Why wear a wrist watch when you could easily consult your phone for a quick time-check?

[Sleeves345]

Really?
In the last 20 years I've owned a total of five mobile 'phones
One got stolen, and was replaced with the same model, the others were replaced as they stopped working or I wanted some major tech advance that the old one didn't have
'Phones are kept in pockets, so cosseted and safe
Watches are on the wrist, so are regularly bashed, scraped, knocked about, or caught up in sleeves, straps of backpacks etc.

But that's by the by, in the last twenty years I've seen lots of people younger than me get older (by twenty years, surprisingly enough) and of the habitual mobile 'phone users - well I want to say none, but lets leave some wriggle room - very few have suddenly woken up one morning and started wearing a watch

I think this is a perfect time to use the old internet adage: YMMV.
Because that's exactly what happened to myself and many of my friends and coworkers when we graduated college. Obviously this won't be the case for everyone, everywhere, but it's naive to say that just because nobody you know wears a watch, nobody else does. I'm also not saying that just because a lot of my friends wear watches, everyone does. Some people don't want to wear them and others do.

The simple fact is that lots of (young) people do still wear watches. Therefore, watches are not obsolete/useless/whatever we were originally arguing in this thread.

 

[MikeDT]



Quote:
Really? In the last 20 years I've owned a total of five mobile 'phones One got stolen, and was replaced with the same model, the others were replaced as they stopped working or I wanted some major tech advance that the old one didn't have 'Phones are kept in pockets, so cosseted and safe Watches are on the wrist, so are regularly bashed, scraped, knocked about, or caught up in sleeves, straps of backpacks etc. But that's by the by, in the last twenty years I've seen lots of people younger than me get older (by twenty years, surprisingly enough) and of the habitual mobile 'phone users - well I want to say none, but lets leave some wriggle room - very few have suddenly woken up one morning and started wearing a watch

You never take your phone out of your pocket to actually use it then? Samsung S6 that wasn't pocketed.

 

[CBrown85]



I am certain the choices you make after 20 will vary drastically than before.

I have many students who wear watches. Nice ones; not mechanical by any means, but they've picked their fashion washes with a degree of taste. Saw a kid with a Bauhaus-looking one today.

 

[in stitches]

Nice wrist watch > nice tailored clothing.

 

[Thrift Vader]

^^ Well, hopefully.

 

[dapperdoctor]

Just about all men of importance wear a watch.

 

[Coburn]



Nice wrist watch > nice tailored clothing.

????
No. Clothes make the man: Wristwatch is an accessory.
Only a parvenu would think he can obtain status with a wristwatch.

Just about all men of importance wear a watch.  

No. Men of importance do not wear watches. Nor do they carry briefcases or carry money. Their aides, secrataries, etc do this for them. Having other people handle the mundane details of daily life is a signifier of social status.

Men of the highest importance do not wear watches because they do not need to adhere to a schedule. All meetings, events ,etc begin when they appear. Every one they meet is a supplicant.

 

[ter1413]



No. Men of importance do not wear watches. Nor do they carry briefcases or carry money. Their aides, secrataries, etc do this for them. Having other people handle the mundane details of daily life is a signifier of social status.

Men of the highest importance do not wear watches because they do not need to adhere to a schedule. All meetings, events ,etc begin when they appear. Every one they meet is a supplicant.

^^
Bullshit!

 

[Coburn]

Wearing a watch is a signal of bourgeois middle class values.

It signals the wearer is a wage slave who's life is shackled to the schedule and demands of others.

Not wearing a time piece is a signal of freedom. Not needing a watch signifies you do not have to attend to the demands of others.

This kind of freedom is the highest status of all.

Here are two guys, 100 yrs apart, both mocking the slavery of modern life signaled by the watch.

 

[Thrift Vader]

I am important, and i wear a watch.
if only to keep my own schedule. also because they are nice to look at.

 

[SoGent]

Only a parvenu would think he can obtain status with a wristwatch.

Men of importance do not wear watches. Nor do they carry briefcases or carry money. Their aides, secrataries, etc do this for them. Having other people handle the mundane details of daily life is a signifier of social status.

can't really disagree with the first comment but where I come from, we call the second egotistically lazy

 

[dapperdoctor]

????
No. Clothes make the man: Wristwatch is an accessory.
Only a parvenu would think he can obtain status with a wristwatch.
No. Men of importance do not wear watches. Nor do they carry briefcases or carry money. Their aides, secrataries, etc do this for them. Having other people handle the mundane details of daily life is a signifier of social status.

Men of the highest importance do not wear watches because they do not need to adhere to a schedule. All meetings, events ,etc begin when they appear. Every one they meet is a supplicant.

My experience tells me otherwise, but you are free to believe what you want.

 

[tradmudgeon]

A couple of observations that tend to get missed in discussions of this sort:

1) Males only began wearing wristwatches after World War I; prior to that they carried pocket watches. WWI taught them that fetching it out of the pocket was impractical and inefficient. The trend of fetching out the cellphone suggests we are at peace and have the leisure to indulge in inefficiency.

2) The reason that Young People eschew watches is because they already have their phones in their hands for listening to music and sharing photos and texts, etc., whereas watch-wearing Old People think of their phones as telephones and unpocket them only for calls.

 

[sleepyinsanfran]

^^ interesting points. I dont know to what extent those are true, but they make a lot of sense!

I want to wear a watch more often, but I feel somewhat less rushed and more relaxed when I don't.
In any case there are wall clocks in most places (and clocks in cars, on computers, A/V projection equipment, and so on), so I don't feel as if I am moving around blithely unaware of the time if I don't wear a watch (or get my cellphone out).

But I do appreciate my friends' fine watches and the stories/handwork/craftsmanship behind them.

 

[powerkicker]

Why wear a sport coat when you could wear a nylon windbreaker?