Ben
"When I turned 18 my parents gave me a lump sum of money for me to buy something so to remember the birthday; something that would last, a sort of investment. Instead, it was spent on alcohol and nights out. I told my parents that I hadn't seen anything I'd liked, but never did buy anything substantial and found myself feeling pretty guilty when the sum eventually ran out.
"It wasn't until last year when my mother lost her job as the school she worked at had to close, that I bought the watch. She received some redundancy money, split it between me and my sister and said that we should spend it on whatever we fancied.
"I thought it'd be fitting to finally invest in something worthwhile to make up for being so wasteful a few years back. I had been looking into a gold watch with a mesh strap for a good while and saw it as a means to have something nice come from a not so nice time.
"My mum approved. She also found another job soon after."
Photos: Elise Tel