Wristwatches were adopted by the military to avoid having to take out a pocketwatch which was clumsy and time-consuming. The military decided that being able to

Wristwatches were adopted by the military to avoid having to take out a pocketwatch which was clumsy and time-consuming. The military decided that being able to tell the time quickly was important enough to develop a new piece of expensive hardware. And that's just a single piece of information. Why is having knowing how many emails you have at a glance any less valid than having to know the time at a glance?