While monitoring one of my exams yesterday, I decided to count how many of my male students wore a wrist watch. Women have traditionally been more "sporadic" and watch wearing would take on many different forms (pendants and necklaces, although not common, occasionally occur) about wearing a watch, so I decided to just focus on the males this time.
I did this just out of curiosity because I know that wearing a watch has been in decline for young folks ever since the damn "smart" phone was developed.
In my informal count, With a class size of 135, in which 89 were female, this meant that I had 46 males to try to check.
In that sample, there were 2 absences.
Of the 44 I was able to observe.... I missed getting data on 5 of them due to answer other student's questions. So, my sample size was 39.
Of those 39 male students, only 12 wore a watch. And, of those 12, a full 7 of them were wearing "tracker" watches of one sort or another that paired to their phone. This means that in my examination, only a little over 12% of the population studied wore a TRADITIONAL wrist watch any longer.
I must say that I knew the number would be low..... but I am surprised at HOW LOW this rate is.
I personally feel "naked" without a wrist watch. I remember when I was 11 how I scrimped and saved any money I could so that I could scrape up enough to eventually by my first watch.... a cheap,, but wonderful, silver colored Timex hand wind watch. I felt truly "grown up" wearing it and would take it off only to wind it, shower, or swim.
If I recall correctly, I think it cost about $8.00. I wore it all through high school before I accidentally hit the bezel and it shattered. Mine looked something like the one I have pictured, except the face was white. Perhaps that one was too "back in the day"? Mine was likely even lower priced as my numbers were actually painted or stamped on, not metal like in the photo.
PipeTobacco
I generally can't stand wearing a watch although I did for months when my daughter gave me a tracker type a few years ago. When the battery gave up the ghost, I did not replace it.
ReplyDeleteI don't wear a wedding ring either. My wife understands that it is not personal.
Anvil... I can understand the wedding ring issue. I had never worn any sort of rings ever until the day I married. And it was quite a while before the ring did not feel aggravating and noticeable to me. It was probably a little more that a year before I grew use to a piece of metal attached to my finger.
DeleteNow, (like with the watch) I feel naked without my wedding ring (or watch).
PipeTobacco
Maybe FitBit is not much more than a tracker, but I would suggest that if you are willing to concede that a generation of Casio and other digital watches are real watches, the AppleWatch is very much a real watch... but in addition to telling the time, it lets me know the weather, my next appointment, e-mail from my small "VIP" list, and several other very convenient features that let me keep my phone in my pocket. I can even use it to answer phone calls, Dick Tracy style
ReplyDeleteNevertheless, I still wear my Omega or Bucherer on formal occasions.
Oops... once again I mistakenly mad my reply comment to you below, instead of a direct reply. My apologies.
DeletePipeTobacco
Pat:
ReplyDeleteI concede that there was a little bit of bias in my study through not counting the “smart” watches (Apple, FitBit, etc.). But there was a purpose/reason for their exclusion.
I have a belief that many of the younger crowd may have a “smart” watch..... but that they typically may use it for all of their other myriad of features.... other than telling time. I suspect the younger crowd may actually see the “time telling” function of a “smart” watch as superfluous and unimportant and virtually ignore that functional aspect during the lion’s share of the time they wear the device.
Conversely, when a young student sports a “time only” watch, I can more safely assume they are using the device to tell the time. :)
So.... in the real world.... any watch you wear on your wrist AND use to tell the time is to me a wristwatch. But, my informal survey could not discern “smart” watch USE, so I excluded the data. :)
PipeTobacco
Another sign of a changing society
ReplyDeletethe Ol Buzzard
Yes.... indeed it is. For better or worse? Or is it unimportant?
Deletei'll be wearing a wrist watch until the day i die.
ReplyDeleteMy plan as well. What happened to your blog? I cannot find it anymore.
Delete