How much will you pay for a watch?

[Tom]

I like and carry pocket watches. I have 7, 2 are over 100 years old...

Thanks for the reminder. I'd forgotten that I have a pocket watch tucked away in my memorabilia box, and haven't seen it for many years. Can't recall if it was from my father or an uncle. Back then in the olde country, they kept the watch in a vest (aka waistcoat) pocket, and it was attached to a button hole with a chain.

 

[Tom]

I wear a $300-$400 Citizen solar watch. It was given to me by my employer.

Our daughter was given an Apple watch for Christmas by her prior employer. That was before she quit to work elsewhere.

 

[Skookum]

Fall and accident SOS featured as well as EKG monitoring and other health/fitness stuff makes an Apple Watch pretty unique. It’s something I kind of wish my parents would get into.

My father in law lives alone on rural property but has cell service. If he hurt himself and became immobile, it would be days before anyone found him, at least.

An Apple Watch will also SOS if it doesn’t detect movement for a specified amount of time.

 

[Tom]

The reason those watches cost so much is because (like another posted above) they are mini computers you wear on your wrist.

I have a Samsung watch that is paired with my Samsung phone. The "watch" is much more than a "watch." Oh yes, it shows what time it is. But, because is's paired to my phone, it also works as a phone (I don't need to carry my cell phone with me any more). It has all my contacts and the ability to read text messages, as well as make and receive phone calls.

It also does things like, track the distance walked every day, records your daily activities (exercise), and calculates how many calories burned every day.

It tracks my health, heart beats, works as a compass. It has Google on it, a calculator, and even has the ability to record how I sleep at night; how much time I'm in deep sleep, REM sleep and so on.

It records my stress level, as well as local temperature.

Basically, almost everything my cell phone can do, the "watch" on my wrist does the same thing.

THAT is why it costs so much.

I spent a career in the semiconductor industry and spent countless hours with our corporate customers. So I'm familiar with the creeping technology and features.

FWIW one company I worked at in the 70's and 80's made/supplied chips to the early electronic watch manufacturers. That was back in the day when the displays were large LEDs, and the watch cases were also large (and heavy); They were gold plated to make them look like a fashion item. I never got it, nor could I afford the $300 price tag in the 70's.

I'm reminded of the time in the late 90's when a colleague was interviewed at work by an Apple marketing guy, asking what features he'd like in his phone. The colleague proceeded to pop stuff on his desk - phone, pager, watch, dictaphone (or whatever they were called), mp3 player, etc.

 

[Gary RV_Wizard]

Back around 1999 I sold my expensive Rolex (a 25th anniversary gift from my employer) and exchanged it for an $80 Seiko digital and cash. I thought even that was more expensive than a watch is worth. After several years that ended up in a drawer and I've not worn a watch since. There are clocks everywhere around the house, and now I usually have a phone in my pocket if I leave the house, so have plenty of time available.

 

[Mr Lars]

I haven’t worn a watch in years. My Jules Jergonson(sp) sits in a jewelry box on my dresser.
With clocks in every vehicle, nearly every room of the house, no longer have the need to wear a watch.

 

[Tom]

I haven’t worn a watch in years. My Jules Jergonson(sp) sits in a jewelry box on my dresser.
With clocks in every vehicle, nearly every room of the house, no longer have the need to wear a watch.

Aye, it's very much a habit thing with me. While I was waiting at a couple of medical appointments on Thursday (with a dead watch), I kept looking at my wrist. Then I'd grab my phone from its belt holster.

My other half hasn't worn a watch in years. The last one I bought her is still hanging on the knob of an upper kitchen cabinet at our townhome in the MidWest. I think the battery died some years ago.

 

[Tom]

Fall and accident SOS featured as well as EKG monitoring and other health/fitness stuff makes an Apple Watch pretty unique. It’s something I kind of wish my parents would get into.

While Chris was taking care of an elderly neighbor, we signed her up for one of those wearable alarms that called a service if she were to fall or need help. She opted for one that hangs around your neck, but she always kept it hung on the back of a chair. If she needed help in the middle of the night, we'd get a phone call.

An Apple Watch will also SOS if it doesn’t detect movement for a specified amount of time.

Hopefully the "alert" hours can be set, so it doesn't send an SOS while the wearer is sleeping

 

[Lou Schneider]

Ever stop and think about how did they know what time it was in order to set their pocket watches. Did everyone have a sundial in their backyard.

Pretty much. Originally every town had it's own local time - set by observing when the sun was at high noon (i.e. created the shortest shadow) and in turn this was used to set the time on the town clock. Ever notice in the old westerns the first thing the hero did when he came into town was compare his pocket watch to the town clock?

Then when railroads started connecting towns across the nation it created the need for standardized time so they could create timetables to keep trains from crashing into each other. It wouldn't do to have a train leave one town a few minutes different from one leaving another town and expect them to meet at a pre-determined point.

 

[Boat Bum]

Always wore one, always will.

 

[Tom]

Pretty much. Originally every town had it's own local time - set by observing when the sun was at high noon (i.e. created the shortest shadow)

They wouldn't have had much success doing that in our part of the olde country where it rained 366 days a year.

 

[DonTom]

Back around 1999 I sold my expensive Rolex (a 25th anniversary gift from my employer) and exchanged it for an $80 Seiko digital and cash. I thought even that was more expensive than a watch is worth. After several years that ended up in a drawer and I've not worn a watch since. There are clocks everywhere around the house, and now I usually have a phone in my pocket if I leave the house, so have plenty of time available.

No doubt the Rolex was a much better investment than the Seiko, yet the Seiko probably was more accurate. The more expensive watches are not so much to tell you the time. A lot of cheap watches do that better.

Tommy was a watch collector, none were cheap. He left me with 14 Rolexes when he died, along with one Patek Philippe and countless others. I sold most of them on Heritage Auctions.

He would not collect any quartz watches, they had to be old windup or auto-wind.

-Don- Reno, NV

 

[John From Detroit]

Ever stop and think about how did they know what time it was in order to set their pocket watches. Did everyone have a sundial in their backyard.

I have a sundial

 

[Oldgator73]

My wife bought me on of those self winding watches. Your wrist movement keeps it wound. Mine went dead in less than three days.

 

[Arch Hoagland]

I have a sundial

How do you adjust it for daylight savings time?

 

[Boat Bum]

How do you adjust it for daylight savings time?

Take one step forward before reading.

 

[Larry N.]

How do you adjust it for daylight savings time?

He probably has one that rotates an "hour" for adjustment...

 

[Lou Schneider]

I have a sundial

And I'll bet it's about as useful as a solar panel at night.

 

[John From Detroit]

And I'll bet it's about as useful as a solar panel at night.

Yup. but I also have a 15 dollar watch

 

[Octodad]

40 years ago, when I was in HS, my dad gave me a $300 watch. That was a fortune to him and me at the time. I lost it about a month after he gave it to me. Since then, I have worn $30 or less watches. The strange thing is that they tell the same time as the $300 watch did. I feel like spending more money should get you more time.