How about a [http://cgi.wjhug.force9.co.uk/acatalog/nf91.jpg]nurse’s watch. This is upside-down, so you can tell the time with a quick glance down at your clothes.
:smack: preview
How about a nurse’s watch. This is upside-down, so you can tell the time with a quick glance down at your clothes.
The less crap I have to carry around the happier I am. I can’t understand this.
cell phone and sometimes iPod, though the iPod takes a couple of clicks to access the time feature.
The pocket watch sets you above mortal men.
YES!
I was just about to post about those old-time British Nurses who carried a little upside-down watch on their titty. 
I’ve never worn a watch-- the damn things always slide around my wrist. When I was a regular backpack user —ie. in high school— I attached a wrist watch to a tag on the pack (which meant I had to sling the bag around to know what time it was, so I learned to remember what time it was ). But then I found a pocket watch at a flea market, and I’ve been wearing them ever since.
Not so much ‘old-tim’ - nurse’s watches are still very much a standard item.
Thanks for all the suggestions. A quick evaluation;
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Phone/PDA. Nice idea, but I don’t carry one of these at all times. And if I did I’d find them kind of bulky. It’s nice to have something that you can check the time with without being too obtrusive (like in the middle of a particularly boring meeting).
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Pocket watch. I just think I’d look/feel like Charles Dickens or Phileas Fogg. I also very rarely wear a suit, and have never worn a three-piece suit in my life.
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Wristwatch in my pocket. That’s what I’m doing today, but it just seems a bit makeshift. The timepiece equivalent to a sticking plaster fix across your glasses frames.
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Belt clip. Sorry, but I think this would double my ‘geek quotient’, on a par with a pocket pen protector. I could do without this.
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Ring Watch. Neat idea, but no. More cumbersome than on your wrist, and I’d break it within the week.
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Necklace. I think I’d find this twice as irritating as a wristwatch.
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Nurse Watch. Yeah, but then I’d look like a nurse, wouldn’t I?
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Tatoo. Great! Where do I get one?
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Swiss Army pocket watch. Hmmmm, it just looks, I don’t know, kind of industrial rather than personal.
Maybe I’m asking for the impossible. I really want something like a ‘heads-up’ display in my eyeball. Or a ear implant that whispers when I rub behind my ear. Something that’s small and unintrusive. :rolleyes: And there I was trying to not look too much like a geek! 
When I carry a watch it’s a pocket watch. I’ve got several and have been using them for years. There are many styles and sizes available at any price. The jeans I wear have watch pockets so that works out well.
However, this isn’t everybody’s style. I usually don’t carry a watch. It’s really not necessary since practically everywhere I go it seems like there’s a clock available. I suppose you could wear an ankle watch. I don’t how stylish it’d be. There are a lot of attractive jewelry watches with very small watch faces. It’d be almost like an ankle bracelet and out of the way too. Start your own trend. If this idea isn’t already available, then you may even have a marketable item.
I have to assume that Eve has quite a selection of these.
Nothing’s as good as a wristwatch. It just so happens I stopped by to buy one on the way in to work this morning – my Seiko died completely, and every other watch I have either has a dead battery or broken band. Seeing what Seikos cost makes me think maybe mine was fake, although it had a continuous sweeping hand. Replaced it with something called “Armitron” because no one was at the watch-jewely counter at 6:30 am, and I guess Armitron’s just aren’t pilferable enough to lock up.
Oh, yeah, the OP:
I carry a PDA and a cellphone, and neither is as simple and elegant as just rotating your wrist a couple of degrees and there. It helps having an analogue watch, too, because you know what time it is instantly without having to read and comprehend the numbers on a digital face.
Agreed. I much prefer analogue, despite growing up during western society’s fascination for digital watches. The trouble I always find is that 10:55am still appears very much attached to 10am. But a minute hand only 30 degrees from the vertical makes it far clearer that it’s nearly 11am. I know they say exactly the same thing, but obviously at a the most basic level I comprehend better visually than numerically.
But then digital watches are usually more accurate and also have other functions like automatically adjusting the date correctly, no matter what the month or year. What would be best is part analogue and part digital, but I’ve not yet found the ideal mix. Though that in part maybe due to me being a cheapskate who won’t pay a fortune for something likely to be broken, lost , stolen, or go out of fashion.
You could of course try writing the time on a piece of paper, and keeping that in your pocket.
I used to wear a wristwatch strapped to my ankle. Allowed me to check the time if I needed to, but kept me from compulsively clock-watching. Here’s another alternative version of the belt watch.
hehehe…I have an analogue watch (a Rolex no less) tattooed on my left wrist. Only accurate twice daily, at 4:20 a.m. and 4:20 p.m.
And I rely on my cell phone if I need more accuracy than my tat affords.
Futile,
One alternative is to replace the wrist watch with nothing whatsoever. Humankind made it nearly the entire duration of its existence without portable timepieces…
I agree with what most of the ex-wrist-watchers seem to be getting at: That it is a very liberating thing to be released from the grips of one’s wrist watch. When I finally stopped wearing one about four years ago, I suddenly became keenly aware of how often I had been checking my watch throughout the day - almost like a nervous habit. Also, being the type who is compulsively early for meetings and appointments, I was always racing the clock to be sure I wouldn’t get off schedule. If some idiot flew by you in a Saturn on I-95 a few years ago, that was me when I still wore a wrist watch. So naturally I was concerned about how losing the watch would affect my schedule. Fear not…
Your mind will adapt. Instead of having to look at your watch to know the time NOW, your brain will actually become more self-reliant, and you’ll realize that the time is now five minutes after the last time you saw a clock - or whatever. You’ll be forced to plan your activities a little more carefully, since you don’t have the instant time indicator acting like a crutch. I have a couple clocks at my home, but no timepiece on my person, or in my car. And I am still on time for all my appointments - I just don’t sweat about it, having to race the clock all the time.
Now if only I could climb stairs without having to count them as I go… :dubious:
A friend of mine has one of these in silver, which looks much fancier than the yellow and red shown: http://www.stupid.com/stat/LADY.html
Assume that wall clocks, auto clocks, computer clocks, etc. are ubiquitous enough that you don’t have to have a timekeeping device on your person. This is what I’ve done all my life. As a teenager, I found that I hated walking around with something strapped to my wrist (I won’t wear rings or chains, either). I just never got in the habit of wearing one. In fact, I have trouble adding anything to what I normally wear or carry in my pockets - I can’t make myself carry a PDA or cell phone either because I don’t like it hanging off me. I tolerate wearing special things associated with recreational activities, like a daypack to go hiking, but I seem to have a deep set aversion to wearing junk on daily basis.
Re Tattoo
I can’t find the LJ post where I discussed this in detail. But a subdermal watch implant could be made with existing technology.The whole thing would need to be sealed in clear plastic of some kind (it generally works with breast implants). The whole thing would be covered by skin, but an LED display would be visible. I believe the small power needs of the device could be met by using a miniature thermocouple to convert body heat into electricity. Adjustment of the time for daylight savings, travel to another time zone, and setting of alarms would be done by a small cradle device which communicated with the device by induction. A very small vibrating alarm should work. An audio alarm would either annoy people until it shut off automatically, or require the cradle to be carried all the time. A tiny device vibrating in your wrist should be easily noticable to the wearer without disturbing anybody else.