back story
keith moskow (at right)
and Robert Linn credit a plug
from the National Association
of Watch and Clock Collectors
for a spike in donations to the
Thousand Watch Project, but
most responses are from posts
on the classified-ad website
Craigslist.org. The most
far-flung watch arrived via
airmail (below) from an
Australian donor who heard
about the project on a local
radio station.
MAIN PHO TO B Y KELLY DAVIDSON, MOSKO W-LINN PHO TO B Y JORG ME YER
clock watchers
Robert Linn and Keith Moskow are serious architects.
Their eponymous Boston firm has landed numerous
national and local awards, including the winning
design for the 9/11 memorial at Logan Airport. Still,
their avant thinking can take a quirky, some might
even say cosmic, turn. Namely, the Thousand Watch
Project. “With the advent of cell phones,” Moskow
posits, “wristwatches are dying a slow death.” So
last August, he and Linn started collecting beat-up
wristwatches destined for the landfill. To meet their
goal of 1,000, they’ve put out a worldwide call asking
individuals to send old watches, with short epitaphs
that have turned out to be equal parts humor and
poignancy, to the firm to be cataloged. (View the
growing collection at
moskowlinn.com/tkwp.) So far,
they’ve amassed more than 500 timepieces. When the
project is complete, they hope to donate the collection to
the Smithsonian. All in due time. —molly jane quinn
