A highlight of the British comedy show The Two Ronnies was Ronnie Corbett’s much loved, meandering, monologues. This was back in the early 1980s, and one such monologue, as it turned out, captured the zeitgeist for the watch industry. Its joke, here paraphrased, goes something like this... 

A man is dashing through the airport late for his plane and stops another man to ask the time. This second man puts down his two heavy suitcases, mops his brow and pulls back his sleeve. “Well,” he says, “the temperature in New Orleans right now is 82 degrees, England has just taken another wicket, my heart rate is up at 105 bpm - what with these cases - and I see my pizza is on its way. Oh, and the time is 10:52.”

The first man is stunned. “What an amazing watch,” he exclaims. “It just does so much. I must have it.” What follows is extensive haggling, with the first man offering ever more ludicrous sums, until the man with his function-packed watch gives in and hands it over. “I’m just so excited to have this incredible timepiece,” says the first man, putting it on. “I’ll never be late for anything again.” He starts to walk away to catch his flight. “Hang on!” the second man calls him, gesticulating with the two suitcases he’s struggling to lift up again. “Don’t you want the batteries?”

 

Jaeger-LeCoultre parking meter timer in The Complications Lost to Time for A Collected Man London

A parking meter timer is not the first thing in anyone’s mind when you think of complications.