Truth in Advertising Department

[alexxkay]

I was talking with kestrell the other day about how wrist watches have largely become obsolete. Practically everyone has a cell phone and/or PDA which they can tell time with. The only real use for wrist watches now is as fashion. Or, I suppose, because you're so used to the idea of wearing one that you do it out of habit.

I was walking past a jewelry store recently, and glanced in the window. They were advertising a new line of Seiko watches. The brand name? "Citizen fossil".

Comments

[cvirtue.livejournal.com]

hate to tell you, but the "Fossil" line has been around for easily 15 years. This may be a new joint venture with Citizen watches, or a new design group in the Fossil line.

I used to wear a watch on my ankle. It didn't get in the way of my hands. And it was silly.

Signed, Cynthia the friendly nonpurple dinosaur

[gyzki.livejournal.com]

I do have a cell phone, but I find it much less convenient, when I want to check the time, to take my phone out and flip it open than it is to just cock my wrist and glance; needs more hands, among other therbligs. This may change as we approach Dick Tracy level technology and wear our cell phones on our wrists, but for now I'm happy to sign myself,

Citizen Fossil

[tamarinne.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure I agree with your fashion/habit argument. It was my considered choice to keep wearing a wristwatch after I got a cell phone because a cell phone is insufficiently convenient to have on my person at all times. Unless I'm wearing a belt (which I'm usually not) I have nowhere to wear a cell phone, and most of my clothes don't have sufficiently large pockets to hold a cell phone comfortably.

Of course, this may be a problem with men's clothes vs. women's clothes - most men I know wear belts most of the time, which would solve the problem. For them.

Still waiting for my Dick Tracey wrist phone....

[umbran.livejournal.com]

I think I gotta jump on the "the cell phone is not nearly as convenient" bandwagon. I have to just glance at my writst to check my watch. Untilmy phone is on my writs, it just won't be as simple.

Okay, so I'm a geek

[baron-steffan.livejournal.com]

Not sure I agree with you. I have a watch, a cell phone, and a PDA. The PDA is a Palm Zire that I wear in a holster, and I also have a belt-clip holster for the phone, a Motorola V551. The watch is a Coleman-branded job that I picked up at a Target for 16 bucks...but it's cool, because it polls the national atomic clock in Ft. Collins, CO, so it never needs setting and is always correct to the second. Before I got the new phone I wore the PDA all the time; now I wear the phone, which is weird, because no one except my wife ever calls me on it. I really have to get a Treo, 'cause if I wore everything at once I'd look like that famous Dilbert cartoon, or Batman with his utility belt.

I agree that no one needs to know the time that precisely, and that when I frequently need to check the time (like at work: I'm a pharmacist so I essentially have a deadline every five minutes) I have a wall-clock. But I like having a watch on my wrist rather than having to unholster the PDA. I note that checking the time on the phone's external PDA is curiously retro: it's functionally the same as checking one's elegant pocket watch, doncha know.

Parenthetically, I'm old enough to remember before digital watches,
and I've noticed that folks have gotten more obsessive because of them. It used to be that time was measured in 15 or maybe 10 minute intervals: "it's a quarter to 3; it's 20 past 4". Now it's "2:47" or "3:19".

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

Not quite true. Completely aside from the convenience issue that other people have brought up, some of us still have legitemate need for wristwatches.

It'd be hellaciously hard for me to check a patient's pulse, or time their respirations, with a cell phone or a PDA.

[freerange-snark.livejournal.com]

I'm with you. I gave up on watches as anything other than decoration when I got a cell phone that showed the time on an external display.

And I also think the total lack of functional pockets in women's clothing is more'n kinda sexist. I finally caved and bought a purse so I could put my book, my cell phone and my chapstick in one over-the-shoulder container that leaves my hands free.

Turns out it's probably lucky for you I've been calming my feminist urges with beer all night or I might accidentally rant all over your blog. :)