... with Covid ravaging the world, saving watches for 'going out' is bloody daft, but I just can't get my head round wearing a £4000 watch to play with my cats, mow the lawn or sit around watching TV! Although having said that, now that I have it on a rubber strap, I did wear my Aquagraph to work a few times... Go me!

Even so, this year-long analysis has highlighted the possibility that maybe, just maybe I need to address how I choose which watches I wear each day. After all, if we leave aside my four automatic watches (Aquaracer, Aquagraph, Carrera Calibre 16 and the Carrera Heuer 01) and my Microtimer (which again I can't wear daily as it is a scratch magnet) you might expect the number of wears per watch to roughly correspond to how high up my list of 'favourites' they come, but it doesn't necessarily seem to work like that.

* These watches were absent for a few months due to being away during lockdown

** These watches were bought in December and as such this isn't really representative

I suppose there is an element of novelty for the watches that I've bought this year and I really like my red Formula 1, but even I was surprised to see it topping the chart. I mean, I only bought that watch in July, so it's had less than half the time of most of the other watches to rack up wears. I was also very surprised that the dark grey 4000 Series scored so highly; a watch I do like, but found a little bit 'dull' until I bought a bright green sharkskin strap for it.

In fact when I look at this list, it seems like (in some cases) being a 'favourite' of mine has little bearing on the number of times a watch actually gets worn, and makes me wonder if perhaps I sometimes choose the watches I'm least 'bothered' about to actually wear because it's less of a worry? If so, maybe I need to sell some of those watches and free up my wrist for the ones that I really like?

Food for thought I guess!