I went to dinner at my parents' house last week. Dad cooked, and we all had a nice meal. When we were sitting around the table afterwards, the subject of wristwatches came up. We chatted about it for a while, my dad mentioned that he might take a watch repair class at one of the local CCs (don't worry Jenny, not one of the ones you frequent), and I mentioned in jest to my mother that "when Dad dies, I want his watch". Dad said that he hasn't worn his watch in years, and told me I should take it if I wanted to wear it. Before I had a chance to respond, Dad got up and retrieved the watch from the other room. When he sat down with it, I protested a bit, saying stuff like "no, no, it's your watch! I don't need it, the one I have works just fine", but he kept monkeying around with it and said that if I was going to wear it, I may as well take it right then, and that in the will it was going to me anyways. I shut up about it, and sat there some more feeling a bit ambivalent about the whole thing, but Mom cinched it for me. She started whining about me not loosing it and being sure to take care of it, so I busted out with "Dad, if Mom's just going to go on about it, why don't you keep it? I wasn't fishing for you to give it to me
now...", knowing that he'd blow her off and just tell me to enjoy it. Which I am... ;-)
It's a very nice watch. Dad bought it at the PX in 1969, and wore it for 20+ years. It's an Omega Constellation, stainless self-wind with date. From what I understand, back then, Omega had the same status as Rolex does now. The band was replaced long ago with a silver bracelet. Mom bought the bracelet for him in the early 70's. It's apparently a design from some famous Navajo artist. The whole thing is a bit more "bling" than I'd normally choose to wear, but it's my Dad's watch, so I've been wearing it. It's grown on me, and quickly. I've only had it a week or so, and I do like wearing it. I'll try to post a picture at some point.
