More on buying a new watch

The cashflow problem that is preventing me book the Orkney leg of next year's Scottish holiday is also stopping me buying another watch.

As with everything else, I can do it in the new year, but not right now. 

This is probably just as well. I've been researching watches on the Internet, and enlisting the AI help of Google Gemini and Microsoft Copilot in making a sensible choice from the frankly bewildering number of possible watches out there. They have been helpful. I now have a good idea of what I want. Here are the key points.

# Any new watch must be distinctive. I don't want anything ordinary.

# The watch must be robust and waterproof, with a sapphire crystal and an oversized crown. But not rugged in an ugly way. It must be proof against the occasional clumsiness of older life, and shrug off the odd knock or scrape. 

# I don't want to mess about with batteries that need replacing. So it must be a mechanical watch with an automatic movement, or perhaps a solar-powered quartz watch. 

# I want simplicity. I want to know only the time. I don't need to know the day and date, nor anything else.

# I want great clarity - bold markings, easily read, with bright lume to glow in the dark. If I wake up during the night, I want to make out what time it is without putting my glasses on.  

These things all point to a field or pilot watch, or the simpler kind of diver watch. I like black cases, and black watch faces with bold white figures or markers. An out-and-out 'military' watch, such as the Stirling Norton, might do nicely. Here it is:

It costs £425, plus shipping. I very much like its stealthy, very simple, no-nonsense look. I like large watches - they are something of a fashion statement after all - and I don't care two hoots that this is something a soldier might wear. Bling is not my thing. If people see it and suppose that I'm an outdoorsy type, or a rough-travel junkie, I'm not going to argue. 

I should mention that if this watch had a chrome case and a grey leather strap it would look like the first proper watch I had as a child. Nostalgia plays a part sometimes.

I could bump up the cost a bit and swap in a third-party white silicone rubber strap. Then it would resemble what I already have - my rechargeable Garmin Vivoactive 5 smartwatch. Except that the Stirling watch always shows the time, and doesn't have a display that goes dark after a few seconds; and is in that way somewhat more convenient in daily use. Being an automatic mechanical watch, it doesn't need recharging, nor does it have a battery that slowly degrades until the watch needs replacement. The Seiko NH38 movement inside the Stirling is easy to service, so I need not be frightened at the cost of keeping it in fine fettle indefinitely.  

But £425...sadly unaffordable until early 2027 at the soonest.