I got a new watch for Christmas, which got me to thinking....

Back in junior high school, I had a watch with all the gadgets...musical alarm (mine played The Yellow Rose of Texas), stop watch (including thousandths of a second in case I was ever called to be a timekeeper at the Olympics), full screen calendar, heart monitor, calculator, etc... And that's exactly what I wanted. I loved all the nifty features. I didn't care that the watch was bulky and uncomfortable. I wanted to be able to calculate the square root of any given number, time how long it took me to get from one class to another, check my heart rate, and set the alarm to go off thirty seconds before class was actually over...just to annoy the teacher. Notice how I failed to mention that I wanted to use my watch to tell time. I didn't care about that. I wanted all the gadgets.

At some point in high school, I jumped on the trendy bandwagon and wanted Swatch watches. The need for gadgetry was gone, replaced by the even more evil need to be "cool". Swatch watches were the in-thing. I think I had about seven or eight of them in my heyday. The only trend that I never got on board with was the wearing of multiple watches. Owning eight watches that were identical except for the color was fine, but wearing three to four (or more) at the same time was just plain silly.

My last year of two of high school saw a shift from "trendy" to "pricey". The more expensive the watch, the better. I remember being in a jewelry shop with my grandparents and seeing this watch with a gold-nugget style band with four diamonds at the 12, 3, 6, and 9 positions on the face. I had to have it. This watch was totally devoid of features, except for telling the time. I could've cared less. I wanted the gold and diamond watch. NOBODY else I knew had a watch with FOUR diamonds.

Thank God I got out of that phase a year or so later. I didn't care about gadgets or price anymore. I just wanted a watch that *gasp* would tell me what time of day it was.

I will admit to having "champagne tastes" when it comes to watches, so instead of buying an inexpensive Timex, the last watch I bought (back in 1990) was a Seiko. It looked nice, but not gaudy or anything, and being a Seiko I knew it would last a long time. I guess I wanted a "grown-up" watch. Nothing trendy or garish....just a nice, good quality watch.

I still have that Seiko. I wore it every day for the last twelve-plus years. I had to replace the battery a few times, but that's it.

My new watch is very much like that Seiko. No gadgets, no jewels...just a nice looking watch that has all the functions I need, i.e. it tells the time.

As I was admiring it, I realised something. All those watches I wrote about were either bought with my own money or given to me by my grandparents. This new watch, one that I would have easily chosen to buy for myself, was the first watch that my father had ever given to me.

I doubt he realises what a priceless gift he gave me.

-Kelly