In his short story “My Watch,” Mark Twain tells about his favorite watch and how it stopped working. Yet, in telling this story, Twain contemplates the importance of discernment regarding all aspects of life. In his particular case, he emphasizes discernment regarding people’s reliability and an item’s ultimate value.
To Watch
Twain buys a new watch and revels in its splendid machinery, which provides him with the accurate time of day. This marvelous watch, he says, lasts 18 months without growing too fast or too slow. It proves always accurate and reliable, so much so that Twain begins “to consider its constitution and its anatomy imperishable.”But, alas, one night, he fails to wind the watch back up, so it “runs down.” Twain believes this unwinding forebodes bad things to come. After all, if his imperishable watch has failed, doesn’t that suggest something awful? Twain pushes these superstitions aside and rewinds the watch. When he gets a chance, he takes it into a jeweler’s shop to get the time set accurately.
