Hello!

[jtth]

Hello.

I have some kind of obsession with trinkets. It’s a real sense of desire, of yearning, of hopefulness expressed as want, then moving toward a feeling of deserving, then needing, as with water, pining for a new shiny because it’s shiny and new. I think of ways of getting rid of the old, the less shiny, the un-new to finance, at some point in the future, the new shiny. The new shiny sits there in my head, pulsing.

If I dwell on the new shiny I can dream about it. These are not productive dreams. They provide little insight into the new shiny, myself, or our hermeneutic. They exist to fuel want. What primitive hunger gave rise to this pining want for shiny trinkets? I cannot fathom the reason. The desire for the highest, shiniest fruit? The healthiest kill on the Savannah? The sharpest most polished arrowhead? I don’t dislike the dreams about the new shiny, but I question their purpose.

My Apple Watch was the new shiny for a while. I had many moons to meditate on it. At first, before the March event, I had convinced myself that I was not going to get one, and that I would wait and get a later model once it matured. I had said that same thing about the iPhone, too, though I held out for a few weeks after release to get that. With the watch, the March event presented the new shiny in people’s hands. The demonstrations gave me a model to use in my head, which I did, at every opportunity, thinking of the desire to time things with the timer, to set alarms, dictate to Siri, and, you know, see the time.

Then the pre-order frenzy started. I followed reddit’s /r/applewatch, which was a mess of circle jerking around how awesome the device was going to be, how revolutionary, and how important it would make itself in our lives. I, being me, ordered immediately as soon as the Apple Store app was up on my phone. It still took a week after launch for it to get to me, even though I ordered four minutes after the store was live. This week was painful. Deep dark yearnings tore out of my psyche. I dreamed about the watch a few times, and they were dreams of satisfaction, having this new shiny on my wrist, helping me, like a little goblin in a ball that could talk to my phone.

When it arrived I was so happy. We picked it up at the UPS Customer Center at 10 in the morning. I took the day off work to play with it (and finish my prelim defense presentation, which I successfully defended the next day). It was there during my wedding. The cover of our wedding photo album is my hand over Caro’s, with our recycled palladium rings and our smart watches, hers a Moto 360, my Apple Watch. It’s cute.

But in getting the Apple Watch, a new hunger has come about. I’ve followed /r/watches/ for a long time. I began following it again, trying to understand why these people did not see the Apple Watch as either a threat or a thing to covet as a new shiny. They only saw it as, yes, a nice piece of craftsmanship, and yes, a neat technological advice, but their wrists were occupied with more important things. What were these things, and why did people love them so much?

I can’t answer that question first hand. But I’ve had the same (not Apple) Watch since the late 90s, a stainless steel 38mm Luminox Marine. It’s a quartz watch. I’ve replaced the battery twice, and now must do so again. The mineral crystal over the dial is scratched to hell and Polywatch helps not at all. The tritium lume is faded, but still there, a whisper in the dark. I wore it every time I travelled; there was something comforting about having my own personal time on my wrist, separated entirely from other sources. I liked that. It gave me comfort. The battery died on the last day of my last conference trip before the Apple Watch arrived.

But now I covet something much more demanding. A mechanical watch. In particular, one of the Rolex Professional series watches. A GMT Master, a Submariner, or a Deep Sea. Which reference is irrelevant. After enjoying the polished finish of the Apple Watch, the polished center links of the GMT Master call to me. They are that new shiny. The quick ticking of the seconds hand, the little lumed orb flowing over the dial, the sound the Oyster bracelet makes when it’s moved in the hand, these things call to me. I tried on a Submariner and a Sea Dweller in a jewelry store in Albany when we were looking for an apartment. It was sublime. The weight, the feel of it, the sense of it being a valuable jewel, like a diamond ring or diamond earrings, these have a mental weight to it that sit well in my mind. I won’t wax on about how mechanical movements are a testament to the manufacturing triumph of humanity’s will over nature, or how the mechanical movement of a watch is akin to the beat of a heart, or any of that. That’s rehearsed.

Of course, I wouldn’t own such a thing for a while. At least, not until I finish my PhD, unless someone gave me one as a gift, which is not unheard of, but I don’t travel in wealthy circles, and those of wealth and means that I do know are all academics, and tend to spurn most trinkets. So saving up is in my future if this desire persists. One of the justifications I use in rationalizing the purchase of a new (or used; probably very used) shiny Rolex is that they keep their value. Almost nothing from their tool watches has depreciated. Sure, they lose some value if they’re pre-owned, like driving a car off the lot, but unlike a car they do not continue to lose that value over time. In fact, most have appreciated. So they are sound investments one can enjoy. They’re not even artificially inflated, like diamonds, as Rolex sells every single watch they make, every year.

These are the feelings that push me to sell my Apple Watch. I still haven’t decided if I will, but it will only go down in price, especially if Apple announces new models in the fall or spring, as they’re rumored to. (And the source of that rumor is almost never wrong.) A new shiny has taken root in my mind, one that I won’t have for a long time, but the desire itself is enjoyable. Looking at pictures of them online is enjoyable, in the way that I would look at car magazines or forums when I was younger, knowing I would never afford an NSX, nor would I ever buy one now, but I do enjoy looking at them. Though now I don’t look, because I don’t want that to set as a desire, as cars are terrible investments.

Watches are men’s jewelry. I like jewelry. I want a shiny.

[hamza]

Welcome

[Hairdude1]

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[MonBK]

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[Andad]

Welcome to TRF.

That post should cover you for the first year......

Or can you expand on it?

[Psmith]

Welcome

[Urosfan]

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[sea-dweller]

Welcome!

[Mr.Black]

Welcome!!

[SearChart]

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[HL65]

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[hamza]

Welcome

[Rags]

Welcome