Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · August 3, 2026
Somewhere in my second year of collecting, I told a stranger at an estate sale that her watch was “definitely a Longines” based on nothing but a dial font I half-recognized from memory. I was wrong. It took me an embarrassing amount of backpedaling and a proper look at the caseback to admit it. That … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 25, 2026
The Drawer Where My Grandfather’s Watch Waited Here’s a piece of conventional wisdom I no longer buy: that locking a sentimental heirloom away in a drawer counts as “taking care of it.” It doesn’t. It’s closer to slow neglect dressed up as caution, and my grandfather’s watch is the proof. It showed up with zero … 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
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 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
Ellen Ashford · July 5, 2026
Forty-seven dollars. That’s the entire sum that changed hands at a Cincinnati flea market for the first watch I ever bought with actual intention — a battered Seiko 5, crystal full of hairline scratches, bracelet so tight it yanked arm hair with every twist of the wrist. I strapped it on and didn’t take it … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 3, 2026
Spec sheets will hand you beats-per-hour figures, accuracy tolerances down to the decimal, and battery-life estimates measured in years — but none of that paperwork tells you what it’s actually like to live with the thing strapped to your wrist. I got a real education in that gap at a cramped repair bench in Kyoto, … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 2, 2026
Seiko 5 Review: The Watch I’ve Bought Seven Times and Keep Coming Back To I own seven Seiko 5 watches. Not as a collector’s flex—I genuinely wear most of them. The SNK805 sits on my desk right now, case brushed to a soft matte from years of field work. The SRPD55 with its ocean-blue dial … 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