Battery Life

Way back in 2003 I had the misfortune to spend a bit of time at the duty free in Dubai airport. I was on the way from Tanzania to Turkey to start work for Oasis Overland with my good friend Emily Newman. We were both very excited to be off to Turkey and yet really bored to be stuck in Dubai so as a way to chew up the time we hit the duty free stores. They were massive and, like casinos and other duty free areas, hid all of the signs of the outside world. It was a shiny, sparkly glass and chrome set-up with no hint of what time of day or night it might be. Eventually we ended up purchasing a watch each. After all, why not?

Emily went for an oversized Casio Pathfinder series watch with multiple bells and whistles: altimeter, barometer, thermometer, stop watch, compass, alarms ....


I went for a Tissot T-Touch. With almost as many bells and even a couple more whistles, the only major difference seemed to be the T-Touch's touch screen activation of fuctions versus the Casio's solar power. I took great delight in showing off the touch screen, while Emily kept reminding me that one day I'd need to replace the battery while her watch kept on going.

Well that day's come. Nearly six years later I've had the battery replaced. And what of Em's watch? Well a couple fo years ago it started to lose a few of the bells and whistles as one by one the functions started to play up and now the watch is in the hands on her nephew.

I still love the T-Touch even if it's on its second battery and doesn't tell me the day of the week. I'll be interested to see if it survives another six years.