Are Watches Making a Comeback on University Campuses?

[ThomGunn]

I'm curious? Do you prefer analog? Digital? No watch? Any specific brands or features you wouldn't wear a watch without?

 

[turbo]

I prefer a H3 wristwatch. Analog dial.

Many years since lab-work, but I putter around the house and garage and a reliable watch is important.

 

[dlgoff]

...I putter around the house and garage and a reliable watch is important.

Yea. At our age every minute becomes more important.

 

[jtbell]

For many years I've worn a cheap Casio digital watch with a stopwatch feature (chronograph). I use the stopwatch fairly often even outside the lab.

However, most students nowadays carry phones that have a stopwatch either built in or as an app. We need to keep only a few stopwatches handy in lab for the people that don't.

 

[ThomGunn]

This is why I was curious. I'm not one of the people who are constantly glued to their phones and it seems more practical to me that I use a watch. I was thinking that the stopwatch might be useful too.

There was also the hope of being linked to the ultimate wristwatch that solves differential equations for you...

 

[turbo]

There was also the hope of being linked to the ultimate wristwatch that solves differential equations for you...

Good luck with that. My life is simple. I have a wristwatch that tells time (and date). I have a cell phone that makes phone calls. It doesn't take pictures or any other fancy stuff. In my experience, simple devices tend to last a long while and give good service. I'd still be carrying my old pocket watch if It hadn't crapped out after about 10 years of service. I think it cost me a buck or two at the local corner store. I think it was a Scotty by Westclox. Worth every penny, though it probably succumbed to being carried in a sweaty, linty pocket for a decade.

 

[amos carine]

I just was given a mechanical pocket watch. I imagine winding it up every morning when I wake up and before I go to class this fall. But thinking realistically, I don't know how long that will last, especially when it's a wind per day deal.

 

[Evo]

I stopped wearing a watch once I started carrying a cell phone, they're redundant. I can see still wearing them as jewelry.

 

[amos carine]

They can be seen as redundant, two timepieces and all, but I think lots of things are redundant in nature. A heart ticks and the mind can tell you seconds, and I sure wouldn't want one hand counting faster than the other, say chopping fruit or something. I guess it's a matter of where you want to check it and what it brings up mentally. Phones are stressful, and I'd rather look at something simple, or do without.

 

[Evo]

They can be seen as redundant, two timepieces and all, but I think lots of things are redundant in nature. A heart ticks and the mind can tell you seconds, and I sure wouldn't want one hand counting faster than the other, say chopping fruit or something. I guess it's a matter of where you want to check it and what it brings up mentally. Phones are stressful, and I'd rather look at something simple, or do without.

I have a very old fashioned cell phone it makes calls and tells time.

 

[amos carine]

I have a very old fashioned cell phone it makes calls and tells time.

I haven't had a cell phone or land-line for a few months now, and I don't think I'll be getting a smart phone when I do have one again. I don't mind me not being able to call to talk and ask people for something, but sometimes they get irate with me when they can't call either!

 

[Evo]

I haven't had a cell phone or land-line for a few months now, and I don't think I'll be getting a smart phone when I do have one again. I don't mind me not being able to call to talk and ask people for something, but sometimes they get irate with me when they can't call either!

I disconnected my landline and DSl and saved $100 a month, until recently, my cell phone was free (my company paid it) now I get it at a discounted rate, so I'm still saving a fortune, but I have children that have insisted that I have a phone so that they can make sure I am alive.

I am with you on new technology, I don't need it.

 

[George Jones]

I always wear (even when I am setting up equipment) a somewhat expensive analog watch that my wife's parents gave me as a wedding present.

In 2005, I asked a class of 130 university students "How many of you don't regularly wear a watch?" Well over half the class said that they didn't. I just finished teaching a summer class of 15 students, and I asked them the same question. Only three or four said that they didn't wear a watch. I don't know if watches are making a comeback, or if this was just a statistical fluctuation in a small sample.

Lack of watches can be an inconvenience at times at university. Students use cell phones to cheat during exams, I know of several examples, including the final exam for a calculus course that my wife taught. recently Consequently, students cannot be allowed access to cell phones during exams.

Many examinations room do not have clocks, particularly for smaller classes, but, a year ago, I had a class of eighty students for which this happened. If there isn't a class display for a computer onto which a clock app can be projected, the instructor has to remember to call out the time (or write it on a black/whiteboard if available) every thirty minutes or so.