WASHING TIME

If you are washing your hands religiously, shouldn’t you be doing the same for your watch?

- ASHOK SOMAN

Hand-washing is favourite theme of mine – the introduction of good hygiene measures changed the fortunes of the city in the 19th century after all, as a story in The Economist reminded me. If you are reading this, you and I are likely in Singapore, a city that is famously and fastidiously spic and span. It is also the world’s only true city-state. It went through its own massive hygiene projects after Independence that played an important role in securing its future. Now, this is not a story about the city; it is indeed about hand-washing – more specifically, being unafraid to get our watches wet in the act. We live in a weird time that has actually made this outlier of a subject something to be taken seriously.

To restate the relevance here, the wristwatch faces certain difficulties post-pandemic, beyond the obvious sales ones created by lockdowns and the collapse of global tourism. For this brief piece, I want to focus on wearability.