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30 March 2023

Guest post series - 'Filohax' No.4 - Paul

Thanks again to Paul for this fourth instalment of his guest post series. 
You can find all the 'Filohax' posts here.

Filohax: Time for a change

In my quest to ditch more and more 'Tech' from my life, I've stumbled upon another addition to my trusty Winchester workhorse - an analogue time piece! A little back story - I ditched wrist watches in the early 2000's and the recent craze for Apple digital watches leaves me cold. 

Probably like millions of others, I've come to reach for my 'smart' phone when I need to clock the time, which inevitably leads to a quick look at the news / Facebook / YouTube (you know the drill). 

Well, I use my Filofax to plan my day and organise on a minute to minute, hour to hour basis and recently caught myself flipping open the Winchester and simultaneously reaching for the phone to check the time. I suddenly thought, 'I need to start wearing a watch again,' so had a new battery put in an old Calvin Klein but it only stayed on my wrist for a day - which is when the light bulb moment happened - 'I wonder how I could get a watch into my Filofax?' (don't you think that three quarters of a new innovation is in asking yourself the right question first?!). 

The logical answer was then to take the wrist bands off, and use velcro to attach the face to the narrow slither of leather visible when the Filofax is open flat with inserts. 

Already I've probably cut down my smartphone consumption by 25%!

14 comments:

  1. Great minds .... I tried the same some years ago. I attached the watch (with Velcro) to a stiff piece of plastic, which I could slip into a pocket in the organiser (I can't remember which one). Nothing to do with smartphones - I simply always want to be able to see the time in a single glance, without tapping anything or even having the bother of turning my wrist and pulling up my sleeve ;-) . You wouldn't believe the number of clocks there are scattered on my desk and around my office ...

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    1. In in Winchester so don't have that luxury! Nice solution though

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  2. I have a simple digital clock which also shows the day and date on my desk just to one side of my iMac, I glance at that often during the day rather than look at the time in the corner of the screen.

    I use a simple analogue watch face on my Apple watch. Whilst it might not be as stylish as my Seiko, the Apple Watch has alerted me to my irregular heart beat, so it stays on my wrist! It does more than just tell the time/date.

    I wish there was a simple slim calculator/watch/day-date for a Filofax I have my old Casio Digital Diary still which is as close as I've got to finding such a device.

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  3. I love this, thanks so much for sharing. Getting away from the phones is always a good thing. But one question, are you worried about damaging the face with it being in your planner??

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    1. I'm of the 'damage' is just another man's 'character' 😉

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    2. Absolutely! And I expect my Filofaxes to have lots of character!

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  4. Thanks for another great post, Paul.

    And yes, great minds as I did something similar some years ago & it worked very well. Nowadays, I mostly use my Fitbit to check the time, so that definitely helps too.

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  5. Thanks Anita, I'm still trialling my next Filohax - a 'week on 3 days' diary 😉

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  6. I love this idea and will copy!

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  7. Oh Paul, don't do as I did, don't ever go down the YouTube rabbithole of wristwatches (yes, in 2023)... don't look at The Urban Gentry, or The Time Teller, or Relative Time, or... or...

    And whatever you do, do NOT lookup the video about the "$5 Grand Touring Wristwatch." Just don't. You wallet will never forgive you. Mine hasn't.

    Thanks for another fun and interesting post!

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  8. Robert Konshak02 April, 2023 08:35

    I collect vintage men's dress shoes, and several of the people in that community also collect vintage watches. Definitely another rabbit hole to fall down. $$$

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  9. Steve: you might be interested in the  Casio DC-830, an always-on credit card sized thing with clock and date. It also does phone numbers, and schedules.

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    1. Thanks, I will take a look. They look similar to the Casio I have already!

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  10. Ah, righto, I thought when you mentioned digital diary you meant the clamshell ones - my apols if it's a wild goose chase

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