I mean, I was in a dozen airports at least as well as bars and restaurants, big mega-malls and everywhere I went I saw uncommonly big, schmaltzy, overly-ornate timepieces on men’s wrists.

Everything was encrusted with face-junk, huge metal bands, multiple buttons, and shiny nonsense. Most of the working watches I saw were digital –especially on Chinese wrists.

But as for the Englishmen, you couldn’t even read the faces of most of these watches. Just silliness and excess and ostentatious display of pointless wealth. No taste!

I saw ONE single watch of which I approved on the wrist of an immigration official, and I told him so.

Later on in China, you can imagine I saw a lot more of the same. But I recall one day being in necessity of a quick wristwatch to keep track of my companion’s schedule and I bought a $70HK knock-off that had the least “busy-looking” face I could find.

Hong Kong watches tend to push an over-elaborate style (and watch advertisements, were six-stories high along some downtown streets) . . but anyway the price in U.S. amounted to $17–of course, you get what you pay for. As soon as I went five hundred feet above town in a tram, the face splintered.

Again, what I hope are some amusing pix, will be on the way within a few weeks. But the overall trip showed me once and for all, that I need a decent watch that will survive an ascent to a 12,000 ft Himalayan slope if I need it to!

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