A Life WeLL Lived
Measuring the Moments…
Lets talk about the obvious. time is the ultimate important luxury. Blink and it’s gone. it is all literal where time is concerned, even the amount of time you’re giving to read this. the more important thing about time is that we measure it. We measure in pico-, nano-, milli-, micro-seconds; seconds; minutes; hour; day; weeks; months; years; decades; and millennia. not to mention fortnights, bi-weekly, quarterly and every conceivable means of conveying a period of time.
those measurements are however not our concern. When we talk about living well, there’s only one type of measure we care about. Moments. Moments defy any strict form of measurement and may last for a few seconds or go on for years.
Moments to treasure are the defining characteristics of a good life. good and great memories are the remembering of a moment or of several moments. then you have the truly blessed ones for whom work and play are the same thing and their lives are one stretched out moment. sometimes though, we would like to keep track of the moments we treasure…
so how long does the moment in a sauna last for? how long was that moment on the jet-ski? how long does the slow boat to China take to get there or how long does the fast party boat take to get to the ilase jetty? how long is the romantic dinner going to last for? how long does it take you to eat that sinful ice cream you know will add pounds to places you would rather not consider? how long does it take to create that sculptural masterpiece?
Well, to measure moments in time, you are measuring time itself and you need instruments. We are of course speaking of clocks and watches of which there are a vast variety. on the technical side of great moments such as Formula 1 races and usain Bolt’s record breaking performances are timing devices designed to measure even micro seconds as these are the differences that allow winners to be announced when race results are too close to call with the human eye.
We are, however, not going to dwell on the technical side of time measurement. our concern is for the not so technical side, specifically the timepieces we wear on our person — on our wrists or in the case of some well turned out men, hidden in suit jackets. the geeks among our readers might instantly think of their android or ios driven devices since we both wear them on our wrists and put them in our pockets. nope. sorry. We are speaking of timing devices that do not need a wifi connection to stay updated, but usually just good old wrist power. Devices with actual physical dials which, it must be said, can also be quite technical to create and can possibly be bequeathed to your children. Devices which in themselves, are moments to treasure but worn on our persons.
A Brief History of timepieces
time was initially measured by the use of sundials and remained sparsely used in continental europe after the fall of the roman empire. there, they were mostly used by government, commerce and churches. this situation changed with the arrival of the renaissance period and expansion of science, manufacturing, and commerce with distant Middle eastern and asian lands.
after new knowledge of mechanical clocks from China and islamic lands came to europe, the art of mechanical clock making slowly started to spread. By the late 14th century various clock designs started appearing across england, France, italy and germany, finally culminating in the creation of the first so called “pocket watch” by Peter henlein. his invention sparked the minds of countless innovators, who eventually managed to upgrade portable clocks into devices that became cheap, durable and precise.
in addition to mechanical breakthroughs and the rise in production capabilities, the use of watches also significantly changed with the tides of fashion. in the late 1600s male pocket watches came into popularity, and remained in constant use for almost 250 years, before they were replaced by wrist watches after the end of World War i.
today, modern watches are made in both analogue mechanical form and in digital form, and can be found almost everywhere you look.
Types of Watches
the Diver. the diver style is certainly one of today’s most popular watch styles. the most important feature of the diver is the movable timing bezel which can be adjusted to be set against the minute hand to measure elapsed time. While this feature is intended to be used to time decompression stops during diving, the more common use for it includes timing fast food pickups and parking metres. the popularity of the diver style is likely due to its overbuilt construction with thick, heavy cases and bracelets designed to withstand the extreme pressures of underwater use. Divers are unique in their broad suitability for most dress attire from beach to boardroom.
the Chronograph. the diver style is the Jeep, but the chronograph is the sports car of watches. the chronograph features a stopwatch function which is measured in resolutions of ⅕ to 1/1000 of a second. the pushers on the side of the case used for starting and stopping the stopwatch function provide a styling feature and the additional hands and their movement across the dial add visual interest. it is in the chronograph where the mechanical really shines with a higher level of complexity and design. Mechanical chronographs are significantly more expensive than their basic mechanical counterparts.
aviator/Military. aviator and military styled watches are throw backs to the watches made popular by use in the world wars of the 20th century. they are characterised as having high contrast dials (typically black dial with white lettering) fully numbered and large hands which are highly legible. While most military watches are fairly small, aviator styled watches are fairly large with large easily manipulated crowns to aid in their intended use inside an airplane cockpit. these watches typically have very basic case finishing with leather or nylon straps.
Multifunction Quartz. the inclusion of integrated circuitry in a quartz watch enabled the watch to do so much more than simply tell the time and date. Multifunction quartz watches are capable of monitoring all kinds of data including temperature, air pressure, altitude, water depth, compass direction, water tides, moon phase, Gps satellite positioning, radio controlled receipt of atomic signals, and much more.
Why are watches themselves now moments to treasure on our wrists? there are further complications of the above basic watch types giving us the Flyback, rattrapante, Mono-Pushers, tourbillons, and Minute repeaters among others. Watch cases are also being made in materials such as sapphire crystal apart from the known steel, gold and platinum. You can have a watch built as you wish and at almost any budget.
the watch shown in this article is the greubel Forsey Double tourbillon technique which sells for about $500,000 for the “basic” type and up to $1.1 million for the new greubel Forsey Double tourbillon 30° technique sapphire (case is crafted entirely from a single piece of polished synthetic-sapphire crystal). the most expensive watch today is the Breguet grande Complication Marie-antoinette which is priced at $30.000.000 but is a pocket watch. the most expensive wrist watch is the diamond encrusted (1280 diamonds of at least 3 carats each) hublot Big Bang which Beyonce bought for Jay Z on his birthday for $5 million. now that’s both a treasure and a moment to treasure you can wear on your wrist.
We are speaking of timing devices that do not need a wifi connection to stay updated, but usually just good old wrist power. Devices with actual physical dials which, it must be said, can also be quite technical to create and can possibly be bequeathed to your children. Devices which in themselves, are moments to treasure but worn on our persons.
Babatunde Olaoluwa Jeje believes in filling each moment with the very best experiences possible. Writing from Lagos, Babatunde is an entrepreneur, a foodie, a lover of great music, and a practitioner of sprezzatura. Babatunde will be writing about a Life Well Lived.