DIGITAL ISSUE | Wanted Watches, Jewels and Luxury 2022/23 special edition

Ed's Letter | Aspasia Karras

Sometimes you luck out in life. I was thinking about it this morning. You might not realise it as it is happening, because you are caught up in the relentless grip of the daily. And by daily, I mean all the Sisyphean tasks that make up your life. The same-same. The pushing of the rocks up the grinding slope of stuff you just have to do.

The stuff is not what dreams are made of. The deadlines, the meetings, the gnashing of the teeth against the tedium and the toil. But the luck is always working away in the background. You just have to recognise it for what it is. A little beacon of joy and pleasure and delight. Luck in all its sparkling, happy, unexpected pop-uppiness, generative and warm and bountiful — poking up its gloriously silly head just where you least expect it. But always making itself known, if only you’d care to notice.

Mine has been like a little diamond stone in my shoe (as opposed to on the sole), a niggling, abundant, sweet feeling tap-tapping me on the shoulder and demanding that I just pause and acknowledge it. My luck came years ago in the form of this bunch of maverick, creative, glorious people I have been working with for a very, very long time. Please forgive me if I don’t tell you precisely how long, because the luck will run out when they kill me for giving away our collective years in actual numbers.

My work family is like any family you might have witnessed in your own life. We are all here, with our marvels and our quirks and our warts in equal numbers. But, my god, do I count my blessings when I step into the office after these past few years when I wasn’t sure if we would be back here in the flesh or at all, and find these clever humans making beauty every day with grace and talent and a skilful verve that is second to none.

Read the Wanted Watches, Jewels and Luxury 2022/23 edition

This book is about watches and jewels — in the making of it we have come close to the essence of what makes something excellent and timeless and valuable. I can tell you without a doubt what that is for me: you can read every one of their names on the masthead. So, just saying — I count my lucky stars that I get to play with this glorious bunch of sparkling people every day. Your movements are spectacular.