Do You Have the Time?

Now I’ve typed that title I am quietly rocking along to Green Day in my own head.

But this post isn’t actually about Green Day, it’s about watches.

I remember buying myself a watch with my first pay packet. It felt like a special purchase when I was choosing it in the jewellers, I chose a brushed silver watch with a brushed silver expanding bracelet strap. I felt elegant and grown up.

I always thought of a good watch as the sort of thing you were given for significant occasions. A 21st birthday. A 1st Christmas together gift from a wife to a husband. The sort of thing you get engraved on the back and treasure forever.

Then mobile phones arrived and gradually we all forgot about watches. Barely anyone wears them anymore and if you ask someone the time they’ll reach for their phone rather than their wrist. I personally haven’t worn a watch for years and to be honest haven’t missed it.

A couple of weeks ago I got an email from Swedish watch company Daniel Wellington watches. They asked me to pick a watch and give them feedback as they were expanding their range outside of Sweden.

When the box arrived in the post I had very much the same feeling as when I bought my first watch. I chose the Classic St Andrews Lady  as I preferred a leather strap and it’s stunning.

The watch line was inspired by a man the founder of the range met while travelling called, unsurprisingly, Daniel Wellington. He wore Rolex watches on old British Navy Nato straps. These are the nylon straps that divers would wear over their wetsuit. There are a range of Nato straps available in the Daniel Wellington range, and best of all they are interchangeable and you can buy the straps separately so you can mix and match to suit your outfit/mood/season.

The face of the watch is classic, but simple and elegant. It’s very slimline, but has quite a large face, which means it’s not stupidly chunky, but still manages to make my big ugly hands look a little more elegant. I just can’t get it to look as beautiful on screen as it does in real life! I really do love it!

I have to say, I was rather expecting to wear the watch a few times and then forget about it. But I’ve found it rather wonderful having the time literally to hand. I can leave my phone behind, and be freed from feeling like I also have to check my email every 5 minutes. I can relax, but still know what time it is. It also makes me feel strangely grown up and organised to have a watch on during the day.

So, I am reconverted to watches.

There are both Mens and Womens styles available and I think they’d make such a beautiful gift. It’s funny because until I received this watch I’d never have even considered getting someone a watch as a gift anymore and I was surprised at how receiving and wearing this one made me feel.  You could even get the back engraved for a proper traditional gift.

I shall finish with a treat for you all as I hate to mention it, but *Christmas* is approaching at a disturbing rate of knots.
Daniel Wellington have kindly offered you all 15% off with the code retro and it’s valid right up until Christmas eve. That takes the price of the Nato Strap watches down from about £110 to about £93.50 (prices are in USD on the site).