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I’m not a jewelry person at all, but my grandma was, and we were close. So, about 10 years ago, when she asked if I wanted something from her “giveaway pile” of bracelets and necklaces, I took a look, just to see if I could find something of hers that I liked. And I did: a black-and-purple Timex Ironman watch. My inherited treasure was a piece of plastic.
The Timex Ironman is a digital wristwatch popularized in the 1980s. A collaboration between the watch manufacturing company and the sporting event, it was created specifically for triathletes. Accordingly, it has a stopwatch and is water-resistant up to a certain depth, unlike more delicate and perhaps technically nicer-looking analog watches. Grandma wasn’t an Ironman athlete; you didn’t have to be to wear one. Bill Clinton wore one during his time as president, as the Washington Post observed in 1993, calling it a “beeping monstrosity” (though, the paper conceded, it was a “technological marvel”). I knew none of this when I picked it up. I just figured that a watch was a good thing to wear.
And boy did I wear it. Looking back at pictures from 2015 to 2020, it’s on my wrist in almost every photo. It was especially handy when I was working at a summer camp and had limited access to electronics. (No phones allowed when you’re herding 9-year-olds!) It really is a quintessential camp counselor watch: durable, and complemented nicely by friendship bracelets. But I also wore it a ton of places that weren’t camp: school, vacation (I would always come back with a gnarly watch tan), and even my cousin’s wedding,
When the watch strap broke, I decided to just buy the same watch (color scheme and all) on Amazon for about $50. And this past summer, when that watch’s battery died, I taught myself how to install a new one—so I will be wearing a version of Grandma’s old Timex for the foreseeable future.
I could lie and say I wear it to commemorate my grandmother, who passed away in 2023. And while there’s definitely some sentimentality involved, it’s mostly that I’m stubborn. I don’t see the point of getting rid of something for aesthetics, especially when it does exactly what I need it to do.
Why wear a watch at all, at this point? I obviously have a phone. But I’m addicted enough to my technology as it is. I work remotely, and I’m looking at my computer for many, many hours every day. My phone screen time isn’t as bad as it used to be—deleting TikTok was a great idea!—but I still do spend an inordinate amount of time texting and scrolling. The thing I like most about my watch is that I can check the time without consulting my various devices. Novel use, I know. Now that I’ve picked up running, a Garmin or an Apple Watch could be extremely useful for tracking my runs—but Strava on my phone does the trick for me, even if it means holding it awkwardly as I sprint. And when I wake up in the middle of the night, I don’t have to turn on my phone and potentially subject myself to a blast of sleep-disrupting light. I can just push a button on my watch, and it subtly glows, displaying the time. Isn’t that all you really need a watch for anyway?
My guy friends are constantly making fun of me for my commitment to such an ugly accessory. When I was dating, they couldn’t believe I would show up to meet someone for the first time with that thing on my wrist. The watch became a litmus test of sorts: A guy was classified as a potential keeper if he didn’t mind the watch. After all, the watch and I come as a package deal; anyone I would date would have to at least tolerate it. I have a boyfriend now, and he says the watch is beautiful.
