The inherited watch

Source A: an original contemporary non-fiction-style account.

My grandfather's watch loses several minutes a day. The repairer explained the options, including work that would cost more than a new watch. I did not need it to tell the time; my phone performed that task accurately and without winding. Yet I kept returning to the small scratches beside the clasp, where the metal had rubbed against years of ordinary sleeves and tables.

I chose a modest repair that made the watch usable without replacing every worn part. Wearing it is not a way of becoming my grandfather or preserving him unchanged. It is a reminder that an object can carry a history without being able to explain it. I ask relatives about the occasions on which they remember seeing it. Their answers matter more than whether the hands agree perfectly with my phone. The watch's value lies partly in the conversations it starts, not simply in the minutes it counts.

Source B: an original letter in a nineteenth-century voice. This is a period-voice simulation, not an archival document.

Dear Nephew, the watch I send belonged to your grandfather, and I hope you will use it rather than lock it away out of respect. It has been serviced and should keep reasonable time if attended to properly. You need not preserve every scratch as though wear itself were a sacred duty. An instrument honours its maker and its owner by continuing to perform its work.

I understand why old possessions invite tenderness. But affection can become a form of neglect when it makes us afraid to repair what is failing. Your grandfather had the chain replaced twice and would have laughed to find that later generations valued a broken link more highly than a sound one. Keep what connects you to him, certainly, but do not confuse connection with refusal to alter anything. Let the watch accompany new appointments and journeys. Its history will not be diminished because your life adds something to it.

Refer to the whole of both sources. Compare the writers’ perspectives on caring for an inherited watch and how they convey those perspectives. Support your comparison with evidence from both sources.