Adjusting to the New (Ab) Normal + My Vintage Watch Obsession

New York City is slowly reopening.

Here's our local diner, whose seating area now extends into the street between a line of parked cars and the bike lane.  Not sure how pleasant that will be for customers but it does allow the diner to accommodate more people.  Takeout food alone is unlikely to be enough to sustain a business like this.  I expect to see a great many restaurants closing in the coming year since there isn't going to be a vaccine anytime soon and you can eat outside in New York only so long.  Some restaurants can expand out into the street but they can't equal the number of seats they'd normally have available.

Our local Saturday farmer's market has reopened, so we're happy about that.  They're organizing themselves to maintain social distancing, which seems like a good idea.

The last has month has been tumultuous for much of the country but you don't come here to read about that.

You won't be surprised to learn that masks are about the only thing I've sewn in the last three months, though I do have a shirt project in the works.  I've made a lot of matching mask/shirt sets but the truth is that I usually wear a mask that coordinates rather than matches perfectly.  Let's be honest: that matchy-matchy thing can be a bit much.

Purple gingham coordinates nicely with this old shirt (below), which remains one of my favorites.  (If my photos look a little sharper than usual it's because I've upgraded my old iphone to the new SE model.)

White Featherweight print mask with my textured black-and-white camp shirt.

Same shirt, different mask....

Same mask, different shirt!  This pink linen shirt is eight years old and has held up fantastically well.  It's another one of my favorites and I wear it every summer.

It's fun to mix and match.  I see a lot of masks but none quite like these.

 I've been making a few masks for neighbors and friends too.  Two reversible ones for my friend Kat....

 And a mermaid print mask for my downstairs neighbor Edward.

Meanwhie, I'm slowly accumulating the tools I'll need to start working on mechanical watches.  Everything is new to me but that's also what makes it exciting.  Getting started in a new hobby can feel daunting but I enjoy the challenge: it's like when I learned to sew.  This week I received my first vintage watch repair book in the mail.

Mechanical watches are complex -- so many tiny parts that must be disassembled, cleaned, reassembled precisely and lubricated with multiple types of lubricants depending on the part.  There's so much to learn: a whole new vocabulary.

So far I've tackled only the most superficial tasks: changing watch straps and spring bars (the piece that holds the strap in place, polishing crystals (sometimes glass but more often acrylic in vintage watches), and changing batteries in a few old quartz watches I own.  Watch collectors tend to turn up their nose at quartz watch movements and I'm afraid I've started to too: it's similar to the way vintage sewing machine aficionados feel about computerized machines, they lack soul.

I've picked up a few watches on eBay too.  Also like vintage sewing machines, wonderful ones can be picked up for very little money since now most people just rely on their smart phones (or smart watches) to find out the time.  Also like sewing machines, at one time there were a great many renowned American manufacturers like Hamilton, Elgin, Waltham, Westclox, and many more.  Sadly they either no longer exist or have been purchased by foreign companies.  Timex is still around but no longer makes their watches in the USA.  Sound familiar?

I polished the crystal of this vintage 1940's military-style Elgin watch.

I'm over the moon about this vintage Seventies Snoopy watch which arrived in perfect working order.  The second hand is on a plastic disk that rotates so it looks like the green tennis ball is floating through the air -- clever!

My Elgin, polished and looking good.  Despite being roughly 75 years old it keeps great time.

This 1973 King Seiko is a mechanical marvel.  At one time it was one of their top-of-the-line watches.

I hope everyone is doing well.  I still haven't figured out how MPB Day might work this summer or how much interest there is.  Some activities like lunch at Panera are not going to work.  I don't know if the FIT Museum will be open by August.  I do know that some fabric stores have reopened and they could certainly use our business, so maybe I can come up with some sort of hybrid outing where we spend more time socializing (and eating)  outdoors.  I'm open to suggestions!

Happy sewing everybody and stay well!