My watch band broke on Sunday. I have an old Elgin wristwatch that was my Dad’s in high school. It’s not fancy, it doesn’t have bells and whistles and digital hoohahs, but, damn, it’s a solid, functional watch, with a huge weight of nostalgia behind it.
(For those folks who are Elgin watch connoisseurs, this one’s dial was cleaned off of its original white paint when I took it in for cleaning while in college, leaving the steel background you see in the pic. I was annoyed, but it still has its wonderful, green, cancer-inducing radium numbers and hands, though the latter really need to be touched up, which probably can’t be done any more.)
It also takes a 15mm wrist band, which is just on the cusp of “narrow” (which usually goes to 14mm) and “normal” (which starts at 16mm). Weird. And since I have been wearing an expandable “twist-o-flex” style band forever and a day (since I’ve had this watch, in fact), that limits my options even more.
The folks at Target at the new mall made a valiant effort, but were unsuccessful. I had to go to two watch shops in the mall to find one that had the bands in stock. But at least now I have my wristwatch back.
It’s a tradition on Margie’s family to give cheap watches at Christmas. Since this one is special to me, I always felt kind of guilty about never wearing them, but they make a good backup for when these sorts of things happen.