If you’re into dancing you know just how many dancing venues and ballrooms are named “Starlight”, or more likely the 50’s kitsch version, “Starlite.” In almost any town with a dance community you’ll find one. We have one right around the corner, and it is one of our favorite places to go. It’s not fancy or historic, but the place boasts a fabulous floor, wonderful people, and good music.
Interestingly enough, there were lots more “Starlite” places to go in the 50s; hotels, lounges, restaurants. Items too claimed the name, china, dress makers, and…wrist watches.
At this point you may be thinking and what do vintage wrist watches have to do with dancing? Do I have to say again dancing encompasses everything? J What happened was this: since I now work from home I no longer wear a watch everyday; I have a clock by my desk, I have one on my computer. And often times when I go out dancing I’d rather wear a bling-y bracelet. Saying that, I wanted a pretty watch to wear dancing now and then. I have lots of watches. I love them. But mine are mostly sporty and/or clunky, and I wanted something elegant.
What I didn’t want is another battery watch. The batteries just don’t seem to last, and it gets expensive to keep changing them. So I started looking in antique stores and on ebay for wind up watches. Unless they have diamonds or are solid gold, you can get them pretty cheap, under twenty bucks. No one, it seems, wants to wind a watch every day anymore. I found lots of neat ones, but the brand that caught my eye was called Starlite, by Elgin.
Elgin is a long respect name in watch making, but in the mid fifties the company began to suffer. They resisted mass produced items, until a desperate president hired a business consultant. He told them that Elgin could produce a cheaper version and STILL be the best watch maker. And so they did. One of those brands launched in the 50s was named Starlite, a cocktail watch designed for ladies to go out in: pretty, dainty, and delicate. Sold. I bought a perfect one for 15 dollars. It says Starlite in beautiful script across the face. Sigh.
Interestingly enough, there were lots more “Starlite” places to go in the 50s; hotels, lounges, restaurants. Items too claimed the name, china, dress makers, and…wrist watches.
At this point you may be thinking and what do vintage wrist watches have to do with dancing? Do I have to say again dancing encompasses everything? J What happened was this: since I now work from home I no longer wear a watch everyday; I have a clock by my desk, I have one on my computer. And often times when I go out dancing I’d rather wear a bling-y bracelet. Saying that, I wanted a pretty watch to wear dancing now and then. I have lots of watches. I love them. But mine are mostly sporty and/or clunky, and I wanted something elegant.
What I didn’t want is another battery watch. The batteries just don’t seem to last, and it gets expensive to keep changing them. So I started looking in antique stores and on ebay for wind up watches. Unless they have diamonds or are solid gold, you can get them pretty cheap, under twenty bucks. No one, it seems, wants to wind a watch every day anymore. I found lots of neat ones, but the brand that caught my eye was called Starlite, by Elgin.Elgin is a long respect name in watch making, but in the mid fifties the company began to suffer. They resisted mass produced items, until a desperate president hired a business consultant. He told them that Elgin could produce a cheaper version and STILL be the best watch maker. And so they did. One of those brands launched in the 50s was named Starlite, a cocktail watch designed for ladies to go out in: pretty, dainty, and delicate. Sold. I bought a perfect one for 15 dollars. It says Starlite in beautiful script across the face. Sigh.
For me, a watch like that brings back another era; a time when men and women got dressed up to go out, men in suits and women in gloves and dresses. A time when couples went out for dinner and dancing as a normal part of life. A time when a woman sat down at her dressing table and applied rouge, not blush, perfume, not body splash, and slowly wound her wrist watch, dreaming of the night in front of her.
So OK, I’m probably making all of that up. But I wonder, do we truly not have time to wind a watch? I find it rather magical…each small click storing up time to be slowly released, tick by precious tick, as I enter a night filled with starlight, real, or shining down from an enchanted ballroom.
Starlight, star bright
First star I see tonight
I wish I may
I wish I mightHave the wish I wish tonight.
So OK, I’m probably making all of that up. But I wonder, do we truly not have time to wind a watch? I find it rather magical…each small click storing up time to be slowly released, tick by precious tick, as I enter a night filled with starlight, real, or shining down from an enchanted ballroom.
Starlight, star bright
First star I see tonight
I wish I may
I wish I mightHave the wish I wish tonight.
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