Alessi for me

A watch is a simple thing perhaps.... or perhaps not when you think of all the tiny mechanisms and movements at work (analog or digital, there is still a lot going on).

I myself wear and collect watches like some women do jewellery. Some are in heavy rotation for a year or two and then a broken strap relegates them to the back of the jewellery box, which of course, I use for watches more than for jewellery.

My favourite new watch though is definitely something to write home...or should I say "a blog", about and will probably be in heavy rotation all summer if not fall.

It is the Alessi Kaj watch. I bought it in New York a few weeks ago, but although that adds to its souvenir-like aspect for me (ie. a nice memory of my trip), I think it can be purchased almost anywhere.

Why I love this watch?

1. It was cheap. $85 cheap.

2. It reminds me of clocks from the 1970s, the ones that plugged in and sat on your parents' bedside table. I chose a brown one, which totally adds to this nostalgic appeal, as does the orange hand.

3. The whole band and casing is made of one piece of some-kind of rubber. This makes it really tactile -- you just wanna grab it-- and it makes it seem indestructible (it's one of the only watches I let my 11 month old daughter chew on, literally). I also have a Lexon alarm clock that I love for the same reasons and because it is deep matte turquoise.

4. It is super chunky and thick, very much like one of those toy watches you got in loot bags as a child whose display was some sort of hologram. But this one has the real time on it. It's like a very practical adult toy, and who doesn't love those? (see ipods, Dyson vacuums, Kitchen Aid mixers and anything by RIM.)

When I googled the watch for this blog, I discovered it was designed by Karim Rashid, which brings up mixed emotions in me because a) it's cool he's Canadian, but he did leave quickly to set up shop in New York, b) he wears all white all the time, which seemed neat 5 years ago but now seems cult-like, c) he left his wife, a super-chic, thin model-ish woman, for yet another super skinny, younger, actual model wife and d) He wrote a book on design called "I want to change the world," which I find simultaneously admirable and obnoxious.

But none of these mixed emotions will stop me from wearing it. A week after I bought it, a salesperson at the Umbra store complimented me on it and thought it was designed by Philip Starck. Not that it matters to me, I love my watch regardless if it has a name behind the design or not (in fact it would be better really if there was no name behind it, proving you don't need a big name to achieve good design.) Nonetheless, Starck was the one who said "we have to replace beauty, which is a cultural concept, with goodness, which is a humanist concept." I think this statement is a step-down in obnoxiousness from "I want to change the world," and although it seems un peu idealistic, I think it's also a step in the right direction n'est ce pas? (Note to self: Future post on green design??)