The Watch Redux

For our most recent anniversary, Sam asked me what I wanted. At first, I could think of nothing.

Then I remembered a watch I once had, a gift from Sam’s Uncle Jack: a Patek Phillippe with a burgundy alligator strap. I wore it back in the 80s, when I was working as an admissions officer at Yale. I had a habit of taking it off my wrist and placing it on my desk while I was interviewing prospective applicants. Interview sessions were at half-hour intervals, so to keep track of time, I kept the watch in discreet sight line.

One day I left it on my desk when I went home. The next morning, it was gone. I was quite upset because I really liked that watch, and it served a purpose.

Maybe a good anniversary gift would be a replacement.

I started looking up Patek Phillippe watches online and quickly understood why it got stolen, and that I will never get another.

That’s okay. I’m not on a rigid schedule these days. And what would I do with an insanely expensive watch besides worrying about losing it again?

There’s also this: any chump with $157,000 to throw at a luxury Swiss timepiece can buy a Patek Phillippe, but nobody will ever have a Patek Phillippe story like mine.

I should also mention that since the watch came from Uncle Jack, more than likely it was a fake, which is a whole ‘nother story, making the lost watch a gift that begats mores gifts, proving that (for me, at least) the best things in life are not things, but stories about things.