Recently, the Mondaine watch I got at the Museum of Modern Art in New York stopped working. It was under warranty, so I sent it to the address listed on the warranty card as an expedited parcel. It was returned to me as undeliverable.
While I am figuring out how to convey it to them, I got an inexpensive Timex Expedition watch as a replacement. I used very similar watches back in elementary school. I remember getting a new one every time the battery on one died, for about $40 apiece. They are about the same price now and – after a couple of days of using it – I can say that it is the best watch I have used in a while.
It has three alarms, and it very easily lets you set one for weekdays and one for weekends. It has an accurate chronometer and countdown timer. The controls are intuitive (or perhaps I remember from elementary school). You can press one button to display an alternate timezone (I have mine on GMT / UTC.). It has a big button on the front that makes it light up in an effective but unobtrusive way (much less annoying than checking your cell phone). And it’s good to 100m underwater – a position that if I ever reach, I will probably have already died reaching. It shows the time, day, date, and day of the week at a glance, and I think it takes less thought to comprehend the time expressed digitally. Analog watches always make me pause a moment to interpret them.
The watch is small and light and comes with a comfortable and reasonably attractive-looking strap. It definitely isn’t dressy, but it is highly functional and attractively priced.
My new Marathon Watch Company timepiece has now also failed.
Apparently the pretty ones die young.