Nostalgia: When Seiko 5 watch said you had money

The entry of the mobile phone, bragging an in-built clock, killed wristwatches, which back in the day were status symbols. Petty thieves often snatched gold-coated ones along Juja Road and it wasn’t uncommon to hear screams followed with ‘mwizi! mwizi!’ and a harambee of mob justice from an irate public when the thievery session was short-lived, after the kauzi was tegwad by someone who had watched too many Fu Sheng karate films.

Today, wristwatches are hardly snatched. But fundi wa saa is still in business, seeing as it is, there are Kenyans to whom a watch is not just for telling time. Lawyer Ahmed Nassir Abdullahi sports one worth Sh870,000.

That tells you something about the moola of the ‘Grand Mullah.’ Jeremy Awori (whose blood relations are featured on your right) is the Barclays Bank head honcho with several watches including one clocking four decades and costs pretty penny to get ‘checked.’

During the recent spat between Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr and his stepmother Nduku over starving lions at the family ranch, Junior told her that selling one of his dad’s watches could raise money to take care of the lions!

Indeed, if you see a man with a wristwatch, just know there is something different about him. If it’s an original Rolex, Omega, Patek Phillipe, Breitling, Tag Heur, Beume & Mercier, Breguet, Hublot or Cartier, it means he has class; knows his stuff. A Michael Kors or Kenneth Cole watch says you like watches but ‘pesa naleta shida!’

One of the most sought after watches was the Seiko 5, back in the day. A ‘certain community’ from Central Kenya called it Saiko Fae worn well with a Kenyatta leather Jacket and Godpapa hat that told the world you were on your way to hitting the financial mother lode.

The hoi polloi couldn’t afford Saiko Fae and sensing a gap in the market, the Seiko Watch Company launched the plastic Seiko in 1984. It was digital. It didn’t use majira like Saiko Fae. Kids loved it. It had a stopwatch, you know!