Wristwatch

The original watch was running slow, so this time when I went home I needed to get a new one. I left the matter of buying a watch to my parents; after all, I don’t care much about style or anything like that, only that it would be better if it were more water-resistant—the previous watch had been tormented by me to the point that rust spots covered both the outside and the inside of it.

Nowadays people like to check the time on their mobile phones. After all, almost everyone has one, and using it as a watch along the way is indeed convenient; watches, on the other hand, have mostly become ornaments. But for me a watch is still practical. I’m used to checking the time with a watch, and I’m not accustomed to newer gadgets like mobile phones.

Speaking of watches, I’m reminded that my mother used to work at Shanghai Watch Factory No. 3, but my grandfather had an even closer connection with watches.

In high school, there was once an assignment for an interview-style piece on “My Most Precious Thing,” which required us to go out into society and interview someone, record the story of him and the thing he treasured most, and write a short essay of several hundred characters. The outstanding works from that activity were apparently even collected and published as a volume, though for us it was assigned as a vacation homework task. At the time I was too lazy to go out looking for someone, so I just asked my grandfather at home, completed the five-hundred-or-so-character assignment, and unexpectedly ended up with an “Excellent Award”—actually probably just an encouragement prize, but there weren’t many award winners in the grade, so for me it was truly a rare honor: it was the only time I ever won a prize in an essay contest, and also the only time I ever took part in an essay contest, including at the school level.

My grandfather’s “most precious” thing was precisely a watch. It was a gift from his father-in-law when they first met. In fact, that watch later passed into my father’s hands, and was then lost. But my grandfather still regards it as “the most precious thing” to this day, which shows that in his heart it has remained perfectly preserved.

A watch indicates time and symbolizes “being punctual.” My grandfather was an extremely punctual person; for any appointment, he would rather arrive half an hour early than be half a minute late. If he had to go somewhere, he would calculate in advance all the possible delays he might encounter along the way, and then set out well ahead of time—so far ahead, in fact, that some people would probably find it inconceivable. When I was little, my grandfather came to school every day to pick me up, and I never worried that he would be late, because he might already be waiting at the school gate for dozens of minutes, even nearly an hour! So whenever, on the extremely rare occasions—actually, as I recall, only once or twice—that after school I didn’t see my grandfather, I would certainly burst into tears in anxiety,

Earlier, like my parents, I also used to urge my grandfather not to be in such a hurry all the time: wouldn’t it be better to take things calmly and arrive at exactly the right time? It’s not as if one can’t calculate the time accurately. But later I understood that my grandfather’s habit of setting out so early was not because he was anxious. My grandfather was a steady and even-tempered person. He always did things in an unhurried, unflustered way; the reason he always arrived for appointments early was simply that he was truly a man who valued promises and kept his word. Indeed, if one calculates the time correctly, one can generally arrive on time—but what if things don’t go quite so smoothly? If you calculate so as to arrive only half a minute early, then there is a very real chance that you’ll often end up half a minute late. And being half a minute late means—breaking your word!

What is half a minute late, after all? What’s the big deal? Perhaps it really is a very, very small matter, but half a minute is still half a minute, and breaking an appointment is breaking an appointment. What in this world is more precious than time? What in this world is heavier than a promise? How could one despise or ignore the most precious and the heaviest things in the world?

I think I inherited that precious watch from my grandfather.

I am not as stubborn as my grandfather. I often fail to keep appointments—mostly because I simply forget entirely! As long as I remember the agreed-upon time, I will definitely go early. I don’t go as early as half an hour or an hour; I’m used to arriving ten minutes early, at the very least five minutes early, because young people nowadays often agree to meet at twelve and stubbornly don’t show up until twelve fifteen. So in fact I often end up waiting more than ten minutes. And each time, that waiting period is quite pleasant—don’t grow anxious, and don’t blame others for being late; quietly enjoy the time spent waiting, and it actually feels quite good.

The watch has already been bought: a black solar-powered face, with a style that is fairly simple and elegant. The price was really not small; I only hope it will be a bit durable.

2006年8月28日

Latest Comments

• Ming

  2006-08-28 23:22:40

  “And each time, that waiting period is quite pleasant—don’t grow anxious, and don’t blame others for being late; quietly enjoy the time spent waiting, and it actually feels quite good.”

Translated from the Chinese original with AI assistance. The original text is authoritative.