I’m writing this on a plane. It’s not the first or last time this will happen. On long-haul evening flights, they pull down all the window shades, so it’s almost like I’m writing this in a timeless zone (but time can pass even when you’re not aware of it — perhaps especially so).
Last Thursday, we celebrated the holidays at WorldTempus by throwing a party, together with our colleagues at GMT Magazine and Skippers. There was food, there was drink, there were presents under a garlanded tree. Our writer Jordy Bellido went around asking people what they wanted, watch-wise, for Christmas. (It’s quite possible that on Friday morning a number of them would have gladly sacrificed all the watches in the world for an aspirin and a glass of water.) But you can read all their answers in the article we published yesterday, and do tell us if you’re for or against the choices made.
I’m one of those annoying people who think that you can tell a lot about people by the choice of their watch — I can’t help it, it comes with my job. And I don’t think it’s too much of a logical leap to think that people’s choices reveal their personalities, in general anyway. It tells me what people are looking for in life.
One of my colleagues, who’s also a talented photographer, chose the MB&F Legacy Machine Flying T, which falls exactly within the parameters of her artist’s eye, always seeking an elevated and unusual beauty. Another colleague went with a TAG Heuer, and I know it’s because he just loves that wow factor. I myself chose the… okay you know what, you have a look yourself and tell me what you think it means, what it says about what I’m looking for in life.
When I was in school, I knew a girl who wrote poetry; she once wrote of the human condition, “we are one-winged angels learning to fly”. The poem was about finding love, as most poems tend to be when you’re 18, but maybe it’s also about finding the thing that gives you balance.
Love and balance — two things that define timepieces for me. The latter you can physically find at the heart of a movement, the former is something we’re all familiar with here (I assume you love watches, if you’re reading this). And humans learned to fly a long time ago, some famously while wearing beautiful watches, like Albert Santos Dumont with his Cartier, or Louis Blériot with his Zenith. We all fly nowadays, and the reason we do it is mostly so that when we step out of planes and back onto the ground, we are closer to the things that give us balance, that bring love into our lives.
Happy holidays, WorldTempus readers. I hope your time is being spent with the people who keep you feeling balanced, who make you feel loved. It’s the kind of time we all deserve.
