All I want for Christmas

My husband, from day one, has never ever hidden the fact that he doesn’t remember “important” dates, he hates giving flowers, and if I had something in particular I wanted as a gift – it’s best to tell him exactly what it is and say the words “I would like you to give it to me as a gift”, small hints like “I really like that, I sure wish I had it” wouldn’t hit home. That last one, as our relationship grew and I moved in with him, became “If you’d like me to get you something in particular as a gift, go buy it and I’ll pay you back”. Admittedly, this is not the most romantic portion of our relationship – I’ll just say that he more than makes up for this (in my mind) minor issue with soo, sooo … many other things!!!

So this year when Christmas rolled around, I really, honestly, thought I was going easy on the guy when I told him all I really want for Christmas is a simple watch, silver colored bracelet, modest in size, no diamonds or anything, with numbers actually printed on the face. That’s it. It seems, this watch could not be found! He said, well, I found a $15 Timex that matches that description, but I can’t give you a $15 watch as a gift! That kind of made me smile. First of all, he actually LOOKED for the watch and second even discerned that a cheap watch wasn’t the way to go! So, I said I’d find the one I wanted and let him know where to get it.

Well, for heaven’s sake I couldn’t find it either. Now if I had said, All I want for Christmas is large, gold, gawdy, watch encrusted with large diamonds and the designer’s logo plastered all over it and as large as possible… neither of us would have had to look very far. I’m positive this fits someone’s style, just really not mine. I finally resorted to a Google-search searching in the images section. Wham! I found it! The EXACT watch I wanted, exactly as I had pictured it in my mind (Pictured at the top of the article). So I click the image and view closer and find that it’s a Cartier watch. Well, I thought let’s go to the Cartier website and see how much it is. After all, how much could it possibly be with no diamonds, simple design and band?! Cartier, it seems, does not post it’s prices on-line. There’s a shop by my mom’s house in Chevy Chase, I thought, I’ll just pop in one day before Christmas and check it out. Then, I thought, I’m likely to talk myself into buying it no matter the price…better to at least try to find the ballpark on-line. It didn’t take much digging, but I thought what I found just HAD to be wrong! The price on this discounter/wholesaler’s website was $13,000!!!! What the hell?! Turns out the watch is 18k white gold, but still…really that seemed excessive. I walk into Cartier to look at the watch. Seems there’s a whole line of these “Tank” watches. There’s Tank Francaise and Tank Americaine and a few others. I found one of them to be over $200,000 (it was encrusted with tiny diamonds all around the band. Oh well, looks like I better settle for a $15 Timex!

Oh, and by the way, if any of you are looking to make me a very happy woman, the exact watch I want is the “Cartier Tank Americaine” in 18kt White Gold.