My Life in Swatches: St. Germain
This is the second Swatch I bought. Back in 1989, the money to buy a Swatch felt like SO much and I spend days deciding which one to get. I only consider two of my Swatches to be “beloved,” and St. Germain is one of them.
I must have looked at that band a million times. I had this watch when I was in college and I remember thinking how mature it was: the handwriting, the French words on the face, and the mysterious picture of a girl in a long coat. Depending on how the hands swing, the watch can read one of twenty four things:
- Tu es magique. – You are magical.
- Je te veux magique. – I want your magic.
- Tu es absolu. – You are absolute.
- Je te veux absolu. – I want you absolutely.
- Tu es univers. – You are universal.
- Je te veux univers. – I want you universally.
- Tu es temporel. – You are temporal.
- Je te veux temporel. – I want you temporally.
- Tu es espoir. – You are hope.
- Je te veux espoir. – I want you hopefully
- Tu es rever. – You are a dream.
- Je te veux rever. – I want to dream about you.
- Tu es enigme. – You are an enigma.
- Je te veux enigme. – I want you enigmatically.
- Tu es illusion. – You are an illusion.
- Je te veux illusion. – I want your illusion.
- Tu es obscur. – You are obscure.
- Je te veux obscur. – I want your obscurity.
- Tu es desir. – You are desire.
- Je te veux desir. – I want your desire.
- Tu es hasard. – You are chance.
- Je te veux hasard. – I want your chances.
- Tu es vertige. – You are giddy.
- Je te veux vertige. – I want your giddiness.
Before Yahoo! Babelfish, I used to just sit there looking at the face of the watch, trying to guess what each phrase meant. With a good training in Latin languages, I was able to figure out almost all of them.
The original band for my beloved St. Germain finally cracked and broke (I still have it). Luckily, I was able to find a replacement band (shown here).
In the end, this is STILL one of my favorite watches to wear, either with this band or a plain black one.
I wrote another entry about this watch here:
hello, I would like to thank you for this page. i’ve been looking for this swatch for ages. it was my first watch when i was young and i lost it years later … never heard of it before today :-) thank you gerald
Comment by Gerald — 3/18/2010 @ 1:32 pm