‘It’s a grand complication,’ says the watchmaker. Not a watchmaker. The watchmaker. He straps it onto the wrist of his latest client, before the man has any further chance to turn away. They tend to get nervous at the last moment. They think about all that money they’ve just spent. That vast, incomprehensible sum. Enough to buy a planet. On a single wristwatch.
‘It means it has at least three further functions beyond just telling the time,’ the watchmaker explains and the client nods. He already knows the complications, of course. Day/Date. Perpetual calendar. Time-sync across centuries, essential for FTL travel.
The final feature of the watchmaker’s watches, the thing they all buy them for, is the delicate needle. A pressure sensor that will trigger a complete destruction of the whole watch, and the hand that wears it, should anyone but the original owner wear the watch.
‘It’s the exclusivity that commands the price,’ smiles the watchmaker.
Paddy Dobson
23rd May 2022