So, I found myself wandering through that NYC watch show everyone was buzzing about. Yeah, went over there, took a look around. You see all these shiny pieces, right? Glass cases everywhere, little spotlights making everything sparkle. Some of these things cost more than a car, maybe even a small house. Crazy money, really.
It gets you thinking, though. Not about owning one of those fancy tickers, not really for me. But more about, you know, what all that represents. Time, money, status, craftsmanship – all bundled up in a little machine on someone’s wrist. It’s quite a display, and it definitely stirs up some thoughts, makes you reflect a bit on things.
Funny enough, seeing all that high-end stuff didn’t make me want a new watch. Instead, it dragged up this memory of an old job I had. Years ago, this was. I was working my tail off, really busting my chops for this company. The pay wasn’t great, let me tell you, barely making ends meet some months. But you do what you gotta do, right?
Anyway, the big boss there, he had this watch. Oh man, this watch. It was one of those super expensive, chunky gold things. You couldn’t miss it. And he’d make sure you didn’t miss it, always fiddling with it, checking the time in a real obvious way during meetings, especially when he was about to say something he thought was important, or when he was putting pressure on us.
I remember one time, we were all in a crunch, working late for weeks, trying to hit some ridiculous deadline he’d set. Everyone was stressed, tired. And he strolls in, fresh as a daisy, taps his gold monster, and says something like, “Time is money, folks, let’s not waste either.” Meanwhile, we were running on fumes and cheap coffee. The irony wasn’t lost on me, I can tell you that. Here we were, our time feeling pretty worthless, and there he was, with this symbol of enormous wealth and, supposedly, the ultimate mastery of time, practically strapped to his arm like a trophy.
It wasn’t just the watch, of course. It was everything that went with it. The disconnect. The way some people value things, or rather, devalue other people’s time and effort. We were all just cogs in his machine, and he had the fancy timepiece to prove he was the one controlling it. That whole experience, it taught me a lot about what I value, and it sure isn’t the price tag on your wrist.
So yeah, walking around that NYC show, seeing all those incredibly expensive watches… it was interesting. But mostly, it just reminded me that the real value of time isn’t how much your watch costs. It’s what you do with it, and how you treat the people you share it with. That old boss? Wonder if he still wears that thing. Probably.
