wristwatches

[Bella Kemp]

Reading Margaret Drabble's length essay on Anthony Burgess in the TLS today, I came across her observation that no-one wears watches anymore. I was properly outraged (!) but then I considered that, as a teacher, few of my pupils wear watches. I have no doubt that this forum is representative of the entire country so merely ask if any of you wear watches. (Both I and Mr K. do, by the way). Are watchmakers doomed? We need to know.
Fine performance of Bruckner 7 conducted by Ilan Volkov on R3 as I tap this out btw.

[french frank]

Yes, I wear a wrist watch. If anyone stops me in the street and asks me the time, I can look at my watch and tell them. If I remove my iPhone from my back pocket, they may snatch it and run away.

[Pianorak]

I too wear a wrist watch - but then I haven't got an iPhone.

[AmpH]

I don't wear a wrist watch or own an iPhone and would consider both a waste of time.

I have however noticed that for many who do wear wrist watches ' big ' seems to be favoured - a sort of Big Ben for the wrist - they must weigh a lot !

[Bella Kemp]

Yes, I wear a wrist watch. If anyone stops me in the street and asks me the time, I can look at my watch and tell them. If I remove my iPhone from my back pocket, they may snatch it and run away.

I too hate people who steal my time french frank!

[Joseph K]

I wear one. I want instant time, not having to get my phone out!

[Pulcinella]

Slightly off topic: it's a little alarming (no pun intended) that some youngsters (for example in the primary school where I help out) live in such a digital age that they cannot tell the time from an analogue clock/watch face!

[Nick Armstrong]

Slightly off topic: it's a little alarming (no pun intended) that some youngsters (for example in the primary school where I help out) live in such a digital age that they cannot tell the time from an analogue clock/watch face!

Yes last summer, a 16 year old (from France, admittedly ) couldn't work out the time from the little analogue clock in my car dashboard. I was... surprised.

I haven't worn a wristwatch since the 90s. As a lawyer, the phone was always with me, and since hanging up the wig, it still often is (and when it isn't, time doesn't seem to matter). I rather warm to the fact that the phone also plays the role of watch, radio, camera (and torch! surprisingly useful always to have one of those available!) - it may sometimes be a pain to have to charge it, but it ain't half useful to have one thing instead of several.

[greenilex]

I wouldn’t be without my second hand Pulsar. It is a good size but not too heavy, and is easy to see.

My phone is a Nokia “brick”, virtually indestructible, but I only use it as phone or message system.

Creature of habit.

[Edgy 2]

I haven’t worn a wristwatch for donkey’s years,certainly since before mobile phones,I’m not even sure why I stopped wearing one.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I too wear a wrist watch - but then I haven't got an iPhone.

Snap! (I have four wrist watches, in fact, all used for different occasions. I love wristwatches - and the most reliable I own were the cheapest Argos had on offer: I've had them for over ten years, and have spent far, far more on replacement batteries - and leather straps - than I did on the things themselves.)

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Slightly off topic: it's a little alarming (no pun intended) that some youngsters (for example in the primary school where I help out) live in such a digital age that they cannot tell the time from an analogue clock/watch face!

Do they need to?

[Bryn]

In my youth, I thought a pocket watch a pretty cool alternative to a wristwatch. However, it was nothing like as convenient for quick consultation. A similar lack of immediate convenience attaches to the mobile phone, even more so if, like me, you often turn your mobile phone off to save battery charge and avoid unwanted interruptions.

[Serial_Apologist]

I couldn't be without a wrist watch. There used to be clocks everywhere - from railway st... - sorry, train stations, to pubs, where one was inwardly expected to keep an eye on time's passing.

I had always obtained my cheap digital watches in garage forecourt shops - that is, until two years ago, when my last one gave up the ghost and couldn't have its battery replaced because the shop wasn't selling cheap imported watches any more. So I spent nearly an hour walking up and down Norwood High Street, trying to find a shop where I could buy a replacement - not one of those £150 jobs in window displays, just a frugal one with unpretentious black plastic strap and the time and date illuminable by pressing one of the pins. What is the point on bearing a watch that tells would-be's that I am loaded, financially-speaking? Most retailers looked askance at my question: digital watches? never heard of them. But eventually I found one for sale, in an Indian-owned chemist's, and paid £25 for it, battery included, with a year's guarantee. Previous watches I'd bought for about £8 had batteries which had kept going for 6 or 7 years, usually outlasting the strap. This one's battery ran out two days after the guarantee expired, and it cost me another £15 to have said battery replaced. The replacement lasted two months, and I thought **** this for a game of soldiers, and went and obtained my new model at Argos, for the princely sum of £16.99, which as far as I can ascertain keeps absolutely perfect time, and all being well, should outlast me.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

... which as far as I can ascertain keeps absolutely perfect time, and all being well, should outlast me.

And "all being well-er", won't!