I was bit grumpy on Saturday morning. My watch had stopped. Most of you would not consider this to be a big deal – just pop out and buy a new battery, but I bought this watch about three years ago, when Chantal and I went to the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter to buy a nice watch, when I was awarded a moderate sum of money, £250 to be precise, after working for the City Council for 25 long years. I decided against the main brands (although we did see some very nice examples of Rolex watches, somewhat above my price limit) and found an automatic watch in a small jeweller who, as well as selling main stream brands, builds “own brand” watches using Swiss mechanisms. And, after a bit of negotiation, the jeweller reduced the price of the one that I liked to precisely £250.
Being automatic, it told the time reliably for over three years, until last Tuesday, when it stopped. Having cycled to work, I had left the watch at home, and decided that maybe I wasn’t wearing it enough for it to self-wind. The watch subsequently spent every waking hour on my wrist, but then on Friday night it stopped at 6.30am after just 6 hours of inactivity next to the bed. I was grumpy because I decided that a rare Saturday with nothing planned would now be filled with a trip to Brum, and then I would need a further mid-week trip, taking time off of work to collect the repaired watch.
In Birmingham we battled through the very windy streets, and after a one false start, we found the jeweller, who seemed really disappointed that one of his watches had failed after three years. “Can you leave it with us for a while?” he said, and, on our request, recommended a nearby bistro so that we could lunch while we waited.
The tiny bistro, tucked behind some shops and workshops was delightful, perfect for a light lunch (oh all right, in my case, not so light), reasonably priced, with very friendly service, and we enjoyed our unexpected lunch date together.
We returned to the jeweller, hoping, but not really expecting, that the watch would be repaired, but the jeweller presented me with the repaired watch, explaining that a key part had been tightened, which shouldn’t have been necessary, and we chatted about “do’s” and “don’ts” of wearing the watch (if anything, I had been over careful with it). He was clearly disappointed that his product had failed, and after telling me that he had also cleaned and oiled the mechanism, he said that there would be no charge, thus nicely ending what had turned out to be quite a pleasant day out.
Technically we live in Oaktree House, but sadly the tree had to go.
We now have a thriving Oakstump at the front of the house.
