The Purpose of the Watch

I was walking in the desert one day, a casual stroll, when I came across two peculiar objects. I saw a tortoise on its back, struggling in the sun to turn over. I watched for a while, then helped the tortoise to its feet and it walked slowly away into the distance.

The other object I made out shone in the sun, a golden, pleasant shine. I picked it up and it became apparent that what I was holding in my hand was a watch, a gold pocket watch.

I thought to myself how intricately designed the timepiece was and how strange for it to be just sitting out in the desert like it was. It wasn't running and as I started to wind it up, I began to wonder who might have dropped it. Then I wondered who it was that might have made this golden watch, its creator. I soon looked past this however and began wondering about timekeeping objects in general, all watch kind, how well they are doing in the world and how they are prospering in a continuously changing world, adapting to their environment.

I contemplated the many millions of timepieces in the world, their origins and their future. I began to wonder about their purpose. I looked at the gold watch in my hand and thought to myself, it was most likely made to tell the time. But the more I thought about this and everything else, the less it seemed to make sense.

I noticed there was a message engraved on the back of the watch that I could make out as saying, "I am what I am". This seemed to me a strange phrase to engrave on a watch. I thought perhaps that the watch simply was what it was, its purpose being nothing than to simply be. The flourish of timepieces observable since early hourglasses and water timers to modern digital watches can be attributable to the fact that these devices are good at surviving in their environment by doing nothing but what comes naturally, indicating the flow of time.

I finally realised that the watch I was holding wasn't created to tell the time, it tells the time because that is one of the prerequisites of it creation. Watches that do not tell the time accurately, soon become extinct.

By that time, I had wound the watch all the way and I was tired of thinking. I let go, held it to my ear and listened. There was no ticking. "It must be broken", I thought. I looked up and saw the tortoise walking away further into the distance.