The watch is one of my favorites, a Hamilton Ventura, and as a matter of
fact, there IS a story behind it.

Each time I finish working on a series, I buy myself a little item which
becomes tied to that experience. After finishing work on The Twilight Zone, I
was in an art deco store on Ventura Boulevard here in the valley. I spotted
that watch, and instantly fell in love with it, the design, the unusual shape,
and had to have it.

As I'm buying it, the dealer mentions that this watch just came on the
market, that it's a recreation from the same parts of the first electric watch
on the market, again, the Hamilton Ventura, which came out in the late 1950s.
This new but identical version had *just* come out a few weeks ago.

So he's giving me the whole long history, very knowledgeable guy, and in
the course of talking, he asks what I do. I mention that I'm a writer. He
perks up. See, he's been in the business a long time, and he sold this exact
same kind of watch to another TV writer, long time ago. "Who's that?" I ask.

"Rod Serling."

Suffice to say I was floored. I went home, dug through my books, and
right there in one of them -- I think it's the Joel Engle bio -- there's a
full-page shot of Rod, and you can see very clearly that the watch on his
wrist...is a Hamilton Ventura, identical to the one I'd just bought to
commemorate finishing working on The Twilight Zone.

I still wear it, now and again, for special occasions....

jms