Everything Old is New Again

Two and a half years ago, I wrote about losing my watch. (See Use What You Have, Part 3). As I explain in that post, I decided to wear my late mother’s old watch instead of buying a new one to replace the Swatch watch that disappeared.

I’ve been happily wearing that watch ever since. It’s so comfortable, and I love the expansion band. It stays on my wrist instead of sliding up and down my arm like the bracelet watch did.

The only thing that bothered me about that watch was the slightly scratched crystal. I tend to have close encounters with walls and furniture, and it mars the surface of the watch without breaking it. When I wore a Swatch, I used to occasionally stop in the Swatch store and they could buff the scratched crystal until it looked like new.

So when I recently had to take my watch to the jeweler to have the battery replaced, I asked if he could remove the scratches from the crystal. He said he couldn’t, but he could replace the crystal. I gave him the go-ahead.

A couple of days later, I picked up my watch at the jeweler’s and was astounded. It looked like a brand new watch! It no longer looks like an old hand-me-down. It’s so shiny!

It got me thinking that if we take care of what we already own instead of going out to buy something new, we could help to stem the tide of what comes into our homes.

[Here’s a fun coda to the lost watch story. Last year, I decided to clean out the “bag of bags” that lives in my entryway closet because it was getting too full. I dumped the bags out onto my living room rug, and what fell out last? My Swatch watch! I have no idea how it ended up in there, and of course it wasn’t someplace I looked when I first noticed the watch was missing. It’s now in my jewelry box as a backup watch if the one I’m wearing ever breaks down.]