Watches: Part 1

Graduation from high school.  A pivotal point in life.

For me, after graduation meant that I was going to college.  Why?  Because my parents told me I was.  (I would later quit after my freshman year at UNC to work at Pizza Hut, but that’s another story for another day.  Really?  Yes.  I really did quit after my freshman year.  Well, actually I transferred to Appalachian State University but decided I wasn’t going there after a breakup.  Then I transferred to the University of Iowa to be a basketball manager to pursue coaching but got scared because Iowa was a long way from my home in North Carolina.  And then I transferred to Otterbein College to hopefully play collegiate tennis.  But ultimately, I quit college because I just wasn’t ready and needed some good ol’ real world work to learn about life.  Yes, we all know I went back to college…multiple times.  But can we get back to watches now?)

My parents threw a graduation party for me despite me not wanting one and not thinking it was such a big deal.  Looking back now I realize that it was a big deal.  Every pivotal point in life SHOULD be a big deal.  At least I think so.  I mean, why not?  Why not celebrate everything?  Life is more fun that way.

WATCHES!

Anyway, I got all this crap for graduation.  You know, bath towels, nail clippers, toiletry cases.  Boring things.  However, there are two things I got that were pretty cool and more importantly helped to prepare me in life, which I suppose is the real point of high school and why graduation is and should be so important.  

My mother gave me a Swiss Tech 6-in-1 stainless multi tool that fits on a key ring.  This thing is awesome!  I still have it on my key chain to this day.  It’s been about everywhere with me and is so useful.  I’ve used the philips head and flat screwdrivers so many times when you don’t have a screwdriver just laying around.  It’s gotta a little wrench on there that provides a really strong grip.  I’ve even used this tool when I was living in New York City and someone at a party asked if anyone just happened to have a wire cutter on hand.  Everyone’s head turned when I raised my hand and said “I’ve got a wire cutter right here.” (Yes, I lived in New York City after I graduated from college, but that is another story for another day.  I moved up there to pursue acting as I wanted to act in soap operas, ideally One Life To Live.  But once I was up there and doing the acting thing I found that I didn’t like it at all.)  Anyway, everyone should have this Swiss Tech tool.  Buy one today!  Happy Graduation to you!

My father gave me my first real wrist watch.  He said I needed to know the time so that I wouldn’t be late for class.  Before this moment I had had some watches in middle school, cool looking Swatches and digital Casio watches and whatnot.  But this was a wrist watch.  And it had the Swiss Army symbol on it.  My dad had gotten me a Swiss pocket knife before, one of the little ones.  He had the Big Daddy one that had about every tool on the planet on it.  Anyway my dad gave me a Wenger Swiss Army watch with a brown leather strap.  Little did I know that this would be the start of me becoming a watch aficionado.  To be honest, I don’t know as much about this watch as I do of other watches I have bought in recent years.  Wenger was founded in 1893, which was the right time for the company to be awarded a contract with the Swiss Army to produce Swiss Army knives.  Skip forward a few years to September 11, 2001.  After this moment, knives were a no-no on planes.  This hurt Wenger substantially and they had to sell the company to Victorinox.  (Meanwhile, I would lose my job as a database programmer due to 9/11 and make my way into teaching high school English.  Yeah, that really happened too.  It sucked because there were no jobs after 9/11 and I had a one-year-old daughter to support.  But, it eventually led me to teaching which in turn sparked interest in me wanting to return to professional school and become…a dentist.)  Anyway, the awesome brown leather band fell apart on my Wenger Swiss Army watch and had to be replaced.  A friend of mine years later, Douglas Everhart, who taught me how to teach and so many other things in life, replaced the band to what it is today.

So, without further ado, the first watch of my watch collection: the Wenger Swiss Army watch.

Swiss Military and S.A.K. Design Watch Collection

Wenger, Maker Of The Genuine Swiss Army Knife

Wenger Swiss Army

ds

April 2, 2025