Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
I ruined a full month of journal entries because I trusted the wrong notebook. My then-favorite wet-noodle flex nib was loaded with Diamine Registrar’s ink — a particularly saturated, slow-drying formula — and every single page bled straight through to the back. The fountain pen notebook bleed ghost test I should have run before committing … Read more
The first time I packed a watch for a work trip, I wrapped it in a sock and called it good. I was twenty-six, overconfident, and completely ignorant of what a rolling suitcase could do to an unprotected case back. I arrived in Portland to find a hairline scratch across the crystal of my first … Read more
I used to think watch winders were a gimmick. Seriously. I told a friend that exact thing about four years ago while standing in a watch shop in Edinburgh, eyeing a rotating display case like it was something out of a James Bond villain’s lair. Then I came home, let my IWC Portugieser sit unworn … Read more
I’ve owned exactly one watch strap that made me feel genuinely stupid. It was a gorgeous cognac leather band on a dive watch I wore kayaking in the Chesapeake. By the time I paddled back to shore, the strap had absorbed so much water it felt like wet cardboard against my wrist. The buckle had … Read more
I used to dread swapping watch straps. Not because it was complicated, exactly, but because I kept scratching case backs with spring bar tools and spending ten frustrated minutes hunched over my desk with a loupe. Then I tried my first quick-release strap — and honestly, I felt a little foolish for waiting so long. … Read more
This post contains affiliate links. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases at no extra cost to you. If you’ve ever held a journal page up to the light and seen a ghostly shadow of yesterday’s entry bleeding through, you already know the frustration. Fountain pen ink ghosting show through is one of … Read more
A few years ago, I handed my Pilot Metropolitan to a friend across a coffee shop table. She picked it up, wrote three words, and frowned. “It feels scratchy,” she said. “Mine writes so much smoother.” Her pen? A Lamy Safari with a labeled medium nib. Mine? Also labeled medium. That moment is exactly why … Read more
I still remember the first fountain pen I bought for under $50. I was convinced it would feel cheap, skip constantly, and end up in a drawer within a week. That’s the misconception I hear most from new journalers and writers: that a decent fountain pen requires a triple-digit budget. After 15 years of collecting, … Read more
The first watch I ever bought with intention cost me $47 at a flea market in Cincinnati. It was a beat-up Seiko 5 with a scratched crystal and a bracelet that pinched arm hair. I wore it every single day for two years. That watch taught me more about building a beginner watch collection on … Read more
A few years ago, a neighbor handed me his grandfather’s Omega Seamaster and asked what was wrong with it. The watch had stopped. He assumed the battery was dead. I had to explain — gently — that it was a mechanical watch. It had never needed a battery. What it needed, badly, was a mechanical … Read more