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I just finished reading the revised 2000 edition of Revolution in Time. (I've been generally obsessed with mechanical clocks and their manufacture recently, but that's another post.) Fun book, though it focused a lot more on the economics and not enough on the technology. It ends with a rather melancholy examination of the triumph of quartz watches over mechanical movements. The funny thing is, in the 9 years since then, watches themselves have become an endangered species. How many people under 35 wear one anymore? Everyone just uses their cellphone now.
I've worn a watch most of my life at this point. (Literally -- I pretty much only take them off for showers and machining.) I don't think I'll stop -- I'm obsessive-compulsive enough that I like checking the time very regularly, and that's too much of a pain with a cellphone.
The first watch that I remember owning was a fancy multifunction digital when I was 9 or so. I'm not sure what model it was, possibly a Casio G-Shock? I loved that watch so much. Black plastic with red control buttons, all all kinds of timer and alarm modes to play with. It made an excellent prop for playing time travel games at recess.
For a while in high school I proved myself very ahead of my times by relying on my HP 48G graphing calculator (the PDA of its era) as a watch. That worked okay, since I did actually carry it everywhere, just another item in my huge coat/vest pockets. But I ended up wearing a watch again soon enough after finding an old self-winding Timex that used to be my grandfather's in a junk drawer. I loved the idea of a self-winding watch (and still do!), so I started to wear it. It lasted me for many years before getting cranky and then freezing entirely. The case had started to seriously wear away in places at that point, so I figured its time had come. I still have the habit of shaking my wrist occasionally, to get the self-winding action going.
I've been wearing my current Falcon Combat 24 hour for about 6 years now, which has proved to be a great watch. I particularly love the confused look people get when they try to read it. The black has worn away on all the edges, exposing the aluminum beneath, but the face itself remains unscratched in spite of some very energetic collisions. It's too bad they don't make them anymore. It was already the only nice-yet-affordable 24 hour watch I could find back then.
I've worn a watch most of my life at this point. (Literally -- I pretty much only take them off for showers and machining.) I don't think I'll stop -- I'm obsessive-compulsive enough that I like checking the time very regularly, and that's too much of a pain with a cellphone.
The first watch that I remember owning was a fancy multifunction digital when I was 9 or so. I'm not sure what model it was, possibly a Casio G-Shock? I loved that watch so much. Black plastic with red control buttons, all all kinds of timer and alarm modes to play with. It made an excellent prop for playing time travel games at recess.
For a while in high school I proved myself very ahead of my times by relying on my HP 48G graphing calculator (the PDA of its era) as a watch. That worked okay, since I did actually carry it everywhere, just another item in my huge coat/vest pockets. But I ended up wearing a watch again soon enough after finding an old self-winding Timex that used to be my grandfather's in a junk drawer. I loved the idea of a self-winding watch (and still do!), so I started to wear it. It lasted me for many years before getting cranky and then freezing entirely. The case had started to seriously wear away in places at that point, so I figured its time had come. I still have the habit of shaking my wrist occasionally, to get the self-winding action going.
I've been wearing my current Falcon Combat 24 hour for about 6 years now, which has proved to be a great watch. I particularly love the confused look people get when they try to read it. The black has worn away on all the edges, exposing the aluminum beneath, but the face itself remains unscratched in spite of some very energetic collisions. It's too bad they don't make them anymore. It was already the only nice-yet-affordable 24 hour watch I could find back then.
