Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
After a decade testing everything from $8 pens to $400 watches, I’ve learned something that surprises most people: a good mechanical pencil often outperforms a pen for everyday writing. You can erase. The lead doesn’t dry out or bleed through cheap paper. You never replace the entire tool—just the refill. And unlike fountain pens, mechanical … Read more
Here’s something I got badly wrong early in my collecting life: I assumed any fountain pen ink could double as a waterproof fountain pen ink if I just let it dry long enough. I was wrong — spectacularly, expensively wrong. I’d written a full page of tasting notes at a watch auction preview using what … Read more
I still remember the moment I understood that not all blue ink is created equal. I had just loaded a Pilot Metropolitan with a generic “blue” cartridge and written a full page of notes. The result looked flat, lifeless, and forgettable — closer to a ballpoint smear than anything worth calling penmanship. That experience sent … Read more
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
Let me tell you something that used to get me strange looks at watch meetups: I collect Casio digital watches alongside my vintage Omegas. For a long time, being a Casio digital watch collector felt like a guilty secret in circles where anything under a Swiss movement got politely ignored. People would admire my Seamaster … Read more
A few years into collecting fountain pens, I made a mistake that still stings a little. I bought a full 50ml bottle of a highly recommended ink based entirely on a swatch card photo. Gorgeous deep teal in the image. On my paper, with my nib, it bled through like watercolor on a paper towel … Read more
Most people assume that if a watch doesn’t carry a century-old Swiss name on the dial, it isn’t worth a second look. I spent the first few years frustrated, realizing too late that the prestige name on the dial had nothing to do with whether the watch actually worked well or felt good on my … 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
People always assume I only wear expensive watches. After a decade of collecting — handling everything from a $15 Seiko SNK809 to a 1968 Omega Seamaster with a cal. 565 movement — I can tell you that some of the best watches under 100 dollars have earned permanent real estate on my wrist. Not just … Read more
A few years ago, a friend texted me a photo of a watch he’d found at a flea market. “Is this real?” he asked. It was a Rolex Submariner — pristine, green dial, cyclops lens — priced at $180. I knew immediately it wasn’t. But explaining homage watches vs counterfeits to someone who’d never heard … Read more