About Time & Ink

How This Started

I’m Ellen Ashford. Eight years ago I inherited two things in the same month: a hand-me-down Seiko that ran eight seconds fast and a vintage Parker 51 that leaked into the cap. Fixing the first and learning to live with the second sent me down both rabbit holes at once, and I never really climbed out. Time & Ink is where horology and fine stationery meet — because the people who care about a good movement and the people who care about a good nib are usually the same people.

What I Actually Collect

My watch box runs from affordable Seikos and field watches to mid-range Swiss mechanicals — nothing with a waiting list, everything actually worn. The find I’m proudest of is still a 1974 Seiko 5 I picked up at an estate sale for twenty-two dollars: crystal scratched to a matte frost, but the movement underneath — a 21-jewel caliber 7009, running at 21,600 beats an hour — was singing, keeping time within fifteen seconds a day. I polished the crystal back to clear at my own kitchen table and have done the same for a dozen watches since. The pen cup is vintage Parkers, modern Japanese gold nibs, and a rotating cast of inks I keep telling myself I don’t need — including a Parker 51 I found loose in a drawer at an antique shop in Mineral Point, Wisconsin, for eight dollars, labeled “Pens & Pencils — Make Offer.” I journal daily and have for most of my life, which means every pen and paper opinion on this site has survived actual use, not a five-minute dip test.

How I Review Things

Slowly. A watch gets weeks on the wrist before I write about it — accuracy logged, crown used, bracelet lived with. A pen has to finish a full notebook: how it starts after a week capped, how the ink behaves on cheap copy paper versus good paper, whether the section gets slippery at page three. Spec sheets tell you lug width and nib size; they don’t tell you what a thing is like to live with, and living with things is the entire point of this hobby.

What You’ll Find Here

Buying guides for watches and pens at real-person budgets, ink comparisons with writing samples, maintenance basics (regulating, cleaning, nib tuning), journaling setups, and the occasional love letter to an object that earned it.

Full disclosure: the site shows ads and some links are affiliate links that earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Nobody sends me free watches to praise — the budget is mine and so are the opinions.

Get In Touch

Found a grail at a flea market, or need a nib recommendation? Contact me here.