Christmas, time for children

In April this year, British papers reported that some of the country’s schools were removing analogue clocks from exam rooms after teenagers complained they didn’t know how to read the time from them. Ouch! So, should we laugh or cry? Ask what is the world coming to and rue the old days? Or take action to ensure that telling the time becomes as second nature for our children as it is for us? Our advice would be to slip into their Christmas stocking a watch that will make the big hand and the little hand their friends for life. It can be quartz, it can be plastic, it can be not Swiss: at the end of the day, all that matters is that it does its job: keeps time and teaches your kid how to tell it. From age 5 to age 18, follow the guide!

Age 5 - no time like the present

He still puts out cookies and milk for Santa. He gets yesterday mixed up with tomorrow, and tomorrow mixed up with today. Mealtime, bedtime and storytime are the only times he knows. He hasn’t learned to dress himself yet, but he can tie his laces since yesterday. And after opening his presents on Christmas morning, he’ll be able to learn to tell the time with his new Flik Flak, carefully chosen in his favourite colour or with his number-one superhero on the dial. Since 1987, the best-selling kids’ watch in the world has been helping little ones learn to read the time in an enjoyable way. Its bright, fun, takes all kinds of rough and tumble and, with a fabric strap, can be machine-washed at 40°C. The tick-tock of the Flik Flak is impossible to resist!

Age 13 – me, my friends and I

Only yesterday she was dressing her dolls; now she wants tickets to see Justin Timberlake. Your tween is convinced the world revolves around her own Very Important Person, while her brain appears to be stuck in “friends” mode. The only thing that matters beyond her slammed bedroom door are the other tweens she hangs out with. But you weren’t that different at her age, were you? So think fun, fashion and funky, and delight your not-so-terrible tween by putting a Swatch under the Christmas tree. Guaranteed she can’t wait to show her BFF!

Age 14 – give me a break!

Your son’s 2018 track record is a broken arm, a cracked collarbone, two sprained ankles and three smashed watches. Roll on 2019! In the mean time, kit out your skatepark hero with some urban armour: helmet, kneepads, wrist guards and a seriously tough watch. Which pretty much means a G-Shock. In 1981, so the story goes, after accidentally smashing the watch his father had given him, an engineer at Casio set about designing a truly indestructible timepiece. Two years later, having thrown more than 200 prototypes from the second-floor window of the Casio building in Tokyo, the G-Shock was born. For the past 35 years, it’s stood up to gravity, sub-zero temperatures, high pressure and magnetic fields. Enough to survive a few darkslides and a couple of heelflips!

Age 15 – keep moving

Mountaineering, skydiving, rafting, she’s done it all, or plans to. The girl has no fear. Shame you don’t feel the same way! For your outdoor addict who’d rather spend her weekend halfway up a cliff than window shopping with friends, best choose a robust watch. Fortunately, the I.N.O.X by Victorinox is now available as a 37mm diameter for slim wrists. After passing a battery of 130 endurance tests, you can rest assured it will survive anything your adventure-prone teen throws at it. There’s even an optional rubber bumper to protect the case. And if the going gets tough, Ms. MacGyver can rustle something up with the Naimakka Paracord strap. That and a Swiss army knife under the Christmas tree, and you can stop worrying (just about).

Age 16 - action, connection

His mobile phone is welded to his ear. As for Father Christmas, he stopped believing years ago when he caught you sneaking a Flik Flak under the tree. Now he’s decided to tell it straight: no more “surprises”, he wants a smartwatch. In which case, why not meet him in the middle with a TAG Heuer Connected Modular. Fully customisable, running on Android Wear, it does everything you would expect a smartwatch to do. As an added bonus, Junior can always swap out the connected module for a Calibre 5 three-hand module. A sneaky way to familiarise your kids with mechanical watches without them realising.

Age 17 – at last, the age of reason?

If Rimbaud had been around to meet your daughter, he’d have changed his mind about no-one being serious at seventeen. She’s into politics, reads the paper front to back and, as an advocate for animal welfare who glares as you tuck into your Christmas turkey, has gone vegan. Not a problem; you can give her a nice watch by Baume. Richemont’s newest brand is committed to ethical and sustainable manufacturing processes. It uses neither precious metals, precious stones nor leather in its watches, and packaging is made from recycled materials. None of which gets in the way of minimalist designs that particularly appeal to young women. It’s the perfect way to tell your kids you get them, without going as far as tofu and all the trimmings.

Age 18 – the future is now

You knew it. You never actually owned that watch. As the Patek Philippe ad so eloquently reminds us, you were looking after it for a future generation. And the future, as it happens, is today. Your son is 18 years old. From an early age, you instilled in him a love of watches. Now you can be Father Christmas and pass on the fabulous Calatrava that was given to you one Christmas by your father, who received it from his father, who… Because at the end of the day, isn’t sharing what Christmas is truly about?