Alice Tells Time

When I was five or six, my parents gave me a watch for my birthday. It was an Alice in Wonderland watch, and it came with this little statue.

The watch had a blue wrist band. I recall it as being self-winding and decorated only with the word "Alice" delicately written on the face, but I could be wrong. I can't find another like it on the Internet, although I did find this:



My watch, I am sure, did not have Alice on the face of it. This photo claims to be from a 1950s set, but I received mine in 1968 or 1969. If you look closely you can see a difference in the statues - the flowers, for instance. Although there is not a lot of difference.

I remember the watch with great fondness. I think it wore it until I was in high school. Then I started wearing Waltham watches, always with a stretch band, always in silver and gold. I scratched my best watch and replaced it with another Waltham that I really liked, one with moons and stars. That was a present to myself when I graduated from college.

I lost that watch when the jeweler went to replace the battery and broke the back of it. He gave me another Waltham, but it was unlike the one I had, and he kept the old one. I later learned Waltham no longer made that design.

These days I wear a Timex, but I would like to go back to a Waltham, I think, just for nostalgia's sake. Only they don't make anything now I really want to wear.

I have a thing for clocks and am never without a watch. I have clocks in every room of the house - some rooms have more than one. I like cuckoo clocks, grandfather clocks - most any kind of clock.

It is important to me to know what time it is, although I don't know why. I am always early or on time, and if I am late you'd better believe something came up.

My Alice statue has a place of honor in my curio cabinet. She is one of the first items you see when you look in there. She has little value, but she means a lot to me.