Watches and the Stories They Can Tell

Kudmai: to be reborn. Perhaps the ethos of many wanders and travellers seeking the gentle, sweet taste of revitalizing themselves. A word in which encapsulates a necessary component of redefining your purpose when seemingly drifting off your path. 

 My name is Nick, I am a 24-year-old Canadian pilot who is in the process of finishing flight school. My relationship with aviation has been a dubious one to say the least. Having my head in the clouds from the ripe age of ten, pursuing a flying career has always been where I saw myself. After being falsely accepted then rejected from a pilot scholarship offered by my air cadet squadron when I was in high school, I decided to pursue the military route. However, as fate would have it, I was also falsely accepted but still participated in the pilot selection process for the Royal Canadian Air Force. Part way through, I was rejected from the military college here in Canada thus putting an end to my military flying career. Or so I thought. After taking some time to travel and work, I got accepted into an integrated flight program at Seneca Polytechnic. A leader in the civilian aviation industry with a reputation of producing some of the most skilled and sought after commercial pilots amongst the other provincial flight schools. The program offered a pathway to students allowing them to continue their academics at Seneca but engage in military flight training. I thought I owed it to myself to at least try this path and accept that if I didn’t make it through, I could put my military flying career to rest knowing I tried my absolute hardest. It unfortunately didn’t pan out for a few reasons, the most prevalent being that the year I started the process, the Canadian Armed Forces stopped running and supporting this pathway program at Seneca. Disappointed, this started my civilian flying career at Seneca. Through hard work, early mornings and late nights, I can confidently say, I flourished through my first year taking many engineering, aeronautic and business type courses, a prerequisite before heading to the flight line. Getting to this point, I falsely adopted a sense of comfort and security, I got complacent and let my guard down only to have the COVID-19 Pandemic grind everything to a halt for me. Getting onto the flightline didn’t happen until almost a year later, with that time being taken up by more virtual academics. However, upon getting onto the flightline, things felt different. People felt different. And the environment felt different. Accepting and dealing with this coupled with my experience throughout flight school being one of extreme frustration coupled with slow progress made for morale to be low and dwindling ambition.  

Upon finally receiving my private pilot’s license nearly a year after that, I was overcome with extreme gratitude and fulfilment. For a moment, I allowed myself to accept that we become a byproduct of our experiences. Perhaps as a way to cope with the multitude of hardships and difficulties I had endured to get to this point. I wanted to purchase something to remind me of what was probably my most proud moment in my life so far. Being a watch lover and avid storyteller, I instantly was drawn to The Sacred Crafts (TSC) watches. I had been following them for quite some time, always admiring their website and social media account. To me, a watch needs a good movement; preferably, an automatic movement. The subtle ticking heartbeat gives the watch a life. It becomes one with the wearer, symbolically akin to the wearer ticking, so too should the watch. Having been watch collecting since I was eighteen, I have always bought watches with a story behind them and worn them in situations and elements that would herald more stories to be told. I believe watches are meant to be worn and abused. They are a direct teller of the kind of person you are. Wearing a quality timepiece full of scratches indicates you are a person of class and taste but aren’t afraid of getting your hands dirty to do what needs to be done. I particularly love seeing chefs wearing expensive Rolex pieces or rare Patek’s whilst cooking a messy dish. The Sacred Crafts allured me as they appeared to me a microbrand doing it right. Not some flashy watch with a cheap movement or an understated automatic piece with an absurd price tag. They offered a quality watch with a beautifully decorated ETA 2824 movement that doesn’t beg for attention, but once viewed, sparks interest and a storytelling session. Living in a world of waste with people of avaricious taste, TSC innovatively addresses this problem by implementing recycled bronze tastefully and luxuriously onto and into their watches. Love it or hate it, bronze watches are slowly coming into the watch world, with many, in my opinion, on opposite ends of the spectrum. Either having too much bronze making them bulky and tacky or not enough bronze questioning if it can even be considered a bronze watch in the first place. Both of which tend to have an absurd price tag attached to them.  

TSC’s La Grand Mer piece I decided to go with checked all my boxes. I was in the market for a tasteful bronze watch. My criteria were simple, it had to have a good story behind it and it had to be something of quality. Their customization options were an added bonus to truly make my watch unique despite it already being limited production. I had the phrase, Molon Labe etched onto the side of the watch in Greek letters. Being Greek, this phrase is more than the culture it originates from, rather an ethos to live by. If you truly want something because you believe in it with all your heart, you go take it. Similarly, anything valuable in your possession must be protected from those who try to strip it from you. Getting this phrase etched on my watch was perhaps a dramatic nod to how I viewed acquiring my pilot’s license. Despite the setbacks I had faced and will continue to face whilst acquiring future licenses/ratings, the scripture on my watch serves to remind me that I will try my best through all of them while protecting and being proud in what I already have. A watch, but especially a bronze watch, ages and grows with the wearer. The untreated bronze on my watch has certainly patinaed and inherited many scars over the years personifying what I believe to be the journey every human goes through. I am without a doubt confident that my TSC watch will continue to grow with me through the good and the bad in the years to come.  

Storytelling has always been important to me and what I firmly believe to be the universal language. Everyone has a story to tell, we just need to provide them the outlet and opportunity in which to tell it. Despite me still having to finish flight school and continue to face rough patches and difficulties which will certainly call into question my devotion to the job. I’m a firm believer that if we slow down every once in a while, we will experience moments redefining our purpose that are in plain view but get muddled in life’s haze. On my most recent trip home, I stumbled upon a young gentleman who left his home in India to study here in Canada. Having only been here for less than a year, we struck up a conversation about his time here thus far. It ended with him admitting he missed home and is longing to go back soon. He said something to me in which I don’t think I’ll ever forget and that I can surely fall back on during the hard times and struggles inevitably waiting for me in my training. He said with a huge grin, “we need people like you to take people like me, home.” If nothing else in our complicated, integrated, and sometimes dark world, stories from strangers bring us together, and sometimes if we’re lucky enough, level and reset us back on track. I believe the watches made by TSC humanize this ethos by adding a little character and personality to their watches ensuring the wearer can suitably reflect themselves on their sleeve. It’s for this reason it was an easy choice for me to finally purchase one of these fine time pieces.