Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford Ellen Ashford · July 24, 2026
Years back, cataloging a different pen entirely, I wrote in my journal that a “clean” Parker 51 nib meant no hard starts and left it at that — no mention of feed condition, no note on the section threading, nothing about the cap lip. I look at that entry now and wince a little, because … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 23, 2026
Search collector forums long enough and you’ll run into two pieces of directly opposed advice: one camp swears a decent pen will always beat a pencil for daily writing, and the other insists any cheap disposable pencil does the job just as well as a good one. That second camp is wrong. After a decade … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 22, 2026
Every January, when I sit down to break in a fresh notebook, I’m reminded of a mistake that cost me an entire page of research notes: I once assumed that any fountain pen ink would simply become waterproof if given enough drying time. That assumption turned out to be badly, expensively wrong. I’d filled a … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 21, 2026
No spec sheet lists “will eat an entire month of journal entries” as a possible outcome, but that’s exactly what happened when I trusted the wrong notebook with my then-favorite wet-noodle flex nib. It was loaded with Diamine Registrar’s — a heavily saturated, slow-drying formula — and page after page soaked straight through to the … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 20, 2026
Turn one of my F-91Ws over in your hand and you’ll notice something odd: the case back is stamped with the same quiet confidence as the caseback on my 1960s Omega — module number, production code, no apology. I collect Casio digital watches right alongside my vintage Omegas, and for years that combination earned me … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 19, 2026
Here’s the myth I want to dismantle right away: that a swatch photo tells you anything reliable about how an ink will actually behave in your hand. It doesn’t. A few years into this hobby, I dropped money on a full 50ml bottle of a heavily praised ink purely because the online swatch showed a … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 19, 2026
Zero — that’s how many of the five watches I’m about to recommend carry a Swiss name with a hundred-year pedigree stamped on the dial, and I used to think that alone would have disqualified every one of them. For the first several years of collecting, I operated on the unspoken rule that a dial … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 18, 2026
Never wrap a watch in a sock and call it packed — that’s the short version of a $60 lesson I learned the hard way. At twenty-six, cocky and completely clueless about what a rolling suitcase does to an exposed case back, I flew into Portland only to find a hairline scratch cut across the … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 17, 2026
Is that watch on the flea market table a legitimate bargain or a felony waiting to be worn on your wrist? Nine times out of ten, when someone shows me a photo and asks that exact question, the answer is neither exciting nor complicated — it’s a fake, full stop. A buddy of mine once … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 16, 2026
Sixty dollars changed hands across a kitchen counter on a Tuesday in late January—cold enough that my breath fogged the air indoors, or close to it—and that’s the moment a Seiko 5 landed on my wrist for the first time, with me still silently arguing over whether I’d just made a sound decision. Twelve months … Read more