The Secret Life Of A TR3A

We can all enjoy our car in the present,but it pays never to forget that each and every one of them has a past.

- Andy Starkey

I have a very old wristwatch. It’s gold, it has a Swiss movement and amazingly, it still works. I don’t wear it though, and for several reasons. True, it’s not quite my style, I’m not sure it keeps very good time and I’m scared of losing or breaking it, but I’m not even sure those are the real reasons. It’s probably because it belonged to my dear old dad. I look at it sometimes and remember him checking the time very, very precisely. But, I also look at it and wonder where it has been, what it has seen. If that watch could talk, what stories could it tell and what insight into my dad’s life could it provide?

The thing is, people of his era don’t seem to talk too much about their lives, particularly the wartime years. I know he served in the Royal Navy during the war and travelled quite a bit. He’d tell me what it was like and about his friends, maybe one or two amusing anecdotes, but there is a certain modesty to veterans of his time. I know there’d have been many experiences and sights that would not be shared, yet that watch will have been privy to the whole bally lot. No one could ever know about the history that hides within just by looking at it.