I bought my first mechanical watch back when we were living in Australia for those couple of years. It was a Flieger 47 from the Australian brand Panzera, and it sparked my love of pilot watches.

Talk to my family and friends, and they’ll tell you I never bloody stop talking about the IWC Big Pilot 43 watch that I bought to celebrate my 60th in November. Mechanical watches are all over my social media feeds, and the other day I did a double-take when the algorithm suggested I might like a new design from, of all companies, Timex.

I’m not entirely sure how it happened, but it was yours truly’s 60th last week. I spent it in Germany with Sue and Alex and one of the highlights of the trip was buying a watch to celebrate that big birthday.