11 Comments
Nov 11, 2023Liked by Jim Swift

I do love watches too. When I was 10 I disassembled my fathers Tag Heuer, a rememberance from WW2, and being a NYC detective I was given the long hand of the law. He arranged for me to go to the watch store on 6th avenue in Brooklyn to learn how to put it back together three days a week after school. I loved the beauty of all those gears moving as one uncle had a crystal back. It took me six months, a lot of talking and a lot of education on many fronts. Mr Fine was a Holocaust survivor, taught me Yiddish and I understood gears, automatons and the unconditional love and support my papa gave me.

Then at 14 he got me an after school 2 day a week adventure in a small brooklyn newspaper. Big gears. Big noise.

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These are the stories! You get it. That sounds like a movie in the making, Stella.

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I don't really wear watches. I need to keep my hands/wrists free, on account of them being registered lethal weapons. I never know when I might get called into action to ward off terrorists in hand-to-hand combat. But if we like to steal other people's watches, to hock them, can we send in those stories?

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If you don't steal from time, it will steal from you!

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See, this is why I already come here regularly. Not for the watch porn. For the wisdom.

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"Jim's Watch Porn" didn't have a good ring to it. Neither would Watches of Politics, which, abbreviated, might get me cancelled. Watches & Wisdom could be a name for a motivational Instagram account.

Think of the money we could make selling posters and mugs: "Smile through the seconds, laugh through the minutes, and love through the hours."

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Nov 19, 2023Liked by Jim Swift

Back in the 80’s I was with my girlfriend in the old Garfinckel’s Department store in downtown DC. We were young and had little money and walked by the Rolex case on the first floor. Already wearing a cool see-through Swatch, I pointed to the stainless steel submariner and said “if I could have any watch it would be that one. And maybe if it was my only watch for life and if I wore it long enough it would be worth the money.” Two years later I received that submariner watch as a gift from that girlfriend on our wedding day. It’s been the only watch I’ve worn for our near 35 year marriage. Of course marriage is the greatest gift but I believe the old Sub is also approaching a positive cost/benefit calculation. I’m a lucky man.

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Nov 20, 2023Liked by Jim Swift

I am a fan of the clear Swatch, let it be known, so I hope that is still “in the house,” too!

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Nov 20, 2023Liked by Jim Swift

Former CIA officer here, and time was everything, reliability essential for making a meeting, a drop, a signal, etc. That got me into watches that weren’t simply pretty on my wrist. I left spy work just as cell phones were coming on the scene, but some apps on a mobile aren’t compatible with secrecy, they’ll give your location away, as well as leave a track. The wrist watch should still be king.

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If you have any stories, we'd love to have them! I can only imagine how cell phones changed the work, but time is everything! That NYT item on data and tracking is illuminating for those who aren't already suspicious of marketers, let alone bad actors!

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I’ll think of some, and yes on the NYT item.

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