Spent its first 20 years wrapped around the lawyer’s wrist. Conscientiously ticking off the minutes in his upstate NY office. He died, though, and this perpetual timepiece was left to his minister.
The minister maybe doesn’t quite realise what he’s got but he wears it anyway. The bracelet breaks after a rough game of 1980’s tennis (more brute strength than finesse), so he replaces with a tacky plastic strap. It cracks and falls into disrepair after a few years, of course. Abandoned on the old sofa, piled with books and papers, the watch still valiantly ticks if disturbed in a rummage for papers.
House clearing after another death and it emerges, blinking, into the light and that second hand starts its smooth circuit of first a minute, then an hour, again. The durable Swiss mechanism was built to last.
A watchmender’s craft is all it takes to restore the broken crown and some replacement bracelet links make a good liking to its original.
It may be a 1957 Rolex vying for space in a world of smart watches but it’s found new life in 2016. An almost sexagenarian with plenty of life and a new wrist to grace. And this new generation covets its lineage – so the future’s secure.