Jan 1, 2025
Remembering John Weiss Through his Watches
Early in the morning on May 9th, 2024, my dad, John Starr Weiss, passed away at the age of 77. He was a very kind, creative, and crafty person who always had some outlet for his imagination. From wild psychedelic drawings to photography to inventing toys (he briefly co-owned a toy brand, Weiss Twice), making leather bracelets, custom phone holsters, and modifying his clothes and hats with contrasting buttons or zipper pulls. In his later years, he carved strange sculptures and figurines out of wood, part of a ritual that went with smoking his pipe. He shared this passion with me, and I thank him for my creative abilities. Growing up, we weren’t into sports, religion, or the great outdoors, save for a light hike on a walking trail at places like Mohonk Mountain House, scouring outcroppings of slate for fossils. Instead, we bonded over art and objects. We would walk around talking about cars on the street, going into stores ranging from sporting goods shops like Paragon- looking at the gear, boots, and knives- to comic book stores (Forbidden Planet was the favorite), as well as antique and craft shops where my Dad would spend an inordinate amount poring over every detail. He was a collector by nature, perhaps to a fault, so he would easily get lost in minutiae. While going through his things, we discovered his collections went beyond what we knew. They included items of pure nostalgia, like dated corks from New Year’s Eve decades ago, sandals he made in college, slides o...
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