Are Watches Going the Way of the Paper-based Planner?

I’m a people watcher. Drop me in the middle of a mall or a bookstore, and I would be one happy man. I love to watch people interact with their family, grandparents play with their grandkids, teenagers use technology, people read, etc. I really enjoy imagining the story behind the smile, the worried face, and the teenager frantically texting someone.

One of the things I’ve noticed lately is that fewer and fewer people are wearing watches these days. In fact, while walking in to the office today, I passed by five people and none of them had watches on. While thinking about this, I looked down at my own wrist and noticed I didn’t have a watch on, either. In fact, my wife doesn’t wear one. Why is that?

One of the reasons people have stopped wearing watches is that most everyone carries a cell-phone with a clock built right in to the main screen or lid. It takes no time to flip open a phone or press a button to check the time. Why carry a watch when you already have that feature, plus so much more, in a phone. Another reason I don’t wear a watch much anymore is because I use a tablet pc. I have found myself very nervous about scratching the screen with the wrist band from my watch. It has happened to me before, and I just cringed when I saw a long scratch across the screen. Watches and tablet pcs don’t play well together. I know screen protectors can help with that, but I generally don’t like screen protectors and find them distracting.

All of that said, I actually enjoy wearing a watch, and the less-technical, the better. I prefer traditional watches over digital, leather straps over metal bands. There is something sophisticated, nostalgic, and simple about watches that help keep me balanced with technology. When my wife and I go out on a special date, I will generally wear one.

As cell-phones and smartphones become our must-grab gadget on the way out the door and we use devices that beg to get scratched by outside forces, is it a good thing that watches are becoming a relic? Do you still wear one?