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| 2012 $4000 Baume and Mercier |
The other day while at a lunch with two friends, one of them asked me the time. She saw I was wearing a wrist watch and asked. Does this seem strange to you? Neither of my friends were wearing watches ,and both had their cell phones politely put away while we ate. The moment came and went and our conversation didn’t even touch on her query. However, later that evening I thought about wristwatches.
Back before the invention of clocks people would just meet up in the “early afternoon” or “after sunset” there was no 10 o’clock in the morning, nor was there the need to be at work on time because you worked most the day. Time was just a general concept. Today as your walk around your house you see a clock on every electrical appliance.
In 2010 NPR reported that despite meager sales previous years, wrist watches were making a comeback.
“The overall watch business and the watch industry have been experiencing an unusual growth this year … it’s explosive, and people who’ve been in the industry for 20, 30 years have never seen numbers like this, the watch has become the “it” accessory of the year.”
The article goes on to say the buyers of watches were teenagers and 20 somethings wearing them most likely as a fashion statement not for its obvious practical application.
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| Analog Motorola DynaTAC 8000X Advanced Mobile Phone System 1980 |
Are cell phones the new watches?
In addition to telling time, watches helped girls, and the occasional car salesman, figure out who they were dealing with. Remember the advice girlfriends would give about how to tell if a man had money- simply look at his shoes and his watch. Possibly good advice up until about 1985. Later, mobile phones started to make their mark. Just having a phone that was not connected to a wall was high tech. Who cared if it was the size of your arm! A phone in your car was also a big statement, sparking the sale of FAKE car phone antennas. Then in the early 00’s hot phone designs could give you a clue about a persons wealth such as the flip phones or the Razor; the smaller and thinner the phone, the more expensive. The bluetooth headset fad came and went, but its practical “hands-free” feature will keep it around for a while to aid all multi-taskers at large.
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| Rubber Band turns your iPod nano into a colorful watch that is animal friendly and recession friendly |
Now it’s 2012- what’s a girl to do? Most phones look the same and most guys do not wear watches. Asking a guy “What kind of phone package ya got?” just doesn’t work. Perhaps it’s time that techno-toys and other high cost accessories stop being used as social status indicators. Can Americans move pass the superficial?
Regardless, the future of watches is bleak, much like, newspapers on paper, television over the air, radios and radio stations, keyboards with buttons and well… the snuggie. The snuggie does not save me any time, free up my hands or help me to enjoy a snack. It’s a blanket not a miracle made of fleece. If folks in the future wear bands around their wrist it will most likely be to hold something like their iPod Nano.
Back in March I moved into a new place. I’m starting over from scratch and own very little. While furniture shopping I saw an attractive wall clock. For a second, possibly two, not sure… because I left my watch at home, I considered buying it. I kept walking turning my attention elsewhere; I wasn’t in a nostalgic mood. Perhaps there was a sale on floor globes- the kind with sea monsters on them! Now THAT would be cool in the den!
http://www.npr.org/2010/11/08/131163403/its-time-the-wristwatch-makes-a-comeback
shannon p. laws 