A while ago I created an episode about art and watches (view the article about art and watches). You might also remember my Mona WIS-a: a famous artwork blended with horological fun. For a long time, I wanted to create a follow up for this episode. I hereby proudly present you ‘The Watcher’:

The Watcher

I assume most of you know ‘Le Penseur’ (the thinker) by Auguste Rodin, but let me quickly introduce the piece. It’s a famous bronze sculpture which shows a nude male figure sitting on a rock. It’s often used to represent philosophy. The piece was initially made for a doorway surround called ‘The Gates of Hell’. Based on the poetry of Dante, this piece should represent him. That’s why it was first presented as ‘The Poet’.

The Watcher

Auguste Rodin (French, 1840 – 1917), The Thinker (Le Penseur)

Back to watches and ‘The Watcher’. As we look at watches, we can have different reasons to watch:

  • Observe the beauty and aesthetics
  • Read the time
  • Watchmaking
  • Operate other functions
  • Reposition the watch on the wrist

Let’s focus on the second reason: reading/measuring time. This reason is actually closely related to philosophy/The Thinker. We cannot get hold of time. Neither can a watch, but it can display and measure time. We all know the following situations when we look at our watch:

  • Is it that late already?
  • Time is running so slow

Going even a bit further you could even end up with this philosophical question when looking at your watch: “What is time?”. Time is interesting and mysterious. Perhaps the most valuable thing there is for mankind. Could this be one of the reasons why we love our watches so much?

Looking at your watch means more to us than most of the people. We can look a hundred times to our ‘grail’ while others might just look two times a day to only read the time. My ‘Watcher’ is a metaphor for us watch enthusiasts. Watches are important to us and we do have more reasons to look at it. We think and dream about them (well, some of us do). What do you think when you look at your watch?

Happy watching an see you the next episode!

The Watcher

A GTG makes us look at watches even more.

The Watcher

A different reason to look at a watch for a long time: watchmaking.