I've got my favourite watch back! For the last ten years I've not been parted from my Rado Ceramica Jubilé for more than a few hours while it gets a new battery, but recently the clasp suffered from wear and tear and stopped holding the strap shut.

Unlike my recent saga trying to get a new battery for my 18 month old Sony Vaio VGN-T27GP it turned out that a replacement, upgraded bracelet was available (it's assembled as a single unit to bind the ceramic of the strap to the metal of the buckle) but would have to come from Rado in Switzerland. This was going to take about a month.

As going even a few days without a watch was going to be hard, and as I had a business trip to make where I wanted to make a good impression the search was on! Luckily Mont Blanc have a very different watch - the Summit - with a very similar ethos.

Both of these time pieces have an ageless quality about them. They are simple, discrete and tasteful which to me is much more important than something brash that shouts about how much it costs or how cool and uber-hip it is.

The Rado, apart from it's little stay at the jewellers, has been a faithful companion for a decade. Hopefully these two will see me through every occasion for at least that long again.