Requiem for the Wristwatch?

“Does anybody really know what time it is?
Does anybody really care?
If so I can’t imagine why
We’ve all got time enough to cry”
Robert Lamm - Chicago

I’ll admit it. I’ve fallen a little behind the times lately. I was in the waiting area of a major medical center when I first noticed it. There was something missing on the wrists of many passersby. As I made my way to the hospital cafeteria I grew even more concerned. I checked my watch. It was still there. Only now it seems I may soon be in the minority. There was a time when most of us never left the house without wearing a wristwatch. I remember when forgetting my watch would ruin my entire day. Would the executives I ran across in meetings and in the hallways notice I was without a timepiece? Would they suspect that I was a footloose and fancy-free sort who wasn’t concerned about being on time?
Well, times certainly do change. One of the reasons fewer people are wearing watches these days is that they have so many other options, PDAs and cell phones for example. But even if you’re just sitting at home there’s rarely a need to get up and check the time. It’s right there on your TV, it’s in the lower right hand corner of your laptop. Your microwave, your coffee maker, refrigerator, stereo and your DVD player all tell time. Start your car and you’ll get the time.
In our house we have no fewer than 21 gadgets that give us the time. Of those, only 7 are exclusively time pieces. The rest do the job they were intended to do and give us the time as a little bonus. Some people are afraid of thunder and lightening. Not me. What I live in mortal fear of is a power failure. Thankfully it doesn’t happen often but when it does it takes me a week to get all my timepieces synchronized again. It’s murder. Switching back to standard time last week was another nightmare. I think we’re completely synchronized now. Wait! The golf ball clock…
There’s another reason why people don’t need watches the way they once did. We live in a much more casual world than we did 50 years ago. Workers used to routinely punch a time clock. You could be fired for being late for work. Lunch and break times were strictly monitored and enforced. When was the last time you were reprimanded for not being at your desk by 8:00 A.M.? Have you signed out before lunch lately? I didn’t think so.
We don’t adhere to strict schedules the way we once did. Of course, there aren’t nearly as many of us producing widgets on an hourly basis anymore. Work today involves a great deal more mental productivity than physical output. Most of us don’t turn pieces of steel into something useful. We think, we communicate and we tap the result into a computer so it can be sent to other thinkers and tappers. Factory workers once did their work in the plant and left it there at day’s end. Modern workers are just as likely to get an idea at a cocktail party or at three a.m. There’s no way to control that. Time may still be money but it’s no longer limited to the day shift.
Activities outside of work also ran on schedule once upon a time. If you wanted to see your favorite evening news show at 6:00 P.M. you had to be in front of your TV set on time. Nowadays we have TiVo so there’s no need to worry. The appointed hour for many things isn’t as definite as it once was. You have a two o’clock doctor’s appointment? No worries. The only reason to be there by 2:00 is to improve your odds that the doctor will see you by 3:00.
As a practical matter wristwatches have been around since late in the seventeenth century. That’s a 300 plus year run. Is it over for the wristwatch? Thanks to evolution, I wouldn’t count out the watch yet. For one thing, watches still work as jewelry. Having a Rolex remains a noteworthy status symbol. And, creative technology and component miniaturization could give the watch new life. Already available are watches that combine a digital watch, music player, and video player in one unit. Some day we’ll probably use a wristwatch to control all those home appliances that also keep time for us. Will anybody really know what time it is? Care or not, you will.

Copyright 2008 Len Serafino. All rights reserved.