I carry a phone that'll tell me the time. But I wear a wristwatch because I can tell the time at a glance. I don't have to dig in my pocket for the phone, open it, and peer at it. I can tell the time while driving, my watch is right there. I can tell the time while jogging without having a phone flapping around in my pocket. I can check the time when my hands are carrying things. I can unobtrusively check the time. I can read the big face with hands on a watch faster than I can read the numerals off of the rather busy face of my phone. The battery on my watch dies once a year. It dies every other day on my phone. I don't have to remember to charge my phone.
I.e. my phone tells the time, but it's a lousy watch.
The wristwatch is jewelry. Its primary purposes are adornment and display of wealth.
Your gadget just has to be cooler and more ostentatious than one of my present wristwatches. It's not about being useful. You don't have to do a better job of telling time, or run applications, or try to supplant my phone.
Agreed, watches are no longer for keeping time. Phones have long taken over that role.
In fact, my watch still gets worn after the battery died. (Hard to explain, but the OLED time shows up after a button press http://www.google.com/images?q=DZ7080)
(Tired counterexample to an overbroad generalization:)
I'm 22, and I wear a wristwatch. I wear an expensive wristwatch, actually, that's solar powered, radio synchronized, has a barometer, etc. If I had a wristwatch that merely told the time, however, I might not bother.
I'm 21 and I usually wear a wristwatch. I wear an expensive wristwatch, actually. All it does is tell the time. It isn't solar powered, it doesn't synchronize with a server somewhere based on nuclear time, it doesn't even have a chronometer. If it had more features and did something other than tell the time, however, I might not bother.
A purely mechanical wristwatch is a marvelous thing. I frequently use my phone to tell time, but when my Nexus One battery went dead on a long flight recently I was glad to have the spring-powered backup on my wrist.
I've never really figured out why wear a wristwatch. I think I last had one when I was in elementary school, early 90's. By high school I had dropped the habit.
I don't care about glamorous shiny and expensive things, so that's no reason to wear a watch, really.
I rarely need to check the time and whenever I do, I can usually just see it somewhere: the city is full of clocks, especially the places where you might want to know the time, like tram stops and subway stations.
When I'm at work my computer conveniently tells me the time so that I can appear at a meeting roughly on time.
If I really, really need to have the time then I can use my cellphone. Well, I don't have my cellphone with me all the time, so I can't always do that either. Especially if I'm going alone and have no rendezvous coming up, I don't have it.
If I'm cycling around on a summer day, that's usually without the watch I don't have and without the cellphone I don't want to carry with me, so I can usually tell when it will soon be the evening and to turn my heading back to home.
A few times I've just asked for the time. That's quite as low-tech as it goes.
I actually just recieved my Sony LiveView in the mail today. Worn like a watch, it's more of a phone accessory than anything else. I can get updates as to phone calls, messages, and twitter, all without pulling out my phone which is usually buried in my pocket or in my jacket pocket.
The wrist is prime real estate for devices now. If apple didn't have a plan for this, I'd be shocked.
I recently spent $1500 on a NOMOS Tangente wristwatch. The Tangente is a manual-wind, mechanical wristwatch with an in-house movement. Based on the comments I've seen so far, most of you will think I'm crazy.
I bought it partially because I just wanted a nice watch (the jewelry factor), but also because I didn't want to dig around in my pocket for my phone.
"But it's less accurate than a quartz watch!"
True, but absolute accuracy is not what I was going for when I bought the watch. When I look at it I'm looking more for the general position of the minute hand than exactly what minute it's on.
I find the ticking it makes to be calming and the exhibition back fascinating to look at. Taking 10 seconds in the morning to wind it to me is an enjoyable part of getting ready each day.
I'm sure some, or even many people will still think I'm crazy. C'est la vie.
Just today I was thinking again about how I wanted to find a watch that would make me happy. I have felt all my life that watches are unfortunate devices which shackle us to schedules, Time, work, etc. But since I'll be graduating and starting a job soon, there may be some semi-legitimate use for one. Checking cell phones for the time isn't ideal, though it generally suffices.
I traditionally gravitate towards nice analog watches and nothing else, the slimmer and less outrageous the better. If I were to buy something else, I might consider something zanier - like a watch that only told me the cycle of the moon - but I'm not sure what kind of statement I want to make. I find myself therefore caught in between two worlds of watch-wearing...
I spent the better part of the last decade without a wristwatch, mainly because I thought my phone was good enough.
However, about 2 years ago I reverted back to wearing a watch. I went with a Swatch Skin... extremely minimalist & thin watch that weighs almost nothing. As one of my friends described it, "it's not really a watch, but more like just having the time on your wrist".
I've really enjoyed not having to dig out my phone to check the time. I used to think the convenience was trivial and there was no reason to wear a watch... but I'm pretty sure I was wrong.
Some have attacked Kurzweil for considering his prediction that "People will be wearing computers in the form of jewelry and clothing" [1] as a successful prediction. But, if he wasn't correct in precise time, he certainly will be in form.
In fairness to those criticizing Kurzweil, the timing of his predictions _does_ matter, because he's arguing that technological growth is a fast exponential, leading to super-human intelligence by 2040 or so. So if he's off by 5 years on wearable computers, he might be off by 40 years in his ultimate prediction, or growth might be an s-curve instead of an exponential.
I stopped wearing a wristwatch since it is enormously uncomfortable typing on a laptop with one. I still keep one in my coat pocket, but I rarely use it anymore.
I wish I could get a nice, cheap pocket watch like the ones they used to use with a three piece suit.
I have been carrying a pocket watch for over a decade. They need not be that expensive; I bought one as a gift a couple of years ago for about £25 (~USD40). I guess it depends on the amount of niceness you require. They are readily available on the high street where I live, or on the net of course, so go and have a look.
I don't think that wristwatches are going away any time soon, due to their convenience factor, but they probably will accumulate more functionality and could be used in future as a digital wallet, a P2P data server or a phone.
"The eZ430-Chronos is a highly integrated, wearable wireless development system that comes in a sports watch. It may be used as a reference platform for watch systems, a personal display for personal area networks, as a wireless sensor node for remote data collection, or simply as a watch."
A week ago I got my first Android phone. One thing that my Nokia N86 did better was that I could hit the button on my headset and say, "What time is it?".
[+] [-] WalterBright|15 years ago|reply
I.e. my phone tells the time, but it's a lousy watch.
I'm old, too, and stuck in my ways. So there!
[+] [-] edanm|15 years ago|reply
Incidentally, this is one of the main advantages of not wearing a wristwatch - I'm less stressed about the time.
I do wear a wristwatch when jogging though.
[+] [-] haribilalic|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hapless|15 years ago|reply
Your gadget just has to be cooler and more ostentatious than one of my present wristwatches. It's not about being useful. You don't have to do a better job of telling time, or run applications, or try to supplant my phone.
[+] [-] rexf|15 years ago|reply
In fact, my watch still gets worn after the battery died. (Hard to explain, but the OLED time shows up after a button press http://www.google.com/images?q=DZ7080)
[+] [-] sbierwagen|15 years ago|reply
I'm 22, and I wear a wristwatch. I wear an expensive wristwatch, actually, that's solar powered, radio synchronized, has a barometer, etc. If I had a wristwatch that merely told the time, however, I might not bother.
[+] [-] Zev|15 years ago|reply
I'm 21 and I usually wear a wristwatch. I wear an expensive wristwatch, actually. All it does is tell the time. It isn't solar powered, it doesn't synchronize with a server somewhere based on nuclear time, it doesn't even have a chronometer. If it had more features and did something other than tell the time, however, I might not bother.
[+] [-] ratsbane|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Groxx|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bad_user|15 years ago|reply
I guess these people never played Doom.
[+] [-] yason|15 years ago|reply
I don't care about glamorous shiny and expensive things, so that's no reason to wear a watch, really.
I rarely need to check the time and whenever I do, I can usually just see it somewhere: the city is full of clocks, especially the places where you might want to know the time, like tram stops and subway stations.
When I'm at work my computer conveniently tells me the time so that I can appear at a meeting roughly on time.
If I really, really need to have the time then I can use my cellphone. Well, I don't have my cellphone with me all the time, so I can't always do that either. Especially if I'm going alone and have no rendezvous coming up, I don't have it.
If I'm cycling around on a summer day, that's usually without the watch I don't have and without the cellphone I don't want to carry with me, so I can usually tell when it will soon be the evening and to turn my heading back to home.
A few times I've just asked for the time. That's quite as low-tech as it goes.
[+] [-] ConceptDog|15 years ago|reply
The wrist is prime real estate for devices now. If apple didn't have a plan for this, I'd be shocked.
[+] [-] erohead|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] erso|15 years ago|reply
I bought it partially because I just wanted a nice watch (the jewelry factor), but also because I didn't want to dig around in my pocket for my phone.
"But it's less accurate than a quartz watch!"
True, but absolute accuracy is not what I was going for when I bought the watch. When I look at it I'm looking more for the general position of the minute hand than exactly what minute it's on.
I find the ticking it makes to be calming and the exhibition back fascinating to look at. Taking 10 seconds in the morning to wind it to me is an enjoyable part of getting ready each day.
I'm sure some, or even many people will still think I'm crazy. C'est la vie.
[+] [-] sabj|15 years ago|reply
I traditionally gravitate towards nice analog watches and nothing else, the slimmer and less outrageous the better. If I were to buy something else, I might consider something zanier - like a watch that only told me the cycle of the moon - but I'm not sure what kind of statement I want to make. I find myself therefore caught in between two worlds of watch-wearing...
[+] [-] jamesbkel|15 years ago|reply
However, about 2 years ago I reverted back to wearing a watch. I went with a Swatch Skin... extremely minimalist & thin watch that weighs almost nothing. As one of my friends described it, "it's not really a watch, but more like just having the time on your wrist".
I've really enjoyed not having to dig out my phone to check the time. I used to think the convenience was trivial and there was no reason to wear a watch... but I'm pretty sure I was wrong.
[+] [-] axiom|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ghshephard|15 years ago|reply
[1] http://singularityhub.com/2010/01/19/kurzweil-defends-predic...
[+] [-] ekidd|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] lotusleaf1987|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] d8niel|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tomjen3|15 years ago|reply
I wish I could get a nice, cheap pocket watch like the ones they used to use with a three piece suit.
[+] [-] zbyszek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] motters|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maayank|15 years ago|reply
If an inPulse watch had an accelerometer and could double as a WakeMate (connected to their iPhone app and website, etc.) it would be great.
Just sayin'...
[+] [-] pella|15 years ago|reply
"The eZ430-Chronos is a highly integrated, wearable wireless development system that comes in a sports watch. It may be used as a reference platform for watch systems, a personal display for personal area networks, as a wireless sensor node for remote data collection, or simply as a watch."
http://processors.wiki.ti.com/index.php/EZ430-Chronos
[+] [-] limmeau|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] metageek|15 years ago|reply
[+] [-] RK|15 years ago|reply