What's the Time?

I read an interesting article today which stated that the wristwatch and watches in general are slowly becoming a thing of the past and are no longer as popular as they once were. According to the news article, more and more people are turning to their cell phones, blackberries, laptops and the like to get the latest time rather than rotating their wrists. It seems a natural thing since so many of us are either stuck with a cell phone to our ear, or respond to a blackberry page or are almost always found to be tied to a computer. However, I feel that the wristwatch is something that shouldn't go away completely.

I remember getting my first real watch. I was in fourth grade and the watch my parents bought for me was a very very thin digital watch but it didn't have a digital display, rather it was a digital display of an analog watch face. It was a mix of both new technology and old but for me, it was a rite of passage. I looked on it as the fact that I was an adult and that I had responsibilities. Of course being in the fourth grade meant that I would constantly be at the mercy of my parents and teachers setting my schedule, but at least now I had something to help me keep track of the time. I wore that watch constantly and soon it became a part of me. That watch was to be found on my wrist for years to come.

My next watch was another gift from my parents and I was to receive it in the ninth grade as a birthday gift. I am an aviation nut and so, since I was taking ground school at the time, my parents gave me an aviator watch for my birthday. It had timezones for the entire globe, it had a stopwatch and alarms and best of all, the bezel had an actual scaled down version of the E6B flight computer for doing calculations of fuel consumption, flight duration and the like. Now again, as before, that didn't mean that I was busy computing flight trajectories all day, but for me it was another step towards adulthood. I was wearing an expensive watch and like any accesory of clothing, I looked upon it as being something that would always remind me of the continuing journey of life. That and the fact that I at least looked like a pilot.

For me the watch continued to be something I would wear and use. Some people view it as a 'handcuff' to time and deadlines. People often complain that a watch reminds them of appointments they have to keep, deadlines that are closing in and that time is passing by for activities they'd rather be doing. To me, that's the whole point of a watch. For me personally, the cell phone and similar devices are wonderful for keeping in touch with your friends and family, but the people who are living with it constantly at their ear scare me. The phone is a tool that can impose similar deadlines on a person. I suppose it is also a deadline that people can seemingly control and ignore. Your boss calling regarding another deadline? No problem, don't take the call. With a watch, time keeps passing and there's no sense of control. You can unplug the watch by removing the battery or removing the key, but that is just an illusion of control.

I continue to get watches on occasion; that's not to say I buy a new one every week but I do have a nice collection of them now. Each of them has been given to me on a special occasion and each of them reminds me of something significant. I have one that my mom bought for me for when I started my last year in college for my Bachelor's. I have a watch that my parents bought for me upon my graduation from the University of Maryland. I have the watch my brother bought for me at Christmas one year which he presented to me in a box decorated with images of Grand Prix drivers and cars from the 1960's. Each is special to me in it's own way and each one is not so much a crutch or reminder of bad things, but good things that I have experienced, and a reminder of the chances of experiencing many more such occasions. I can't go anywhere without a watch these days. There's one on my wrist at all times. The rare occasions where I've forgotten to wear it, left me feeling.... well... naked.