Imagine you’re stranded on an uninhabited island.
You don’t know when help will arrive, or if it ever will, but you’ve got the basics of survival down. There’s enough water to sustain you. You have some form of shelter. Eating means embracing your natural instincts and hunting and foraging.
The watch on your wrist during this imaginative ordeal? That’s your ”desert island watch.” Though I have to note, it should probably be called the ”deserted island watch,” unless you really are on island that hosts a desert climate.
This thought exercise seems to crop up time and again in watch enthusiast circles (and other hobbyist circles, as well). The question, ”What watch would you bring if you were stranded on an island?” is a philosophical thought exercise to not only pare down a watch collection to just one, but an examination of the way we enjoy watches. It’s about ourselves as much as it’s about the watch.