Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · June 30, 2026
Don’t get leather wet. That’s the blunt version of a lesson that cost me an entire strap and a fair amount of pride. I had a gorgeous cognac leather band strapped to a dive watch, wore it kayaking on the Chesapeake, and by the time I dragged the boat back onto the sand the leather … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 30, 2026
Right now, on the felt tray beside my loupe, sits the watch that started this whole expensive habit: a $45 Seiko 5 from an estate sale, its case back rattling and its crystal so scratched it had gone milky. I figured a wipe-down and a fresh strap would sort it out. I had no real … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 29, 2026
$340 changed hands across a department store counter, and in return I got a shiny full-retail watch and approximately zero useful knowledge. I pointed at something in the case, paid for it, and left feeling like I’d joined a club I hadn’t actually earned entry into. No mentor, no roadmap, a budget I hadn’t really … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 28, 2026
Nearly every beginner walks into a vintage watch purchase assuming that a clean-looking dial and a confident seller are proof enough of originality — and that assumption is exactly wrong. It’s why I once stood frozen in front of a tray of watches at a Portland flea market, listening to a seller swear up and … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 27, 2026
Here is the myth I need to bust straight away: shimmer ink is not simply “sheen with sparkle added,” and treating it that way is exactly how you end up scrubbing metallic grit out of a converter on a Saturday you’d rather have spent writing. That deep, shifting purple I once uncapped for the first … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 26, 2026
Eleven years and something like four thousand handwritten pages into this habit, the question I get most often has nothing to do with fountain pens or the notebooks I fill with them — it’s about mechanical pencils. For most of that stretch, I assumed the fault was mine: too much pressure, too little patience, lead … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 25, 2026
What does it actually take to make a desk you’ll willingly sit down at, day after day, instead of avoiding? In my case: a full teardown, three rebuilds, and a lot of trial and error. My setup began as nothing more than a folding table shoved into a corner of my bedroom, a chipped mug … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 24, 2026
My case backs used to carry the scars of my own impatience. Nothing about a spring bar tool is complicated in theory, but in practice I’d end up hunched at my desk for the better part of ten frustrated minutes, loupe pressed to one eye, gouging a fresh scratch into the metal with every third … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 24, 2026
Ask five people what belongs on a desk and you’ll get two contradictory answers: fill it with a matching accessory set for a “put-together” look, or strip it down to bare wood and call minimalism a virtue. The second piece of advice is the one that’s wrong, in my experience — an empty desk isn’t … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 23, 2026
Every January, when the new notebook goes on the desk and I dig through the pen cup for something worthy of page one, I run into the same infuriating snag: a refill that’s *supposed* to fit and somehow doesn’t. It’s happened to me more times than I’ll admit out loud. A proper pen refill compatibility … Read more