Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · July 31, 2026
A Watch Buried Under a Tray of Rhinestone Brooches No listing, no catalog entry, no manufacturer copy will ever tell you that a decent watch sometimes surfaces face-down under a snarl of costume jewelry on a folding table with a moving blanket draped over the legs for warmth. That’s a Sunday-in-late-October detail, and it’s the … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 27, 2026
The Watch That Started This Habit Don’t touch a hazy acrylic crystal with anything you grabbed from under the sink — that’s the warning, and here’s why it matters. Seven years back, a 1974 Seiko 5 came home with me from an estate sale for twenty-two dollars. Inside, everything was right: a 21-jewel caliber 7009 … 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 9, 2026
Nearly every new collector assumes that if a watch’s most visible parts check out — a correct-looking dial, a case that seems right — everything underneath follows along honestly. That assumption is exactly how I came within a signature of handing over $1,400 for a Rolex Datejust built from spare parts pretending to be a … Read more
Ellen Ashford · July 3, 2026
Estate sale season always starts the same way for me — the first warm Saturday after a long grey stretch, when families finally get around to clearing out a parent’s dresser drawer and half the tables in someone’s garage are suddenly covered in old jewelry boxes and wristwatches nobody wound in years. That’s how a … 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
Ellen Ashford · June 30, 2026
Right now, on the felt tray beside my loupe, sits the watch that started this whole expensive habit: a $45 Seiko 5 from an estate sale, its case back rattling and its crystal so scratched it had gone milky. I figured a wipe-down and a fresh strap would sort it out. I had no real … Read more
Ellen Ashford · June 28, 2026
Nearly every beginner walks into a vintage watch purchase assuming that a clean-looking dial and a confident seller are proof enough of originality — and that assumption is exactly wrong. It’s why I once stood frozen in front of a tray of watches at a Portland flea market, listening to a seller swear up and … Read more