Few Swiss divers?
My employer gave everyone in my department one of these spiffy Victorinox watches a couple of years ago. Most things people get from work are pretty ho-hum, along the lines of t-shirts, pens and other mundane items that you already have a ton of. Every now and then, though, work surprises you with something that you really like. For me, this has happened thrice in a bit over a decade. Sure, I kept all of the t-shirts that I get, and I even wear most of them. I also received a really nice jacket from work last year, which I wear almost daily and really appreciate. But, even the jacket doesn’t click with me like a particular sweatshirt did back in 1997, or a duffle bag that same year, or like this watch did. The duffle bag was the first non-shirt item given by a tiny consulting firm I worked for. I can’t really put my finger on why the sweatshirt and the watch reside on a different plane of appreciation from the rest of the stuff. Obviously, it’s not about the monetary value of the objects, since the sweatshirt wasn’t very expensive, and the jacket is more valuable than the watch. I think there was something intangible in the receipt of each item which made it more special. The surprise I felt in getting the item is somehow embedded in the item itself now.
I do know one of the reasons that I liked the watch so much immediately. I had just gone scuba diving for the first time shortly before work gave me the watch, and I had decided to get certified to dive. I was thrilled when I flipped over the watch and saw the words “WATER RESISTANT 100 METERS” on the back. It instantly became my dive watch in addition to being my everyday watch. I hadn’t actually worn a watch every day for many years with the exception of about a year when I wore a Nike watch that Tracey gave me (I lost it, I think at the gym). I wore this watch in Maui when I dove there a couple of years ago. I wore it diving in Bonaire and Key West last year. And of course I wore it diving in Maui last week.
I don’t know what changed in Maui this time, but my Victorinox is longer water tight. I went on more dives and deeper dives in Bonaire last year, so it’s not like the diving should have done it in. I noticed a little bit of fog on the screen by mid-week last week, and it got a little worse with each dive after that. Mind you, it is a quality Swiss time piece, so it is still keeping time. I’m just having trouble telling what time that is. Okay, that’s not quite true, since the hands are plenty big, telling the time isn’t really a problem. I just don’t enjoy reading the time off of it now, through all of the condensation inside. And, the date counter is really hard to read now.
Anyway, I’m pretty sure that Victorinox gives lifetime warranties on most or all of their products. I’m hoping to get it repaired or replaced under warranty. In the meantime, I’m just wearing it with the sweat inside, silly as that is. If I stop wearing it just because it’s flawed right now, I think I’ll diminish the attachment I have to it. It’s not like I need to wear a watch at all. For years, I just used my pager as my watch, and now I carry a Blackberry around all the time anyway. But I like to wear this watch.
Rational people don’t always behave rationally. This is just one of those times for me. Come to think of it, there are other irrational things that I’m doing these days too. Not all of them innocuous. Time for some introspection induced by a faulty watch. Go figure.
