Some things acquire meaning from their timing. This watch was purchased in an interlude of sanity between an MC Escher moment and a high-speed car chase on the autobahn that ended with a German polizist pulling a gun at us.
I was walking around Berlin. A friend had mentioned a house near the Alexanderplatz station, which the owner has refused to repair since the Second World War, even withstanding the construction boom since Germany’s reunification. Close to the house were immigrants selling Soviet memorabilia. I picked up a range of knick-knacks, including a button-sized badge with Nehru, rose and all.
But this was the prize for € 45: a wind-up watch with Stalin on a 24-hour dial. The second knob rotates a ring around the dial with an arrangement of the world’s largest cities; it’s supposed to indicate something, perhaps the time in several cities. How it works, I do not know. I’m waiting for a clue to reveal itself. In time.