# Not wearing a watch because it is supposedly replaced by phone/other device - I do not get it. **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 20, 2010, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824 "2010-10-20T21:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![sevenwood](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6de8d8/32.png) [@sevenwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sevenwood)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/21 "2010-10-21T00:56:33Z")
> [@Napier](#): > > Only trouble is that cell phones don’t have seconds display - at least, the last few times I’ve gone to Verizon to get new one, none did. So I have to keep watches around for that. But not on me every day. Smartphones generally either come with a stopwatch app or have the ability to download a free one from whatever app store they use. I have a Motorola Droid X and rummaging through its apps I see that I have a freeware “Stopwatch and Timer” app that I apparently downloaded from the Android Marketplace (where there are about a zillion of them). That “Stopwatch and Timer” app displays its times in tenths-of-a-second. ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/22 "2010-10-21T01:05:37Z")
Likewise, the HTC Incredible’s clock widget has multiple options; the default is the flipcard one you see on all the demo shots, but it has plenty of analog choices that all show the seconds. Oddly, digital displays don’t usually have seconds. I don’t know why. ---
**Author:** ![falcotron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/23 "2010-10-21T01:08:53Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > It would never occur to me to stop wearing the watch because it is way easier to consult the watch when I only have one hand free (or even when I have got zero hands free), and/or when I am in a hurry. When I walk to the platform of the 13:37 train with a bag in each hand a quick glance at my wrist is enough to determine if it is 13:35:05 and I can take it easy, or 13:36:32 and I need to run flat out, leaving bowled over seniors and trampled small children in my wake. But my iPhone tells me both the time, and when the train is actually arriving. If it’s 13:36:32, but iCommute says the 13:37 train is still 3 minutes out, I don’t need to run. Obviously there aren’t apps for all such situations. But there really aren’t that many other situations where I desperately need to know the exact time in a hurry. [QUOTE=Napier] Only trouble is that cell phones don’t have seconds display [/QUOTE] My iPhone does, both on the lockscreen and on the menubar. I don’t remember if I had to jailbreak it for either or both, but I did jailbreak, so it doesn’t really matter. [QUOTE= jz78817] no clocks in the train station? How do you know your watch is correct vs. their timing? [/QUOTE] This is another good point. My iPhone automatically keeps itself very close to the correct time. When I used to wear a watch, I had to manually set it every month or so. Although I can’t remember when I ever got in trouble for being 3 seconds off because of my watch. (On the other hand, I _can_ remember trouble from being an hour off because my watch didn’t automatically adjust for DST…) ---
**Author:** ![falcotron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/24 "2010-10-21T01:12:36Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > Likewise, the HTC Incredible’s clock widget has multiple options; the default is the flipcard one you see on all the demo shots, but it has plenty of analog choices that all show the seconds. Oddly, digital displays don’t usually have seconds. I don’t know why. On my iPhone, I’m using a Cydget that’s designed to look like the HTC Incredible flip clock, but has seconds. I’ve had a few HTC users come up to me to ask how I got the seconds there, only to realize I had an iPhone. Android phones must have a way to replace the widget with custom third-party choices, right? ---
**Author:** ![kasuo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8c91f0/32.png) [@kasuo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kasuo)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/25 "2010-10-21T01:16:05Z")
I wear a wristwatch both for simple functionality as well as an accessory, despite having the tendency to look at my phone for both timepiece and non-timepiece related functions ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/26 "2010-10-21T01:19:07Z")
> [@](#): > > Android phones must have a way to replace the widget with custom third-party choices, right? um, yes, and we don’t have to do anything like jailbreaking. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/27 "2010-10-21T01:20:00Z")
I’ve never worn a watch because I think they are ugly and bothersome (I don’t wear jewelry either), and I don’t usually carry my cell phone with me. There are clocks everywhere, I have a good sense of time, and I’m so seldom in situations like the OP described where I need to know how many minutes and seconds I have immediately. I don’t cut it close with appointments or with my commute, when I have one (right now I work on the block I live on). I will say that most people I know who are always checking the time don’t have what I consider good reasons to be doing so. It’s a personality thing, some folks are just obsessive about the time. Down to the second? I plan to ensure that nothing in my life comes down to making it where I need to go within seconds, that’s stressful. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/28 "2010-10-21T01:27:45Z")
> [@Mops](#): > > There is just one occasional advantage of a phone/iThingy: you can pretend to use it for one of its other functions while surreptitiously looking at the time when being droned to by someone you don’t want to offend by looking at your watch. Using a phone for one of its other functions while somebody is speaking to you isn’t as offensive as checking the time while somebody is speaking to you? If anything, I’d think it was the other way round–checking the time is pretty quick, but other functions take longer and probably represent a greater attention departure from the talk at hand. ---
**Author:** ![brad\_d](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@brad\_d](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brad_d)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/29 "2010-10-21T01:31:29Z")
I carry my smartphone with me nearly everywhere, but I still wear a watch for exactly the reason the OP discusses. The ease and quickness with which I can glance down at my watch versus digging my phone out of my pocket and hitting the button make wearing the “redundant” device well worth it to me. I don’t generally live a high-powered, every-second-accounted-for life, but sometimes ya just wanna know what time it is. My watch broke several months ago, and I decided to try the watchless lifestyle. 😉 I found that didn’t like it, and within a couple of weeks bought a new cheap watch. ---
**Author:** ![falcotron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/30 "2010-10-21T01:47:21Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > um, yes, and we don’t have to do anything like jailbreaking. Yeah, I know. But I know the Android community hasn’t pushed customization as far as the jailbroken-iPhone community (or at least hadn’t as of the last time I checked into it, which is nearly a year ago). And I figure people who buy Android+Sense instead of stock Android might be even less into customization. So, it’s plausible that there would be no third-party clock widgets. Which is why I asked. PS, This is way off topic, but the huge number of skins and widgets and so on for the jailbroken iPhone is more curse than blessing. Besides the fact that most of them are either ugly or less functional than what they replace, they make Cydia’s recent packages/updates nearly useless. I wish there were separate sources for skinning/etc., apps that show up on the home screen, and extensions/console programs/everything else. ---
**Author:** ![msmith537](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d9b06d/32.png) [@msmith537](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/msmith537)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/31 "2010-10-21T01:52:09Z")
I believe having a high quality precision timepiece is something most adult men should have. ---
**Author:** ![falcotron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/3ab097/32.png) [@falcotron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/falcotron)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/32 "2010-10-21T01:56:12Z")
> [@brad\_d](#): > > I don’t generally live a high-powered, every-second-accounted-for life, but sometimes ya just wanna know what time it is. But if you make it just a tiny bit harder, you’ll find that you really don’t want to know nearly as often as you thought you did. I made the change back in the mid-90s. I’d been wearing a watch since I was a kid, but when my latest Casio calculator/temperature/etc. watch died, I realized that I was already carrying a pager, a cellphone, and a Palm that could all show me the time, and I decided not to get a watch. It took a few months to get used to it, but once I did, I was glad I had. Then I just needed to get those other 3 (or more, at times) devices down into one, which didn’t really happen until the Treo almost a decade later. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/33 "2010-10-21T02:00:15Z")
My battery died and I miss my watch. More because it had an electronic compass, altimeter, a couple of alarms, count down timer and a stopwatch. All of these functions I use a lot. The smart phone can do most of these (not the altimeter that I know of), but not as efficiently. That said, I haven’t fixed the battery for over a month. But a regular watch, especially a vanity watch, is laughably easy to replace with my phone. ---
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/34 "2010-10-21T02:21:10Z")
Think of it as a return to the pocketwatch. With a phone added. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/35 "2010-10-21T02:24:02Z")
> [@Tom\_Scud](#): > > I never much liked wearing a watch. So once I started carrying a cell phone I just stopped wearing the watch. Me too. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/36 "2010-10-21T02:26:30Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I believe having a high quality precision timepiece is something most adult men should have. I have one. It also makes phone calls and surfs the web. ---
**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:** [October 21, 2010, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/37 "2010-10-21T02:50:13Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I believe having a high quality precision timepiece is something most adult men should have. Agreed. I have a couple of fairly nice watches. I just do not wear them every day. I have no need to wear them every day. I would rather they not be banged up every day. ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/38 "2010-10-21T02:51:12Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > Think of it as a return to the pocketwatch. With a phone added. This. Until what like 150 years ago, everyone who had a watch had to pull it out of their pocket to look at it. Or some people wore little ones pinned to their shoulders, right? So the smartphone is like a pocketwatch for now, only a lot more useful. And no chain. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/39 "2010-10-21T03:28:29Z")
I’ve never worn a watch. And I pretty much never carry my cell phone. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 21, 2010, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824/40 "2010-10-21T03:47:02Z")
> [@msmith537](#): > > I believe having a high quality precision timepiece is something most adult men should have. why? Other than “everyone should do what I do,” of course. I mean, should we also go back to being required to wear shirt and tie to work, no matter our jobs? What about hats? should we have to wear hats too? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/not-wearing-a-watch-because-it-is-supposedly-replaced-by-phone-other-device-i-do-not-get-it/557824.md?page=3)