Watches, Pens, and the Craft of Analog Living
Ellen Ashford · August 5, 2026
The Routine That Keeps Ten Watches Running Without a Single Tool Purchase I own ten watches. At any given moment, three of them are being worn regularly, two are rotating through the weekly tray, and five are sitting in the box doing absolutely nothing. For years, that was fine — until it wasn’t. Building a … Read more
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 29, 2026
What Happens Before the Caseback Ever Comes Off Almost every new collector assumes a watch’s ticking is just ambient noise — something you eventually stop hearing altogether. That assumption is backwards. The very first thing I do with any watch I don’t already know is bring it to my ear and shut my eyes. It’s … 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 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 11, 2026
The week between Christmas and New Year’s is when calls like this start coming in: a neighbor presses his late grandfather’s Omega Seamaster into my hands, convinced it just needs a fresh battery. It takes a minute to explain — as gently as I can manage — that a mechanical watch has never run on … 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 · 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