I never thought of my dad as someone who cared about material things. He was a hippie before I was born and maintained a non-consumer attitude throughout my childhood. You can imagine that it came as quite a shock that one day I came across a collection of diamond watches that turned out to belong to him.

I had stumbled upon them when I was searching through my parents’ closet for my mother’s Journey Diamond ring to wear to a special event. I opened up an unmarked wooden box and there were nearly a dozen sparkling watches on display. Rolex watches, Invicta watches … you name it, it was probably in there.

Of course, I couldn’t wait to ask my dad what this was all about. He seemed a little bit embarrassed but he went ahead and told me the story of how he had come to collect these watches. My father’s father had died when my own dad was still young and my dad couldn’t remember a lot about him. The two things that he remembered were that his dad was always talking about "saving time" and that he wore a diamond watch.

Over the years, whenever my father struggled with a difficult time in his life, he would invest in a diamond watch and then store it away to "save the time". It made him feel closer to his own father and helped him get through those rough patches. Turns out my dad isn’t the consumer his collection might suggest that he is; he’s just a sentimental guy with an expensive form of nostalgia.

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