Thought I’d give my watches a dedicated piece instead of lumping them with the rest of my trinkets.

For twenty-some years I remember my right wrist always having at least one red string tied around it thanks to the sheer volume of yagyas. The left usually had something more interesting.

We lost dada when all but the youngest grandkid were in high school. Shortly after I did two things. One, grow a shikha that would stay with me till I cut it off after about a year into working my first “real job”.

Two was wearing a watch.

It started with his old watch. My cousins had saved up some money to buy it for him. It was a simple Citizen. Quartz battery, with a separate backplate. He would always wear it flipped so the face was on the inside of his wrist. So I did the same. My wrists at the time were much smaller than his, luckily my mother’s uncle fixed watches, so he took care of it for me.

Unfortunately not long after, we had another death in the family. The one who made dada’s watch fit my wrist. He had given me a pretty decent replica of one of the kind of watches rich people wear. So for the rest of my high school up to when I started working in IT, I usually wore that.

Believe it or not, a lot of the folks who work the help desk like spending money on questionable electronics.

So sometime late 2014 or early 2015 I bought an LG G Watch off one of my coworkers. The original, back when it was a rectangle.

Great toy, terrible battery life.

Friend of mine had a Pebble and liked it. So I switched to Pebble 2 right before they announced they were ending production. Perfect timing.

Started working a “real job”, so I thought I’d get a “proper” watch. So I asked a friend who’s into watches, and he recommended I get a Bambino Orient because I wanted something nice looking, affordable, and without a battery.

So I got it.

At some point started to get obsessive about counting my steps. So I handed it off to my brother and got myself a fitness tracker from the company who acquired Pebble.

Decent little gadget, but hated the software. I want to see my numbers, maybe some charts. Not socialize. Not click through menus. Shame Windows Phone 7 didn’t make it.

Eventually I was too fed up with the app, so I again handed it off, and went to a dumb watch.

A Citizen Weekender Garrison, with the Eco-Drive so I didn’t have to fuss with a battery. Overall, pretty solid watch.

One of my friends eventually had a baby and wanted a watch he could wear that didn’t shine light on the newborn. Saw it as an excuse to give Tim Apple some money and gifted him the Citizen. Later the watch made its way to Pebble friend who had started working in a scif.

So I bought an Apple Watch.

Thought I’d be extra fancy and get a mobile plan with it so I could leave my phone behind on walks.

Terrible idea, you never go offline.

So it’s now an expensive paperweight.

I liked the idea of a semi smart watch that also captured some health data. That road led me to a Withings and their ScanWatch.

Overall, I liked it. I only had to charge the battery once or twice a month. App wasn’t intrusive. The watch’s screen was minimal and out of the way.

Last winter unfortunately I had to send it in for a warranty claim and I didn’t feel like wearing Tim’s watch. So I bought myself a Timex Weekender to keep something on while I was waiting. I ended up liking not having an LCD on my wrist. So I grabbed a Amazfit Heliostrap to pair with it. Good enough on mobile, could be better.

So now there’s two expensive paperweights that none of my relatives wanted to claim.