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While we may often take them for granted as just another mundane item, a watch is much more than a case with dials and gears slowly ticking. Whether it tracks your heartbeat, calculates equations, acts as a stopwatch, or just plain tells time, a watch is much more than an inanimate object that clings to our wrists. As an explorer, my watch can act as a compass by aligning the dials with the sun, it can track how long I have been underwater on a single tank of air and tell me how long till the freezing veil of night or the searing heat of day will descend. Its practical uses are endless and can sometimes mean the difference between life and death. But to me, my watch is a great deal more; it is not only a tool that records the inexorable passage of time, but also reminds me of the past and a heritage that inspires me every day.
My father’s watch, a DOXA metal diving watch from the 1970’s, is one of my most prized possessions. I never knew him, he died 6 months before I was born, but I have his watch, and as I look down at the ticking hands marching on and imagine him doing the same, I feel a connection. He loved that watch, it was a tool that never left his presence and now it sits on my mantle as a reminder of how precious time truly is and that all of us should always seek to cherish every moment - we are lucky to experience it.
- Philippe Cousteau is the son of Jan & Philippe Cousteau, Sr., and the grandson of the legendary Captain Jacques-Yves Cousteau. Philippe is a champion of the environment and sustainability, and is the Chief Ocean Correspondent for both the Animal Planet and Planet Green channels. He is the CEO of EarthEcho International, a non-profit organization he founded with his sister and mother; and a co-founder of Azure Worldwide a strategic environmental design, development and marketing company.
Image: The SUB 600T-Graph commemorated the 40th anniversary of the original DOXA SUB diver’s watch. Source: www.doxawatches.com Print this post
