Alice: “How long is forever?”
White Rabbit: “Sometimes, just one second.”
Here is the strange thing: we have no option but to think of time as both linear and circular.
Linear, meaning days, months, and years could be presented with an arrow
which travels in one direction. And indeed, this is how we perceive our
own travel through time, from birth to death, always in one direction,
unsymmetrically and irreversibly. Yet if we remove ourselves from the
picture, days, months, and years marked by the rotation of planets are
just simple circular events. With the sun rising from the east, and
setting in the west; with the moon phase cycle never changing, and
seasons coming and reappearing in ever circular motion. Symmetrical and
reversible - because a change of rotation would make no difference to
time whatsoever.
Subconsciously, we feel both comfortable and uncomfortable with the
duality of those two concepts. What makes things even more complicated:
we are constantly confused with the rate of passage of time itself. Time
flies when we are excited, and drags forever when we are bored. This is
why we wear watches - so we can all, together, as the human race, march
along. Without watches, we would all be trapped in the world of Alice
in wonderland.
I am not sure about you, but I find comfort in thinking of time as a
circle. The rotation of a seconds hand is calming, the minute hand
matters, but the hour hand doesn't really matter that much - it is
always somewhere on the dial, near the same place it was yesterday, same
as it will be tomorrow. Above all, I find watches with the circular calendar hand
extremely pleasing because once you hit a certain age, you start
measuring time in months. "Next month is her birthday" or "next month
I'll be travelling on a holiday”. Because that 'next month' is just one
rotation of a calendar hand away, with a glance, I can easily tell how
far I am to that point in time, which really matters.
The great watches keep seconds. The best watches keep months.
Seiko SSA449J 'the circular calendar' with power reserve: the time is what you make of it.
NOTE: this is a latest release of Japanese made Presage, just released. Price: $995. Newsletter subscribers price TODAY ONLY $895 including free delivery. We have only 2 watches in stock. The 'Daytona' colour scheme will impress you.
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