Yesterday afternoon, I stopped on the freeway ramp to assist a stranded motorist, who offered me his bling and his watch if I’d help him get to Florida. Too weird to be true, and maybe he was working a scam.
The funny thing is I look at ads for watches all day, because if you look at one ad for a gizmo, you’ll see all the ads for gizmos. Maybe I should’ve taken a closer look at that guy’s watch.
I noticed a chessplayer wearing a wristwatch last week, and I thought: Who wears a wristwatch these days, when the time is on one’s phone. Besides that friend at chess club, that guy on the freeway, and the people who don’t want to be total slaves to their phones, who else.
Last time I owned a wristwatch, I left it on a Caltrain. Woke up disoriented before a dash to the doors, leaving behind some stuff. Another thing I’d rather not have to carry around or keep on my person. Keeping track of things is too hard.
But I’ve been looking at watches, because I wondered how the makers of watches deal with the fact that fewer people think they need ’em. It seems like nothing has changed. Overdesigned and underdesigned. Overpriced and underpriced. Bands that look like they’d irritate one’s skin still looks universal.
I might be persuaded to get a watch if a watch could perform this task: There is one (maybe more than one) app that is a chess clock. Tap one side of the display, your clock stops, the other clock starts. I thought it would be funny to get an Android phone to run that app, and play chess with an opponent who is also aiming to tap a clock button the size of half a watch face. During a time scramble, I’d say: Hey, don’t break my watch, fucker.