Today I have a Slow Watch review from my boyfriend. If you like this, check out his attempts at a juice detox.
Somewhere on the internet, there must be some stats about how the global sales of watches have sunk since the mobile phone market has monopolised everything we do. I don’t think I had worn a watch for about ten years, having always relied on my smart phone for the time of day.
At the best of times, I can be described as a phone addict – I’m constantly checking my phone and if I was totally honest with myself, most of the time I don’t know quite what I’m checking it for. In meetings,* there is nothing more blatant and rude than someone with their phone on the table, constantly pressing the home key to find out what time it is, or to check if something far more interesting has happened in their virtual life outside the room.
I suppose the positive to this is that watch makers can now be much more creative with how they sell their products. Apple’s watch is set to revolutionise the industry, but personally I feel that a digital watch is something that was for my teenage years, when I would spend hours learning all the functions of the latest models in the Argos catalogue. I never even thought that I simply needed something that would tell me the time, and that being able to do this 100 metres under water or in a war zone wasn’t important.
The Slow Watch is something different, but yet wonderfully old school. It’s a watch with just one hand, but a 24 hour face. The watch has a Swiss-made movement, and the concept is that we have all lost the ability to be ‘slow’ in such a busy world, and a watch with only one moving hand that shows the whole day helps us to do this.
Here’s one of the watch’s creators talking a bit more about the idea behind the brand:
So, does it work?
Firstly, as an accessory, it really is beautiful. There are lots of styles to choose from and I went with a classic leather strap with gold rim, but there are many, many variations on design for every taste and since I’ve been wearing the Slow Watch I’ve had many, many complements on the design. It looks great with a suit, and equally with casual wear.
As a watch it’s slightly more tricky. I have to admit that there have been occasions when I’m in a hurry where I’ve resorted back to my phone for the time, and it was slightly embarrassing in the cinema to have to hold the watch right up to my face to be able to work out what the time was. That said, once you’ve got the hang of just how precise the mechanism is, it’s a great watch to have, and does make you appreciate the amount of time (or lack of it) you have in your day.
*Note to Boyfriend from me – this is just as annoying outside meetings…
We were sent the Slow Watch for the purposes of this review.
Hi guys! Thanks for the review. I just got my Slow Watch. I’ve only been using it for about a day so we’ll see how it evolves. So far I do love the “philosophy” of it, but not the use. (now that it’s 2 years since you wrote this… are you still wearing yours?) The “sundial” aspect of it is wonderful. The concept of not being ridiculous about seconds is wonderful. But the reality is that we do a lot of things that happen by the minute: Meetings, classes, openings, closings. For all these things the time it takes to read the Slow is frustrating. Yesterday after doing exactly that I happened to take my phone out of my pocket to stick it in my gym locker and it was like a relief that the phone simply, effortlessly, told me it was 5:57pm and I had 3 minutes to get to my gym class. The Slow Watch is push back on lives that are over-scheduled, sometimes with unnecessary things. But perhaps the watch treats the symptom and not the cure. Again, great philosophy, but hard to believe I’ll actually end up wearing it every day.
A lot of more good looking 24 hour single hand models available at svalbard dot watch
I have found as I have got older that some watches (and clocks) are difficult to read because of the two hands. I have been unable to distinguish which is the longer one – ie the longer one for the hour and the shorter one for the minutes of that hour.
Unfortunately we now refer to the time verbally in more than one way, and this can sometimes add to my stress when in a hurry (say to catch a train) because their time table is stated by the hour and the exact minute past that hour.
This is not a question of eye sight but one of the slowness of my brain to register the hour and minutes on a dial with two hands.
I have been looking for a watch which might help me and quite by chance I came across your website today.