One day, he placed two watches in front of her.
The first was a cheap fashion watch decorated with shiny stones.
The second was an old mechanical watch with a scratched steel case.
“Which one is better?”
She immediately pointed toward the shiny one.
“That.”
He smiled.
“Why?”
“It's prettier.”
He nodded.
Then opened the case backs.
He showed her the simple mechanism inside the first watch.
Then the intricate mechanical movement inside the second.
She stared.
The old watch contained dozens of tiny parts working together.
Her father smiled.
“Now which one do you think took more skill to make?”
She pointed toward the old watch.
He nodded.
“Exactly.”
Then he said something she never forgot.
“Never let the outside of something be the only reason you decide its value.”
She was eight.
She didn't understand how important those words would become.
Not yet.
Her father had been working on a special mechanism for years.
He called it the floating seconds project.
The idea was simple to describe but difficult to accomplish.
He wanted the seconds display to appear suspended inside the watch, creating the illusion that time was moving through empty space.
He studied different approaches.
Made drawings.
Built prototypes.
Changed the design repeatedly.
Sometimes the mechanism ran beautifully for several hours before stopping.
Sometimes a tiny component created too much friction.
Sometimes the arrangement worked but required more space than a practical wristwatch could provide.
He wasn't trying to imitate a luxury brand.
He was trying to solve a mechanical problem that fascinated him.
The girl loved watching the experiments.
One evening, he showed her a small brass bridge.
It was no larger than her thumbnail.
Three tiny notches marked one edge.
She leaned closer.
“What's that?”
He smiled.
“The part that's been giving me trouble.”
She frowned.
“Why?”