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Game Couch Unlocks: TomSo you’re using your phone to tell time in place of wearing a watch. Or at least that’s what the reports are saying: Cell phones taking over as timepieces. What’s the point of wearing a watch if your cell phone does everything?
Girls might wear watches as a fashion statement, but guys don’t need a watch.
As one dude says in the article, “if I see a chick I like on the street, I can ask her the time (with no watch on his wrist).”
Wouldn’t it be cooler if he had a Rolex on his wrist and still asked for the time saying, “Damn, this thing is always two seconds slow. Look, it’s a Rolex. Look at it. If you don’t I swear I’ll kill you!!!”? Wait, that probably wouldn’t be cool. He should stop talking after the first sentence.
But these stories about the demise of wristwatches concede that luxury watch sales continue to go up. The Federation of the Swiss Watch Industry says that watch exports are up over 15% from 2005.
How about this scenario? Let’s say you’re shopping for a new Scion xB; you could spend $1500 on leather seats, $1700 on a DVD system and $450 on satellite radio, or you could leave out the options and add a pre-owned Rolex GMT to your wrist for around $3500.
You’d think I’m a Rolex salesman by the way I seem to be pushing them, but the truth is if you can afford to buy only one luxury watch, the Rolex gets you the most bang for your bucks. Everyone knows Rolex. Sure, you could get a Jaeger-LeCoultre, which would impress most watch aficionados, but it won’t do anything to impress the twenty-two year old hostess over at the Outback Steakhouse.
If you check recent movies, you can see which companies are trying to put their watches in front of your eyeballs: Doxa for Matthew McConaughey (in Sahara), IWC for Jamie Foxx (in Miami Vice) and Omega for Pierce Brosnan (as James Bond) and Daniel Craig (in Casino Royale).
But if you look at “classic” movies, you’ll see Rolex for Sean Connery (as James Bond) and depending on your role models, you’ll see one on Christopher Guest (as Nigel “these go to eleven” Tufnel in This is Spinal Tap).
Anyway, phones are just technology. When something new comes along, we abandon the old for the new. Phones don’t hold sentimental value. Your grandfather won’t pass his old phone down to you on his deathbed like he would a watch. He’s not going to say, “Take care of this old girl for me. She has Bluetooth.”
According to WCCO in Minneapolis, “Back in the 1600s, French mathematician and philosopher, Blaise Pascal attached his pocket watch to his wrist with a piece of string. He is believed to be the first person to wear a wristwatch.” Maybe the trendulum will swing back and someone will tie a piece of string to his cell phone and wear it on his wrist. But for now, get a decent watch. And while you play Dead or Alive, it’ll wind itself.
Editor’s note: Tom’s the former editor of the T. Herman Zweibel Award winning Gabe-Couch.com, a defunct Gabe Kaplan fan site.