Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · July 16, 2026
I remember the exact moment I strapped my Seiko 5 onto my wrist for the first time. It was a Tuesday in late January, cold enough that I could see my breath, and I was standing at my kitchen counter second-guessing a $60 watch purchase. A year later, I’m writing this Seiko 5 one year … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 11, 2026
A few years ago, a neighbor handed me his grandfather’s Omega Seamaster and asked what was wrong with it. The watch had stopped. He assumed the battery was dead. I had to explain — gently — that it was a mechanical watch. It had never needed a battery. What it needed, badly, was the regular … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 5, 2026
The automatic-versus-hand-wind debate has followed me for a decade. I hear it at every watch meet, read it in every forum thread, and honestly? Most of the answers I’ve seen miss the point entirely. People treat it like a binary — like one is objectively better — when the real answer depends entirely on how … Read more