a.k.a. V.J.

I go to a lot of antique stores these days. Usually, I just browse and don’t buy anything, but occasionally an item will speak to me and I’ll have to take it home. One such object on a recent trip was a 1970s era Snoopy watch.

When I was in elementary school, I was all about Peanuts. I had scores of the paperback compendiums of the daily and Sunday comics. As I got older, I eventually graduated to MAD Magazine, but I always retained a soft spot for the Peanuts gang. I never owned a Snoopy watch back in the day, but I probably wanted one.

Anyway, I saw the watch in the store and it was definitely showing its age. The crystal was all scuffed up and the case was grimy. If there’s one thing I like better than an antique, it’s an antique that I can fix up a bit and restore to its former glory. This project seemed like a worthy challenge.

Here are the before pics:

Here’s how it looked after cleaning up the case, buffing out the scratches on the crystal, and putting it on a new band:

The watch cleaned up rather nicely, if I do say so myself. It also keeps shockingly good time for a half-century old, hand-wound child’s wristwatch. I’m not sure how often I’ll wear it (although it would probably serve as a good conversation piece), but I enjoyed the project and dipping my toe back into childhood memories for a time.