A few years ago while on board a cruise ship speaking I decided I needed a new watch. The boutique on board had many different brands and some were very expensive. I looked at Tag, Rolex, and a few others and decided they were way too much money and not nearly fancy enough.
However, we had a great rapport with the store manager and I knew I could get a bargain on a very fancy upscale timepiece. It may not be diamond encrusted or many thousands of dollars but it would look impressive. I was going for the look.
She listened carefully to my exploding ego talk about what was important to me in a timepiece (none of which had anything to do with telling time) with patience and drooled at the opportunity to sell me a fancy looking high tech gadget.
She showed me a really upscale state of the art watch that had enough buttons to launch the space shuttle. Perfect, I thought that is what I need. This watch had auto synchronization to an atomic clock throughout the world, a solar battery that never needs replacing, different time zones around the world, two alarms, pressure tested to 500 feet (I rarely swim below 4 feet of water) a titanium case, and of courser a great look. It is an aviators watch with a special dial around the crown for figuring out navigational numbers like speed, fuel usage etc.. This is all stuff I really need because it makes the watch look better, not because I have ever piloted a plane.
It looked fabulous, had a heavy feel and was a statement of success, I thought...
Well, it has been several years now, the watch still looks great, (that titanium case really works) I wear with a certain amount of pride as a symbol of a sort of achievement. Vanity at it's best.
The reality? This thing drives me nuts!
Every year about this time I have to change the time for daylight savings, and every year I spend a stupid amount of time trying to get the thing to do what I want. And, its not just here; if we are travelling and God forbid we go into another time zone I am lost. It calls for a trip to the ships jewellery store to find a 20's somebody who actually knows how to make this technological sun dial work!
How important is the solar panel to me now? How much do I gain from the auto synchronization to the atomic clock in Fort Collins now?
If I try to set it, I can't see the flipping numbers or dials. Clearly this was made for an aviator with better than 20/20 vision not an old guy who needs reading glasses.
After 30 minutes both online and with the manual, (I keep the manual right on my desk because I know next Spring this is going to happen again) two cups of coffee, several expletives, the time is now correct.
I think... it may be set for pm rather than am, again, I can't see the darn dials. I will know that tomorrow, when the date is wrong and the whole thing has to be done again...
I am almost to the point of making it my desk paperweight. Either that or re-gifting it to a son or son in law who can still see the dials.
So the moral of the story? While I love technology, I have to watch out for ego, vanity, not to get in the way of making a sensible purchase.
Now about, about that new Ipad 2.....
Still, it looks pretty.... and it was a bargain... justify, justify it...
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