Watch Wearing Wednesday: Relic "Moonphase" Quartz Watch

Last year, I revived my Relic "Moonphase" quartz watch (Model ZR15557).  It's not really a moon phase watch, but it has a complication that shows the moon at night and the sun during the day. It's a sophisticated look on a relatively inexpensive watch. I've been wearing it about and find that it still very comfortable, very readable, and quite the good looking watch. Here it is pictured below with a science kit for kids that doesn't sound like a great idea.

Relic Model ZR15557 with Sun Moon Complication

The watch also has additional subdials to tell you the day of the week and the date.  Unfortunately, I find those a little difficult to read without dedicated reading glasses. The watch has held up quite well in over a decade of ownership. I first wrote about it in this post way back "in the day." If I'm not careful, this watch will become vintage.  

Here's a nice close up of the subdials on this Relic watch.  You'll notice the rays of sunlight emanating from the sun.  I also like the chrome trim around the top two subdials and the nice detail of the marker batons.

Relic "Sun & Moon" watch subdials

If you are looking for Relic watches, they are sold at JC Penney and here on Amazon.com. Over the years, I've found that the Relic by Fossil brand provides a really good value for the price.

Is Time to Shop for Watches at the Mall Again?

Over the holidays, I had a chance to shop for watches at a shopping mall for the first time in ages. The experience made me wonder about how much malls have declined in favor of online shopping. It also made me wonder if it just might be time to start shopping at the mall once again.

In the 1980s and early 1990s, shopping malls were the place to be.  For teens and young adults, malls offered a great chance to get out, walk around, exercise independence, play video games, eat at the food court, interact, and shop for fashionable merchandise. For families, it was a place to get things they needed for family members of all ages and it co-located a number of merchants that had products families needed.

Fast forward 20 or 30 years. Now, everything we need is available for delivery at the click of a mouse. We can buy almost anything online. But, we can't buy one thing: a place to be. If all the brick-n-mortar stores are gone, where will we go when we leave the house? 

If you are looking for a nice place to hang out and you don't live at a beach or in the mountains, you might be out of luck. It's not like fast growing cities with valuable real estate are keeping up with the demand for public parks and public spaces. If you live in a big city, public spaces and parks seem to be overrun by drug abusers, mentally ill people, and the homeless. The parks that are nice aren't much fun when all 6 million people in a city seem to show up there at one time. Of course, the purpose of this blog isn't to solve all of these political issues.  That's something to debate elsewhere. But, I would suggest that we might just want to keep the option of hanging out at the mall. Amazon doesn't even have a food court.

The Jewelry and Watch Department at a JC Penney store in suburban Atlanta

Watch shoppers can benefit from seeing the merchandise. In visiting three malls in the Atlanta area, I found that there were excellent opportunities to see and potentially handle watches from many different brands. Prices for last minute shoppers were also in the same general range as Amazon prices. When it comes to more expensive watches, a visit to a department store or a jeweler can be invaluable. An in person visit is a good way to see if you really like a watch. Next time you want to buy a watch or get a watch battery replaced, you might want to pop down to the mall.