Which watch?

Strictly speaking, no one needs a watch these days but surely I can’t be the only technophobe suffering from phone fatigue? Despite the best efforts of fashion designers to piggy-back on the mobile phone bandwagon (Prada’s LG, Samsung’s Giorgio Armani and the $28,000 Lady Dior for starters) there’s something about an old-fashioned wrist-watch that still resonates with me. I have quite a nice little collection of watches ranging from Swatches (including my prized Vivienne Westwood orb), to an Hermes Medor (took months of savings), a Peter Blake Tikkers and my goes-with-everything Cartier Tank. Yet still I lust for more.

I’m not a big fan of Louis Vuitton’s clothing but Marc Jacobs’ debut watch collection for LV threw up this Emprise watch – a 45 thousand pound extravaganza on an alligator strap, encased in 18k diamonds. Who said bling was dead?

I’m also strangely drawn to the so-gaudy-they’re-beautiful monstrosities that are Zadora watches – how can you not love these exotic jewelled creatures that sit atop a stingray watch-strap? Surely the Judith Leibers of the watch world…


Then there is this intriguing vintage number from Hermes, called a ‘belt watch’ but surely it couldn’t be a belt! Can you imagine? So must be a precursor to the flip-up Medor watch.

My ultimate timepiece however is this vintage Hermes Movado pocket-watch, a genius feat of self-winding engineering that resides in its own calf-skin case. Why buy a for-this-season-only designer phone when you can have one of these beauties and cherish it forever?