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The future is now: "Last year while writing about students entering their first year of college I made an interesting observation: these newly commissioned freshman don’t use wristwatches. In fact, the wristwatch is so alien to this group of late teens, that even the mere action of pointing to a wrist to ask someone the time is akin to speaking an unfamiliar foreign language. (They use mobile phones and laptops to tell the time.)"
yes, i need just one more piece of technological gadgetry to make my life complete.
I bought a wristwatch for the first time in years last summer after having to fly three out of four weekends. I started going crazy, not being able to know what time it was while I was in the air. While I was wearing it, I felt it gave me a much-needed air of gravitas.
Of course, two months ago, a tiny piece of the face broke off and is now interfering with the movement of the hands, so the whole thing is useless. Stupid piece of lousy junk.
I've been out of college about a year and a half and this caused me a small problem. I always used my phone for time, but now I'm a teacher and pulling your phone out in the middle of class is frowned upon… so I just don't tell time anymore.
Ha? What kind of classroom doesn't have a large clock in it?!?
Yeah, I get this running seminars for undergraduates (and no, the room hasn't got a clock): there's a huge difference between checking the time and seemingly checking for messages during a student's presentation.
The action of pointing to one's wrist will now mean "check for skin cancer."
A few months ago it was grade school code for "where are your silly bands?" Now it's lost meaning for the K-5 set.
Very funny! Thanks for the unexpected belly laugh!
On the plus side, nobody will ever have to noogie anyone again for answering that "It's a freckle past a hair."
As you know, I'm quite old, so I like, as the kids say, to be kickin it old school. Is that close?
Anyway. I carry an hourglass in my pocket. I had no idea how popular that would make me, in certain circles.
My sun dial works like a champ until sunset, at which point I just start counting.
Is that an hourglass in your pocket, or…?
Balk! I had to tell you that this morning while zoned out at a stoplight I 'came to' and saw the dark green jeep in front of me had a vanity plate which read simply: BALK. Needless to say I was thrilled for you.
My ultimate dream is to have a license plate named after me. But so far, "Famous Potatoes" is as close as I've gotten.
Thank you Ida.
A few years ago, my father noticed that both a gay colleague of his and I used our phones to tell the time (instead of a watch) and asked me if it was a 'gay thing' – oh Dad.
You told him it was, didn't you.
Dad was looking for any opportunity to come out to you.
Eww! My dad's a Fossil.
He's tightly wound.
What an awkward conversation. Did he say anything to save face?
As an old who feels naked without a watch, I wish more people would recognize the value of a watch not just as a timepiece, but as an accessory or piece of jewelry. I've gotten so many comments over the years because while I can't dress myself to save my life, apparently I am really good at picking out cool watches that get people's attention. My dream is to one day be rich enough to buy a Cartier I have long coveted, but I know even if someone dropped a big bag of money on my doorstep, I'd still actually be too cheap to go through with it.
While you're waiting on that bag of money, try Swatches. I have a few with striking designs (tropical fish, Empire State building, cows) that always get compliments, and a nice sleek black one that looks sort of Movado-ish that I use for meetings with more conservative executives.
I am glad to know I am not the only person in the world who still owns Swatch watches.
but are we agreed that wearing one's wristwatch OVER one's shirtsleeves should be punishable by death? I'M LOOKING AT YOU, LAPO ELKANN.
I actually do have a whole bunch of Swatches but haven't worn them in ages. Right now I mostly wear a Skagen, although it's my second one – my first broke beyond repair, and they stopped making that model, and I was very sad because I loved it. My favorite watch ever was a Tissot wood watch that I wore in college, but I stopped because it had a leather band and those things get gross and have to be replaced too often.
@Wookie: Yes, that is not right. Also, sounds very uncomfortable.
I had a Swatch in the mid-90s with a micro-chip that apparently could be used for ski-lifts I was just thinking how hi-tech I thought that was at the time.
Once, while drunk, I asked a stranger if I could try on his Cartier watch. I only wish that this weren't before the ubiquity of camera-phones :(
There's still a Swatch store on the Santa Monica Promenade, just fyi… If you happen to be in the area…
I sometimes wear a watch and I still use my phone to tell time…
I'm embarassed to admit that since my watch battery died over a month ago I've gotten used to taking out my cell phone to tell time.
My parents bought me a very nice watch a year ago but it's too big for my wrist. It's been in its case ever since because I'm too lazy to find a jewelry store that will take out a few links. So, cell phone or computer clock all the way for me.
But then I remembered that I like to wear time on my wrist.
One of my students looked at me looking at my watch and said, "I can tell how old you are." I didn'tknow whether to be pissed or enchanted, so I went with enchanted.
But you told the kid to go fuck him/herself first, right?
I own three watches, I feel very grown-up saying that. Especially these days apparently.
Well, yes, I did. "Enchanted" came later.
I forgot how to read time on my watch. I wear it to not look like a student anymore.
I will never understand people who do not wear a watch. It's like sweatpants or knitting in public; a way of telling the world you just give up. Which is fine as far as it goes but it doesn't go far.
You really know you've given up when you don't wear your watch as you knit a pair of sweatpants in public.
The whole reason to knit in public is to keep people from sitting next to you on the damn subway. I thought that was obvious. People are not irrationally afraid of getting stabbed in the arm by a wristwatch.
It's been a couple years since I left New York but back then you could always just ask someone nicely not to sit next to you and that was fine. Blacking up worked, too. Racial!
Last year while writing about students entering their first year of college I made an interesting observation…
I THINK WE THE READERS WILL DECIDE WHAT IS AND IS NOT INTERESTING MR. NEW YORK TIMES REPORTER.
Also, my mom used to love watches as a fashion accessory and I would always get her one for Christmas but then she retired and she was like "Hell, I don't need to know what time it is anymore" and stopped wearing them. So it's not just the Youngs, I guess?
Fuck, I guess I shouldn't even mention my POCKET WATCH.
No pocket watches are useless enough that they are ironic.
Unless you're The Doctor.
I haven't worn a watch for a long time, since my allergy to metal really flared up when I was about 8 and wearing a watch with a metal clasp resulted in a mucky mess on my wrist. (wearing plastic ones in a hot country doesn't work that well either)
This meant I had to find a range of techniques to find out what the time is. They are all amazingly mundane – banks often have a clock on foreign exchange displays in their windows! – but also quite a lot of the time I adopted a tilt of the head and surreptitiously read other people's watches, so for all of the watch impaired like me, I beg of you to not give up your wrist displays.
I actually just got soooo irritated with my ex last night because of how loud his wrist watch was. Every second, the sound of mechanisms clicking–my god.
@garge–that invites the question of how/why you were so close to your ex that you could hear his watch ticking, no?
Just .. my life.
Yes, the life that is rapidly escaping you with every tick.
haha, I like it when random internet comments suggest a dramatic backstory.
There are SOOO MANY narratives here, actually.
I still buy funky looking ones, but I never wear them. So I have a shoeboxfull with dead batteries and no dorky wrist tanline.