Luxury Watch Blog by Time Imports

I met this incredible old woman on a train ride from New York to Chicago. The fact that I was traveling by rail in America was something unusual in itself, but I was born in France, my mother is French, and I wanted to see my new country the way I remembered loving the landscapes of Europe.

So this woman, first I noticed her hair, which was the most fantastic shade of silver. Then I noticed her designer watch, which matched her hair exactly. She was sitting in the dining car, and you could tell she wished she had a cigarette, or maybe that was just me, wishing I  had a cigarette, and in any case, there was no smoking in the car, but I was drawn to speak with her.

For some reason, maybe it was because I knew at once her designer watch was made my Chanel, my mother’s favorite designer (I was almost named Coco), I spoke to her in French. Just, “Bonjour, madame, je suis desolee a vous deranger, mais j’adore votre montre.”

She lifted her wrist, smiled faintly at her designer watch, and then warmly, looking directly into my eyes, she said, “Merci, mademoiselle.”

We talked for hours, in French and in English at turns, and I envisioned our becoming very good friends, perhaps I would inherit the Chanel watch someday…but it wasn’t to be. She got off the train in Pittsburgh, and I never saw her again.

Of course, I’ve been wanting a Chanel designer watch just like hers for my very own, ever since.

A few years ago my grandfather was diagnosed with cancer. It was everywhere, and was worst in his brain, his heart and his lungs. Devastated though he was, he received the best treatment money could buy, undergoing surgeries and chemo to eradicate the disease from his body. He was a real fighter, grampa. And although he lasted more than three years, when they gave him just three months to live, the cancer proved stronger.

Before he died, he gave me one of his watches. It was a luxury watch, a beautiful Panerai watch with a brown wristband, and a weathered gold face. He told me that he would hold on to it, so that it would be safe. But I wanted to wear the watch in good health, and I took it. A few weeks later, grampa died, and quite honestly, I thought that maybe it was my fault, maybe if I had left the watch with him, he would have stayed alive longer. That maybe, when I took the watch, it was like taking his soul, and he left the world without once it was gone.

I don’t feel that way any more of course. But sometimes I think about gramps, and hope that he’s looking down on me wearing his Panerai watch.