Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · September 1, 2026
Best Watches Under 100 Dollars I Would Actually Wear Daily There is a particular kind of disappointment that comes from a cheap watch. Not that it breaks — most of them do not — but that you stop reaching for it after three weeks. It sits in the drawer, technically functional, quietly unloved. I have … 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 1, 2026
Open the second drawer of my writing desk and you’ll find an old cufflink box doing double duty as a watch tray — eleven pieces inside, not one of them over $200, and right up front sits a $45 Seiko 5 I almost passed on because I figured anything that cheap had to be trouble. … Read more