I love a gadget. Perhaps not on the scale of people like Richard Ayaode or Jonathan Margolis but I do like good kit. So I thought once a week maybe I’d post about some gizmo — but to prevent me from just writing about new and shiny things though I thought I’d sticky to gadgets I’ve had for a while.

One of my favourite things is my Seiko Kinetic watch. I’ve had it for 15 years and probably worn it almost every day during that time. If I remember rightly it was £110 although I can’t remember where I bought it.

Seiko are an interesting company — certainly not as old as some of the Swiss watch companies but no spring chicken either. The company was formed in 1888 in what is now part of Tokyo but wasn’t really a watch company until the 1920s, they created the first Quartz watch in 1968 and their watches were worn on the first moon landing. The company is still to some extent family owned and run and actually has some products that are still vertically integrated — ie they make all the materials and components themselves.

The point of Kinetic watches was that they never need to be wound or have new batteries. They use the movement of day-to-day use to charge a capacitor which then powers the watch. My one has been hit, soaked but never given up or even lost any time to my knowledge. I’m told that I should really get it serviced and I probably will but overall it’s been a great bit of kit — a well-made, clever gadget that has lasted a good while.