My Father's Old Watch

In 1958, my great grandfather, Fredolin Agcaoili, and great grandmother, Emilia Agcaoili, went to the USA for vacation. They are from the Philippines. While on vacation, Fredolin bought 2 watches. One for him and for Emilia. He bought for himself an Omega Seamaster Automatic and a Jaeger-LeCoultre for his wife. These were very luxurious watches at that time.

The Omega Seamaster is mostly in the shade of gold. The face of the watch is lighter in colour. The numbers 6 and 12 are shown, while the rest are markers. The word “Omega Automatic” and the brand symbol are below the number 12. While the word “Seamaster” is above number 6. This is an automatic watch meaning, it does not need batteries. Instead, it uses the natural movement of the wearer to power the watch. My grandfather had his name engraved in cursive at the back of the watch.

The watch was passed down to their daughter, Gloria Agcaoili Corpus who is my grandmother. She used the watch went she went to college during the years 1971 to 1976. After that, it was forgotten.

My grandmother gave birth to my father, Albert Agcaoili Corpus in 1980. He was born inside the house and was only assisted by a friend of my great grandmother. From that day on, my great grandfather made my dad say, “This is my house. I was born here.”

My family is currently living in Malta now. In 2019, when my family went on vacation in the Philippines, there was a strong typhoon which flooded the house. While my dad was helping cleaning the house, he came across a watch box. Inside the box were both watches. The Omega Seamaster was not running, and the strap was old and tattered. He asked if he could take the Omega Seamaster to Malta to have it repaired.

Now, the watch is with my family and someday I will inherit it. It is a reminder that I have still have a home in the Philippines even though right now I am very far away.