Michelle and I already know about a couple of the Christmas presents we’re getting each other.

For years now the chain on my MedicAlert bracelet has been broken. I’ve refused to get a new bracelet, because I don’t like the look of the faceplate that they’re making now. Instead, I’ve been wanting to get a new chain for the plate I already have. Whenever I’ve gone to jewellers I’ve been given odd stares when I’ve asked if they could just supply me a chain, rather than a new bracelet altogether. Personally, I don’t think that this is so “strange” and that any good jeweller shouldn’t have any problem taking my money to work on a custom built chain for me. No doubt if I were still living in Toronto I’d be able to find somebody who would do this. At one point, I even went so far as to buy elastic thread and use it as a chain. It worked quite well for a couple of months until it frayed and broke.

Anyway, the bottom line is that I haven’t been wearing my MedicAlert bracelet for a couple of years now – much to Michelle’s consternation. (While I’d rather wear it than not, I don’t see it as a big deal since my only condition is being allergic to penicillin. I can’t really see myself getting into some kind of trouble where this would be given to me and I wouldn’t be able to communicate to the doctors that they should refrain from doing so.)

So, in an attempt to get me to wear something, she decided to buy me a MedicAlert watch for my Christmas present – and give it to me early. I thought that this was pretty cool and said that I’d wear it. I’m wearing it now in fact, and have “retired” the basic automatic Seiko I’ve had for the past year.

There are pros and cons between the two.

The colour scheme of the MedicAlert watch face and hands is terrible. It’s a kind of silver on white that makes it very difficult to read the time unless you’re looking at it at the right angle with light on it. The only thing that really stands out is the bright red “MedicAlert” text and logo. I suppose that’s a good thing if you want doctors to notice it – but in terms of functionality (actually telling the time) I have no idea why they couldn’t have coloured the rest of the watch hands and hour/minute stops in the same red, or at least black. My Seiko had a much better contrast, and was actually luminescent so that the hands would glow in the dark for a while after having absorbed sunlight. (Which, if you think about it, should sort of be a “no brainer” feature of a solar powered watch.) I had no problem at all telling the time with it.

On the other hand, the MedicAlert is far slimmer and lighter than the Seiko. (In part because the Seiko was an automatic, and there’s a certain amount of technology behind that mechanism that makes it bulkier.) I like the band on the MedicAlert a lot more – and I’m hardly aware of the fact that I’m wearing it. Additionally, because it isn’t an automatic, and has no spring mechanism that winds, I don’t hear it ticking when I’m sleeping at night as I did with my Seiko. That ticking would be annoying and I often had to reposition my left hand so that I couldn’t hear it.

I haven’t yet worn the MedicAlert long enough to know if it keeps time better than the Seiko. I suspect that it will, just because of the technlogies involved and the fact that my Seiko was a bottom of the line automatic that I really couldn’t expect wonders from given how much money I’d spent on it. (Unlike this fancier, and more expensive, model that I’d originally wanted.)

On the whole, I do like the MedicAlert watch more than the Seiko (I think it was a great Christmas present). But, if I were to score them, it would edge it out only by a couple of points. It’s more aesthetically pleasing, even if functionally lacking. I consider the lack of a properly legible watch face to be almost unforgivable. What in the world were they thinking when they designed it?

In the future, I think that I’ll stick with solar powered watches – despite my bad experience with the first one I had that made me swear off of them for a while – just because of their lighter weight and the lack of any ticking that would keep me awake at night. But I’ll be wearing this one at least until I can get just a new chain for my existing original MedicAlert bracelet, or until MedicAlert comes out with an updated version of their watch that improves upon the legibility of its watch face.

However, I’m not keeping count of the days until either of those things happens. At the moment, I’m quite happy with the watch I have – and I think I’ll be keeping it for several years at least.