# Do you wear a wrist watch? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 15, 2019, 9:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582 "2019-06-15T21:43:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/81 "2019-06-18T00:16:28Z")
50, I haven’t worn a wristwatch since high school. I’ve had pocket watches since then. I hate wearing any constricting accessories or metal or plastic against my skin. When I did wear a wristwatch as a child (because it made me feel grown up) I usually wore it on the outside of my shirt sleeve because I hated how it felt on my skin. Of all the tools one uses I don’t see why a time piece is the one thing that needs to strapped to the body. It’s fine for all my tools (many of them in the form of my smartphone) to be kept in my pockets. ---
**Author:** ![Kimera757](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kimera757/32/3765_2.png) [@Kimera757](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimera757)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 12:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/82 "2019-06-18T00:25:25Z")
> [@swampspruce](#): > > Yep. 51 and I’m wearing the same watch as my daily for over 26 years now You must have a good memory. None of my watches last more than a couple of years. I’ve solved the battery problem, but not the losing the watch problem. I have two watches at the moment because I know for a fact that I will lose one, then have to wear the other. I’ve temporarily misplaced one of them, from time periods such as one day to several months. > [@Treppenwitz](#): > > I’m amazed by the responses in this thread. Of course I don’t wear a watch - haven’t worn one for decades. There is almost no occasion when I need to know the time and am not in the presence of something which displays it. In front of this computer or the TV, in the car, on the bike - then there’s the clock in the kitchen, the alarm clock in the bedroom… even the fecking oven and the microwave have clocks. The store down the road has clocks on the outside and the inside. They’re everywhere. > > And yes, if I’m in a clock-free zone and I really need to know the time, I’ll take two seconds to look at my phone. > > j Bikes have watches? Didn’t know this. My TV doesn’t have a clock, and it’s a smart TV. (It’s actually my mom’s, and I hate new TVs.) The clock above the kitchen entryway doesn’t work. The oven clock is never accurate and there’s stuff in front of my microwave so I have to waste time looking at it. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 12:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/83 "2019-06-18T00:37:25Z")
I haven’t worn a watch for a long time. I’m 63 and back when I was still trying to wear them, metal watches, bands and buckles would make my wrist break out and itch. The second time I ran a metal watch trough the wash because I’d taken it off and put it in my pocket for relief from the itching, I switched to plastic. Plastic watches and bands would collect sweat and cause my skin to pea, so they occasionally got washed, but at least they were cheap. Long before phones told time, I had switched first to necklace watches (hard to read), and then to cheap digital stopwatches. The stopwatches showed time unless you chose one of their other functions. They fit in a pocket like a pocket watch. So now the phone is just as convenient. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/84 "2019-06-18T01:09:57Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I haven’t worn a watch for a long time. I’m 63 and back when I was still trying to wear them, metal watches, bands and buckles would make my wrist break out and itch. The second time I ran a metal watch trough the wash because I’d taken it off and put it in my pocket for relief from the itching, I switched to plastic. Plastic watches and bands would collect sweat and cause my skin to pea, so they occasionally got washed, but at least they were cheap. > > Long before phones told time, I had switched first to necklace watches (hard to read), and then to cheap digital stopwatches. The stopwatches showed time unless you chose one of their other functions. They fit in a pocket like a pocket watch. So now the phone is just as convenient. You might need a titanium bracelet, that or a [nato strap](https://www.google.com/search?q=nato+strap&newwindow=1&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiDt42h7PHiAhVKVK0KHb-CBzgQ_AUIESgC&biw=1920&bih=911) ---
**Author:** ![running\_coach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/running_coach/32/15836_2.png) [@running\_coach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/running_coach)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/85 "2019-06-18T01:11:23Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > Bikes have watches? With more and more digital stuff on motorcycles, I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s a clock there somewhere. Bicycle GPS cyclecomputers have a clock somewhere among the choices. Even the old style cyclecomputers sometimes had a clock function. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/86 "2019-06-18T03:20:51Z")
68, and I alternate between a Samsung Gear S2 and a $15 Mickey Mouse watch I found at WalMart. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/87 "2019-06-18T03:39:30Z")
I’m 57 and put on a watch every morning as part of my ritual of getting dressed. Have done so since I was a kid. I have a pathological need to always be able to tell the time instantly if desired, and pulling out my phone isn’t nearly fast enough. Anyway, I don’t always have my phone with me. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 8:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/88 "2019-06-18T08:02:11Z")
I’m 42 and haven’t worn a wrist watch for 27 years. Like many here, I hate having accessories on me, looking after them when doing dirty jobs etc. However, a couple of weeks ago I bought a wrist watch, a Citizen Eco-Drive with bold numeral clock face and leather bands. When I’m out in the woods hunting, there are situations I need to be able to tell the time quickly, with minimal movement, sound, and light. That’s where I don the wrist watch. Time will tell (heh) if the usage expands from there. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/89 "2019-06-18T12:10:13Z")
I turned 58 the day that the OP started this thread, and I wear a wristwatch every day. My daily watch is a wedding gift from my wife and has been worn every day since 2002. It is a combination analog/digital watch, a Breitling Aerospace Titanium. I keep the digital display showing the day and date. It has the common basic digital functions like stopwatch, timer, and second time zone. I like the clean, analog appearance together with the handy digital functions. It’s not thick and bulky, like many guys like but not me, and with the titanium it is nice and light. About two years ago I bought a backup watch to wear when I’m in the field or doing manual labor, because my Breitling started getting some dings and dents. It’s a solar watch, no battery needed (Citizen Eco-Drive Chandler), with a NATO strap in olive drab. I’ve taken to wearing this one to bed as it’s a little more comfortable. It’s on me when I wake up and shower, and then I put my Breitling on to start my day. This ensures that my backup watch is running and accurate. Here are my watches on Imgur — [My Breitling Titanium Aerospace, and my Citizen Eco-Drive backup watch - Album on Imgur](https://imgur.com/gallery/ECGiizO). You can see the dings and dents on my Breitlng. My backup watch looks brand new but in the coming years I’m sure that will change. I hate being late! As the old saying goes, if you’re not 10 minutes early, you’re late. So I keep my watches hacked to the atomic clock at the US Naval Observatory — [https://tycho.usno.navy.mil/simpletime.html](https://tycho.usno.navy.mil/simpletime.html). They’re always within a couple of seconds of being exact. ---
**Author:** ![Moonshine](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5e9695/32.png) [@Moonshine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moonshine)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 12:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/90 "2019-06-18T12:24:24Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > I’m 61. Can anyone match this claim? I’ve had the same watch on my left wrist for 23 years now. It’s been there 24/7/365, I _never_ remove it. It is there when I’m in the shower, in bed, hell it wasn’t removed when I’ve had surgery. Original band. It is a Rolex. > > Anyone? Not quite up to your level Kayaker, but I’ve worn my Rolex day and night for 17 years now. The only times I’ve taken it off was for diving when it interfered with my dry suit seal. It doesn’t keep time as well as any modern watch, but it’s tough and I like the way it looks. ---
**Author:** ![Bullitt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bullitt/32/5725_2.png) [@Bullitt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bullitt)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/91 "2019-06-18T12:52:45Z")
> [@Moonshine](#): > > Not quite up to your level Kayaker, but I’ve worn my Rolex day and night for 17 years now. The only times I’ve taken it off was for diving when it interfered with my dry suit seal. It doesn’t keep time as well as any modern watch, but it’s tough and I like the way it looks. Nice. I’ve worn my Breitling every day for 17 years also. Did you see where **Kayaker** said his is a tattoo? ---
**Author:** ![racer72](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/racer72/32/3075_2.png) [@racer72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/racer72)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/92 "2019-06-18T15:10:18Z")
I switch out between 3 different Citizen Eco-drives for my every day watch. For something a bit nicer, I have my $500 Rolex. Bought it at an estate sale and told it was broken. Paid $320 to have it cleaned and a new watch band put on. Seen a few like it in the $5000 range on Ebay. It seems weird to have strangers look at that watch and comment “Rolex, nice.” ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/93 "2019-06-18T15:30:43Z")
I’m 68. I wear a wrist watch when I’m going into town or to a meeting; it’s by far the easiest way to check the time. I don’t wear one out in the field because it’s liable to get banged against something and broken, or caught on something, pulled off the wrist, and lost. In the field I wear a pocket watch. I used to have one which lived in a protective case that clipped onto my belt, which was better (especially once I also chained the second one to a belt loop after losing the first), but the case hinge broke so the case fell apart, I haven’t been able to get it repaired though I tried a couple of places, and it’s no longer on the market. So now the remainder of it is a pocket watch. To check the time on the phone, even presuming I’m wearing the thing which I might not be, I have to get it out of the pocket which it barely fits into, and usually to turn it on and wait a couple of minutes while it powers up. (The phone pockets on my work pants were made for a smaller flip phone; this one is in a heavy duty waterproof casing, which makes it possible to carry in the field without destroying it (I hope, it’s a new phone and I maybe just haven’t ruined it yet, but it’s supposed to be designed to stand up to wet situations and getting dropped or banged into things) but which also makes it larger.) And yes I find I’m often out of sight of clocks; certainly in a farm field, also often in stores or at meetings – there may be a clock somewhere in the room, but I’m not necessarily facing it. The clocks in the vehicles work, but they’re often not right – the one in the car runs slow and needs to be reset once in a while when it gets too far out, and the one in the van is sometimes wildly out for reasons which are unclear to me. ---
**Author:** ![robardin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@robardin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robardin)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/94 "2019-06-18T16:53:17Z")
I’m 48 and generally habitually wear one, though not always (especially since my main, more casual watch with a leather strap has a broken strap right now). I check the time far more often than I’d want to pull my phone out of my pocket to do, plus I’m just used to having one on my wrist after all these years. Also, often when I am checking the time I’m _already_ using my phone to play a game or to read something via an app that doesn’t have a clock on its display, and I don’t want to switch away to a screen that would show the time and then back (some apps take some time to restart when that happens). And I have it configured so that if I just “drag down” on the screen to get an app tray like view, it doesn’t show me the time in the upper right, but the battery life percentage instead. If I’m wearing any kind of jacket, too, I feel weird not seeing a watch on my wrist when it sticks out from the sleeve. Like wearing pants with belt loops and no belt. It has a kind of movie “Frankestein’s Monster” look to me, like my arm is sticking out too far without proper “coverage”. ---
**Author:** ![Enright3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/enright3/32/2897_2.png) [@Enright3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enright3)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/95 "2019-06-18T16:58:49Z")
Day to day, I wear a Fitbit that shows the time. I have a couple of nicer watches that I wear occasionally. ---
**Author:** ![neutro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/bc8723/32.png) [@neutro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutro)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/96 "2019-06-18T17:01:53Z")
Is everyone on here this old or is just the watch thread? ---
**Author:** ![swampspruce](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/swampspruce/32/261_2.png) [@swampspruce](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/swampspruce)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/97 "2019-06-18T17:06:03Z")
> [@Kimera757](#): > > You must have a good memory. None of my watches last more than a couple of years. I’ve solved the battery problem, but not the losing the watch problem. I have two watches at the moment because I know for a fact that I will lose one, then have to wear the other. > > I’ve temporarily misplaced one of them, from time periods such as one day to several months. > > Bikes have watches? Didn’t know this. My TV doesn’t have a clock, and it’s a smart TV. (It’s actually my mom’s, and I hate new TVs.) The clock above the kitchen entryway doesn’t work. The oven clock is never accurate and there’s stuff in front of my microwave so I have to waste time looking at it. Oh, I’ve misplaced it a few times; once out in the field at a remote site for almost a month when the strap pin broke and I didn’t realize it. Picked it up a month later and it was still running just fine. This was in March when the weather alternates above and below freezing daily. ---
**Author:** ![Richard\_Pearse](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/richard_pearse/32/13144_2.png) [@Richard\_Pearse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Richard_Pearse)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/98 "2019-06-18T19:54:50Z")
> [@neutro](#): > > Is everyone on here this old or is just the watch thread? Message boards like this are becoming an anachronism. It doesn’t surprise me that most of us are over 40. ---
**Author:** ![mandala](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mandala/32/95_2.png) [@mandala](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mandala)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/99 "2019-06-19T09:20:59Z")
I didn’t know wristwatches were not a thing anymore. :eek: I recently bought an ancient [Casio F-91W](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_F-91W) digital wrist watch, and am liking it so far. Very simple, clean, seems to be reliable, and beeps every hour. The battery is supposed to last a decade under normal usage. I had Mi-2 smartband which could show the time, measure your steps, watch the heart rate, track your sleep, etc. But none of these were truly accurate, so I came back to the basics. ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 11:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582/100 "2019-06-19T11:12:10Z")
I’m 47, and feel naked without a watch. I have two medium-end Citizens and a lower-medium end Seiko in the rotation, plus an original Apple Watch, but I kind of hate the Apple Watch because it never tells me the time when I look at it, instead showing me a map I’m not interested in because it’s on my phone, or audio controls because I’m listening to my phone. PITA. Watches are not anachronisms; it’s right there on my wrist, as opposed to having to pick up a phone or take it out of my pocket. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-wear-a-wrist-watch/835582.md?page=6)