Spring Ahead - 2019

With as harsh a winter as an easterner might expect a Montanan to live through on a regular basis, one might think that I’d had time to pen a new entry to the journal. Not so. Everything slowed down to a crawl, slower than a tow truck can make it to your home during a snowstorm, slower than you can take the hydraulics off your plowing vehicle in the dark at nearly 20 below zero. But then there’s respite for those who persist. For some it is the first sign of crocus poking through the last dusting of snow. For this body, it was the comfort of the crinkling sound of starched palm fronds on the Mayan peninsula of Mexico with my family, a limited supply of clothing and three carefully selected books in my carry-on, to relish spring break!

I’m one who would prefer to remain a non tourist. I like to leave all of my work at home when visiting such places and then I get the uncontrollable urge to go into the only watch store in  town…. Rolex, Breguet, Breitling, Rado, Omega etc…. I speak with the manager, I have to! I feel obliged to inform and commiserate with him (like he does not already know) what Rolex and the other brands are doing to the independent watchmaker. Not only that, he’s fully aware and likewise relatively stoic (in a rollie kinda way) that his display is nearly devoid of anything made of steel in a kinda sporty way. There is hardly one sport model Rolex in his showcase.  One GMT and a Yachtmaster. Everything else was meant to impress your martini drinking country club members. I offer some conversation about the industry and we part. He’s doing his best.

Back to the shade with a book I retreat and I’m saving the best for last…. or at least I hope so. First - A guy who eludes the law into the wilds of Maine for 25+ years. Second a murder mystery by a local Bozeman author titled the Kiss of the Crazies (liked the local connection). Last one, shrink wrapped and handed to me by J.L.K. Davis, widow of David E. Davis Jr. (see last journal entry), titled “Thus Spake David E.” I told Jeannie Davis that it was saved for this occasion (vacation) about the only time I ever get to read 3 books cover to cover in under a week. This morning, shrink wrap removed, I delved into the world of a guy who lived and breathed automobiles. Sure, he liked outrageously fantastic Italian, German and some British cars but his passion for what he was able to offer his readers was more that just high-ticket Robb Reporting glossy images of four tires on a stunning European roadway that one of modest means could only dream of attaining. David offered to his readers everything from the humble to the extravagant in a way that would make us all appreciate having asked him to dinner.

This week long reprieve has offered me an opportunity to reflect that it does not matter what four wheels are under your butt or what’s strapped to your wrist. All have an emotional connection, be it personal, historical, technical or functional. David E. Davis, Jr. reaffirmed that loving what you do is what’s most important. Whether it be your first Seiko dive watch, a gifted graduation Omega or your dad’s grandfather’s pocket watch, they all pull on the emotional heartstrings; the way you felt the first time you got behind the wheel of your parent’s second hand car and pushed the limits or buried the family Subaru in the snow bank. In a timepiece way of thinking, did you soak in the hot-tub, recklessly and not intentionally, testing the water resistance of the heirloom timepiece?

Enjoy the part of your wrist (or pocket) that hosts a timepiece…whatever it may be. You will look at it many times a day so it should be something that pleases your eyes and other emotional senses at least. If it offers you other features that pertain to altitude, water depth, timing or phases of the moon, so be it. It’s your wrist, your timepiece, and you will find and gain pleasure from glancing at it every time… no pun intended.

​