That’s a trend I never saw coming. Apparently it’s been here a while as well. People don’t wear watches any more. Or at least many people don’t. I only noticed this for the first time yesterday (which says a lot about how much I stay relevant these days, I guess). I work a couple of days on the front desk at Hamptonne Country Life Museum here in Jersey. As part of the entry protocol, visitors need to sign in for Covid Track & Trace. Increasingly, many do so using a QR code – we’ve all become experts on QR codes over the last year or so. But there are also little paper slips which are easily filled in as well. Easily, only for the inevitable, “What’s the date?” followed seconds later by “What’s the time?”
Long ago, when I was growing up, everybody had a watch. To not have one on your wrist meant that either (1) you’d forgotten to put it on or (2) you were some sort of poor person.
I guess that people will say we all have phones, but isn’t it simpler just to glance at a watch? The average woman at least will take many seconds retrieving a phone (or anything) from the depths of her handbag. To digress, after 68 years I still have no clue what women find to stuff inside a handbag. It would take me for ever to find belongings to fill up an average handbag. (Not that I own a handbag you understand.)
Full disclosure – I’ve always worn a watch. These days it’s a Garmin which I use for running but it serves to give the time of day when not called upon to do anything more demanding. But I do remember the pre-digital days when you needed to wind it up, checking with someone else for the ‘right time’ if you’d let it run down completely. I also recall that you could, in extremis, use a public phone to dial TIM and a nice lady would tell you the time. (I read that the service was only withdrawn in 1986.)
Before the Industrial Revolution no one seemed to bother too much about the precise time. You got up when it got light, lit a candle when it got dark and went to bed when you were tired. Then someone invented the sundial which, as I understand, never became a popular attraction.
I understand that the high end of the watch market – the Rolex/Patek Philippe etc – is still holding up though more for investment value than show. Rich people can demonstrate their richness in many other ways these days, such as taking a ride into Space.
So – as I should have asked before I did all that writing, do you wear a watch?
Back On The Rock 
I wear a smart watch sometimes to keep track of my step count. I check the time on my mobile phone mostly.
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Thanks Sue. I have a mobile but I don’t think I’ve ever checked the time on it 🙂
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The time is at hand for time on your hand. What the heck, just go high-tech if that’s all you understand. God forbid that you have to read a wristwatch and not a digital display.
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Do they even teach children to tell the time in schools any more? (I guess not, if they don’t even teach joined-up writing.)
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Sigh. Go, watches! You won’t be surprised to learn that your senior-years friend on the other side of the pond wears a watch, which is sometimes my Garmin and sometimes my analog watch given to me by the coach of our university (ice) hockey team many years ago. It sounds like it should be buried with me as an historical artifact!
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Thank you Jane. I can’t imagine life without one even if I rarely have cause to look at it. Even when running/racing I hardly refer to it and one’s time is recorded in any event. (The splits can be interesting though.)
I like the idea of a future archaeologist examining your analog watch and having to call in an expert to decide what its purpose was 🙂
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Lol. You’re probably right!
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Not for many years. I even turned down as a momento of my father one of his fabulous watches, Patek Philippe/ Cabucon etc. He had a dozen or so. I do appreciate though their beauty and craftsmanship. Particularly pocket ones.
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Oh, you rely on a phone then Ned? Or the sun’s position in the sky perhaps? I never understood the desire to own a designer watch even in the day when those companies would try to continually try to inform you that, without one, your life had no meaning.
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Phone. Alexa speaker. Tv. Satellite box. Work clocks.
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I suppose. A pity our lives are ruled by the time. For most of humankind’s existence our days were marked by the seasons, and each day (except the Sabbath) you’d work until the job was done, or until the boss dismissed you until the following morning. The priest or vicar would call you to church when he decided to ring the church bell. The innkeeper kept his own hours to suit his clientele. Maybe someday we’ll realise those were the best times.
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I haven’t worn a watch since 2006. That year I made the conscious decision to stop because I found that constantly checking the time didn’t make things happen any faster, that I was always waiting on something or someone, and I’d had enough. I use my phone now, but not that much. I have a pretty good internal sense of time. It’s only when I’m traveling that I’ll attach a cheap plastic watch to the strap of my carry-on bag to double-check as I make my way through the different stations of the airport.
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Well that’s a sound reason for not wearing a watch Janna, if it’s having a negative effect. I suppose I’m one of those people who hates to be late for anything so a watch keeps me on the straight and narrow. I think I’d be very edgy going through a day without knowing the time. Maybe I’ll try it sometime.
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Who knows, you might find it liberating!
Can you tell me what Garmin watch you have, though? I’m interested in getting something for running as well since the pandemic has turned me into an outdoor runner (I used to just use the treadmill at the gym) and I don’t really want to get an Apple watch.
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Forerunner 45. Basic but still has more functions than I’ll ever need. About 150 of your funny dollars 🙂
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Thank you!
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Oh yeah, I used to be so into watches that I only wore mechanical ones. But I’ve now come full circle and have stopped being such a snob, so I usually have my Fitbit on to track my resting heart rate. Anyway, thanks for this post!
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Yes I think a lot of people used to regard watches as an accessory rather that a functional item. Possibly other things have taken over – tattoos (for example) used to be just for sailors 🙂 or else in discrete places but now they are way more widespread and overt.
As to measuring heart rate I check it the old fashioned way, but then one does need a watch.
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I haven’t worn a watch in years. Even more obsolete these days are alarm clocks. I watched my friend set his the other night and was shocked at how long it took and archaic it seemed. Times have certainly changed.
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My newish (18 months?) mobile phone must have been reading this blog as it decided to go on holiday early this morning. We fix Mobiles.com say have you dropped it! Anyway the lovely Anne in conjunction with the 2 male technology fixers agreed – New screen. 24 hour service , £89.95. No fix, no fee. Spookily the electricity bill landed on the mat today, £89.35. I call that a result. I wonder what the other 2 pieces of bad luck will be? According to my trusty(i
sh) Kindle fire, the time is now 16.51, which agrees with the telly. Roll on tomorrow and the phone call from Anne….
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Yes, alarm clocks 🙂 I remember when owning a Teasmade was the height of poshness. It would wake you by splashing you with hot water. We have transitioned to the digital age almost without noticing.
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Since lock downs, I’m out of the habit of wearing a watch. I think the battery has run out on mine and I’m not sure I’ll bother getting a new one! Youngsters constantly have their phones in their hands unfortunately, so definitely don’t need watches!
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Yeah still I’m sure I’d still miss it. There again, I thought I’d never be flashing a card for minor purchases but it’s become second nature over the last 18 months.
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I did wear a watch before the Pandemic but only when out and about. Now there seems little need for one especially when every electronic item in the house tells me the time. I put my alarm clock away at the same time.
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I remember alarm clocks! Quaint, funny things with a bell on top. Now to be found in museums.
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😁
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