Personally, I find it more rude to check a wristwatch than to look at a text.
But when I’m waiting for a flight, I don’t sit there gazing at the board all the time. I like to browse the bookshops etc., where a clock is not usually in view. And being the anxious type, I will be checking my watch every couple of minutes. It allows me to relax a bit while I’m killing time.
Really? Cause, you know, sometimes I’m on a freakin schedule! And I genuinely need to check my watch because I need to move on to the next thing.
I hate the text-checking thing and it drives me batty when people answer the phone when I am with them and get into long conversations and sometimes don’t even mention I am out with them. Unfortunately one of the people who does this to me the most is my cousin whom I love to death otherwise. Sigh.
Anxiously checking the time every few minutes? Doesn’t sound very relaxing.
If it’s close enough to boarding time that the time down to the minute matters, I’m at the gate.
Doesn’t Flav wear an alarm clock around his neck? That would be an alternative…
I do wear watches most of the time even when I have my smartphone around, just for ease. And I actually try to avoid the big, hefty Jacques-Custeau-wannabe watches – gimme a Timex, I won;t worry about loss or breakage. Although recently I had a bad experience with one with an expansion-bracelet band that proceeded to painfully depilate the base of my thumb…
I have worn a watch since I was about 11 and I will continue to do so, trends be damned.
I’m with Anaamika on this one. Checking your watch means that you do have places you have to be and you’re trying to guage how much more time you can interact. Looking at a text implies that there are other people who are so much more interesting than the person you’re talking to that you are going to talk to them WHILE you’re talking to that person.
I can understand if you’re a doctor, a firefighter, whatever, that might need to be available in an emergency or for consultation. But if you’re texting your cousin about “How I Met Your Mother” while I’m trying to have a conversation with you, I’m going to be a little offended.
ETA: In other words, something that’s acceptable when you’re sitting at your computer interacting entirely by text (e.g., having five IM windows active while you play “Plants and Zombies” while listening to Kee-lo) is not acceptable when you’re face to face. There’s a difference between suspecting that the person you’re IMing is having slow responses because he’s in multiple IM windows and actually WATCHING them do that.
How is this thread two pages long? If your only reason for wearing a watch was for the time, then you don’t need one anymore, cool. It’s not really about just telling time for everybody though. Cheap quartz watches have long surpassed mechanical movements in accuracy, but the latter is still widely in use because people like having them anyway. Personally, I think watches look great and potentially very classy (unless it’s a Panerai), and I’m genuinely surprised by the comments about watches being antiquated and obsolete, because I would say 75% of the people I see during the day are wearing them, young and old alike.
At the very least I don’t piss off the entire movie theater by lighting up my phone’s screen to check the time.
Why are you checking the time when you’re watching a movie in a theater?
Because my girlfriend forced me to watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
Might as well pull out the Nintendo DS then. What does knowing the time get you?
Pffft…trivially easy. If Pitt is wrinkly, it’s way early in the film. If he’s pretty, you’ve got about half the film left. If he looks like a baby, it’s almost over.
Sometimes you just want to know how much of the movie is left. Are you always this pedantic?
I can think of several perfectly good reasons.
Is there enough time left in the movie to introduce a new character, or can I assume that the murderer has already made an appearance, and is therefore one of the people we’ve already seen?
Will I be able to hold in those two glasses of wine I had for dinner until the end of the movie, or do I need to run to the bathroom now so that I don’t miss the ending?
This movie sucks, should I leave now, or stick it out to the end?
The person next to me is obviously suffering from envy of my expensive watch, I should flash it in their direction a couple of times more in their direction to reaffirm my alpha-dog superiority.
The times I don’t have a clock in front of me are pretty unusual to start with - at work I’m either at a computer or near a wall clock, and going to or from work I’m in my car. At home there are clocks. Otherwise, I just don’t need to know the time that often, so I check the phone. Watches are bad for my arm skin and I don’t care to wear them when I’ve got my phone. I do have a watch I take on vacation with me to foreign lands so I don’t miss a train if I can’t use my phone.
I don’t see the significance of the “down to the minute” part - at least as it concerns watches versus cell phones as timepieces. I usually check the time to get a general idea of what time it is - say, to within 5-10 minutes. Maybe I’ve lost track completely, maybe I’m verifying my internal clock’s estimate. My watch and my cell phone are both well within that tolerance, so which I’ll check is simply a matter of expediency.
Like I said before, I tried living watch-free and found it to be (to me) a step backwards in practicality, so I reverted.
That may be true, but why would that be desirable?
What I mean is that I have a general idea of what time it is. On those occasions I need to know the time more specifically, the inconvenience of having to reach for my phone does not outweigh the negatives of having to wear a wristwatch.
Of course, but the wristwatch becomes superfluous. It’s duplicative. It’s a single-purpose device. I don’t like the way they feel on my wrist. I don’t like the way they look on my wrist.
I haven’t worn a wristwatch since about 1987, and I haven’t missed its absence.
I rely on my internal estimate of time and the clues in the movie itself as to how far along it is. I don’t see how a watch or clock is really any better than that. Assuming that there is some possibility that I should really need the exact time, I’m fine pulling out my phone for that. I don’t need there to be a clock right on my wrist for such rare occasions.
I can’t ever remember walking out of a movie. However, should I consider it, I would again simply rely on my internal estimate of time. The exact time would really be irrelevant to me.
That’s where my pocket watch is much more superior.
You’re arguing several things in there, but basically you’re saying “If I need to know the time / time left while watching a movie, I’ll use my cellphone” or “I’ll use my internal clock and guess”. It seems to me that you are agreeing with the main point that sometimes it can be useful to have an idea of what time it is in a movie theatre, or how much time remains until the end of the movie. The mechanics of how you determine that are, of course, your choice. I choose to look at a watch. The watch has one benefit, it is less distracting to the other viewers than the bright screen from a cellphone.
I strap my Blackberry to my wrist.