My dear WorldTempus family, there’s no way to sugarcoat it — the onset of winter sucks. The dry, crisp cold of mid-winter is still a few weeks away, and what we have now is alternating spells of drenching rain and stifling stillness. Weekend flurries of snow are followed by days with an unexpected heaviness in the air, and you end up sitting on the bus sweating into your anorak whilst the guy standing next to you with his hands full of grocery bags sneezes directly in front of your face. And so, you think you’d prefer to walk, and you get off at the next stop, but then you feel the first few drops of rain land on your (freshly washed) hair. *
Within 24 hours, you’re either pale and clammy in bed, febrile and prostrate on the sofa, or congested and lethargic in the shower. There’s really not very much you can do when the seasonal flu gets hold of you; you just have to let the virus burn itself out over time. Whilst you’re waiting it out, it’s important to keep your spirits up. When we’re ill, we automatically gravitate towards the things that bring us comfort. It might be that simple yet nourishing soup that your mother used to make for you as a child. I have a friend who swears by the uplifting combination of hot tea with honey and lemon, and the director’s cut of the entire Lord of the Rings movie trilogy.
If you’re a true watch lover, you’ll understand what I mean when I say that there is nothing quite like that dose of endorphins you get from a beautifully made watch. Endorphins, for the non-pharmacologically inclined, are the chemicals produced by your brain when you’re engaged in an activity you enjoy. More relevantly in the context of this article, when endorphins are released in your body, they block the perception of pain. So, the next time the flu sweeps through the city and carries you off to bed, leave the aspirin behind and reach for one of the following timepieces. Bonus: we’ve thought long and hard to find watches that come with health-promoting features too. Fine watchmaking — the new form of naturopathy!
* Inspired by real-life events.
Rout that fever!
MB&F Horological Machine Nº 11 “Architect”
This is one of the few mechanical wristwatches to possess the thermometer function, ostensibly to measure ambient temperature, but who really needs to know exactly how hot or cold it is around you? You just need to know if you need to put on a jacket or not, and your own senses would suffice for that. Wearing this watch means you have with you at all times a means of taking your own temperature, which is essential when you’re trying to monitor those fever fluctuations. Although we recommend none of the thermometer utilisation methods that involve bodily insertion. Under the arm is really the only way you should be using the HM11 thermometer in this sense. One last thought — the HM11 is inspired by architectural concepts, and its segmented case with four separate “rooms” gets top marks for sanitary considerations. If your open-plan office was instead built like the HM11, you probably wouldn’t have fallen sick in the first place.
Stability is the key
Omega Speedmaster Chronoscope
Who needs a smartwatch heartbeat monitor when you have a pulsometer on the wrist? This mechanical scale, marked out on the dial of certain chronograph watches, can be used to calculate your heart rate. Indeed, before modern electronic devices, medical doctors would wear one of these watches as an essential tool of their profession. The Omega Speedmaster Chronoscope features telemeter and tachymeter scales on its dial, as well as a pulsometer scale, so you can be reminded of happier days in the past when you were engaged in non-sickroom activities such as determining speed based on distance travelled within a given timeframe.
Germs begone!
Tudor Black Bay 58 925
I’m not a germaphobe. When I’m at home, I sometimes eat food that has fallen on the floor. Not like soup or anything with high gravy content, but if a perfectly good cookie happens to tumble off my plate, I have been known to pick it up and consume it. Nevertheless, I’m happy to wear a watch that I know won’t be harbouring any bacterial colonies in its nooks and crevices, especially if it’s a sports watch, as those tend to become festering petri dishes over time, with the accumulation of sweat and dirt when worn for their proper purpose. Clean your sports watches, people! The Tudor Black Bay 58 925 is a beautiful watch in its own right, but what makes it special is its case in silver. Silver has antibacterial properties, and when you’re trying to fight off an intense bout of the flu, the last thing you want is to be set back by any opportunistic infections trying to get a free ride through your system. Encasing your whole body in silver may not be a practical option for any of us. But we can start with the wrist.
