Che watch

hello there

i was going through some drawers, not that we have all that many, looking for an item. i found it, so end of blog post i guess.

no, not really. sorry, that was my attempt at a sort of post-modernist, Soviet approved joke. if it did not work i think you have an idea as to why 80s comedy cinema was dominated by Police Academy rather than, say, Gulag Patrol. 

i found something else as i was looking for the item i found, hence the post here. pictures? pictures.

behold, at a rather bad angle and with the flash on making it a sort of shadow thing, my Che Guevara watch. with, yes, experts, a different strap from what it was issued with - the original snapped some time ago.

my sister got this for me on one of her travels. travels where? i really think it was from somewhere in mainland Europe, which would make sense since it is a Swatch thing. but also she could, and this would add a touch of irony if we accept the common use rather than actual definition of irony, have got it for me in America.

it doesn't really matter i suppose, what was important is that she got it for me. it was always a very thoughtful gift, extremely kind and one i was, am, and always will be delighted with and shall treasure. that would be why, then, the watch travelled with us when we moved home, rather than letting it face down waves, sharks and Somali pirates by going into storage. absolutely no way would i have allowed this to travel around the world out of my possession.

do you want one of them "oh, i was a student of and had an interest in Che Guevara long before they put him on t-shirts and everyone had images of him everywhere" speeches? then go somewhere else. yeah, the above is true in my case, but so what? i think it's fantastic that his image is shared so far and has come to represent certain ideals. even if, as a student, i know that the realities of the man don't quite add up to the idealist images many have. if so much as 1% of the people exposed to images of him used in popular / advertising ways go ahead and read up on him, then that's brilliant.

i am thinking of wearing, or if you like, using, look you see, the watch. i have two issues, though. hard to say which is the most pressing, so you decide. firstly, it features a flat battery. well, that's not true, for all watch batteries are flat in shape and structure. i mean, of course, a battery that has exhausted its use as a source of power. in that it has expired, it has ceased to be, fjords, etc. i thought installing a new battery would be very easy indeed, since i recently had reason to buy a packet of no less than 28 watch styled batteries. none of them, alas, are of the same size i need to go into the Che watch.

it is, in many respects, fair to say that here we have an example of yet another area where Apple has, in their incredibly innovative and original way, borrowed an idea from someone else. Swatch, it seems, pioneered the idea of developing a battery that only they make, and that the only use for is with their product. it is amazing that Apple came up with the identical approach for cables for all their stuff, is it not?

further to that, the strap is a bit too short for me. i think the original one on it was too, hence it snapping. Swatch, look you see, seem only interested in making a product that suits people who are thin of wrist.

i would imagine there is some sort of watch mender or specialist in or around town that can assist with both of these issues. i shall investigate and see if we can't get this ticking.

why, though, would i wear a watch? i mean, i am not really all that much of a lover of jewellery at the best of times. also, one cannot move for sources of time these days - computer screens, phones, radio broadcasts and what have you. a watch seems to have become something of an old fashioned thing.

well, other than the fact that, as you can see all the more better here, it looks pretty damned cool, my sister got it for me. it happens to mean quite a lot to me, and thus i am in something of a mind to start wearing it again. i will see what sort of fee structure the people around town propose to get it all up, running and fitting, then. i would expect not all that much, surely. no doubt Swatch are as reasonable, sensible and consumer friendly as Apple are with their pricing for the consumers they value so much?

anyway, off to see how i fair in the day today.




be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!