I never thought I’d be here when it first started, when I first embarked on my watch journey years ago. Where some thought “timeless” I thought “antiquated”, simple indices over roman numerals, complications over simplicity, and a watchbox to wake to rather than a watch that remained on my waking wrist. Yet, here I am at the end of my journey, or more specifically, at the end of my ‘yearning’, with a Cartier Santos Dumont on my wrist, fastened by olive drabbed leather, the watch that broke me. I tried to sell this watch, with honest effort too when first received, but I made a big mistake, I wore it while awaiting sale and that changed everything. I told myself I was experiencing the most of it, to give it a ‘mocking’ chance, pre-sale, that I might expand my knowledge across the spectrum of watch collecting.

So, I wore the Cartier Santos Dumont one day, then another, then another, then I dreaded, and I dreaded, and dreaded more, and then I felt like I’d be losing something special, that I’d be losing a moment I’d live to regret. Because when I’m wearing my Santos, I feel like I’m reliving a moment. I feel like I understand Cartier’s adherence to this design language for over a century, and why it still continues to be relevant. I feel like I understand why the Tank, Cintree, Crash, and the rest exist, that they are different watches and experiences in themselves. I feel like I understand Warhol’s statement “I don’t wear a Tank to tell the time. In fact, I never wind it. I wear a Tank because it’s the watch to wear”. I feel like it doesn’t matter if the movement is quartz or mechanical. I feel like the rest of my watch collection is too large, or too round, or too similar to one another. I feel like I just want to keep experiencing this moment, this experience, this timelessness. I can’t collect like I used to anymore, not unless it feels like this.