4 ms·

Good point. I agree a purpose-specific device could find a niche. But the smart watch thing seems to be a dead end - too small a screen to compete with a smart

Good point. I agree a purpose-specific device could find a niche. But the smart watch thing seems to be a dead end - too small a screen to compete with a smartphone (which 'everybody' has now), too bulky and 'uncool' to compete with a basic watch (telling the time) or fashion/jewelry watch (pretty accessory). Of course that was what people said about iPads - why would you want that if you have a laptop and smartphone ... so maybe I'm completely wrong.

aaronem 13y ago
I doubt it; wristwatches have origin in the military need for a readily accessible chronometer for coordination among forces in different locations, and I tend to think that their having become popular in civilian life is an accident of history resulting from millions of soldiers having worn their watches home from the two world wars. We're now roughly two and a half to three generations from the latter such war, and wristwatches have been largely reduced to the status of niche fashion accessory; even in my own childhood, a wristwatch was still considered de rigeur and I had several growing up, but now not even anyone in my own generation much bothers with the things, to say nothing of my generation's kids. Absent some repopularizing event, a category for which "Apple and Google would really like to sell a lot of smart watches" fails to qualify, I see no reason to imagine the trend spontaneously reversing itself.
- argumentum 13y ago
  The fall of the wrist watch has a lot more to do with the rise of the mobile phone that has a clock (even "dumb" phones had the time). Regular people have an equal if not greater need to coordinate with each other than soldiers in war.
  - aaronem 13y ago
    Civilians also tend to have a lot more clocks handy, even absent mobile phones. I'll grant, though, that wristwatches would've stuck around, as an acceptably convenient means of carrying around a timepiece, had not mobile phones with clock displays come along. The point, in any case, is that there's nothing intrinsically special about wearing a chronometer, or any other information display, on one's wrist, such that "smart watches" are necessarily a qualitative improvement over, for example, "smart phones".

aaronem 13y ago

I doubt it; wristwatches have origin in the military need for a readily accessible chronometer for coordination among forces in different locations, and I tend to think that their having become popular in civilian life is an accident of history resulting from millions of soldiers having worn their watches home from the two world wars. We're now roughly two and a half to three generations from the latter such war, and wristwatches have been largely reduced to the status of niche fashion accessory; even in my own childhood, a wristwatch was still considered de rigeur and I had several growing up, but now not even anyone in my own generation much bothers with the things, to say nothing of my generation's kids. Absent some repopularizing event, a category for which "Apple and Google would really like to sell a lot of smart watches" fails to qualify, I see no reason to imagine the trend spontaneously reversing itself.

argumentum 13y ago
The fall of the wrist watch has a lot more to do with the rise of the mobile phone that has a clock (even "dumb" phones had the time). Regular people have an equal if not greater need to coordinate with each other than soldiers in war.
- aaronem 13y ago
  Civilians also tend to have a lot more clocks handy, even absent mobile phones. I'll grant, though, that wristwatches would've stuck around, as an acceptably convenient means of carrying around a timepiece, had not mobile phones with clock displays come along. The point, in any case, is that there's nothing intrinsically special about wearing a chronometer, or any other information display, on one's wrist, such that "smart watches" are necessarily a qualitative improvement over, for example, "smart phones".