What’s on your wrist? It’s really emerged as a generational dividing line whether you wear a watch or not. The younger you are, the less likely you probably are to wear a watch. I’m 55 and it is automatic to me to put a watch on in the morning. I’d feel naked without one. Yet those under 35 may not even own a watch. They rely on their cell phone to tell time.
Imagine you’re in the watch business. There’s not a very promising future for you, right? Well, I recently read in The New York Times about how watchmakers are meeting younger customers where they are.
A watch that just tells the time is so last millennium. Instead, the watches of today and tomorrow have to be a full information, communications and entertainment center. There are iTunes watches, watches that play video games, and they even have watches with built-in cell phones for sale in Asia. We’re talking true Dick Tracy stuff. I believe we’re not far away from having video chat on watches.
I think this Christmas you’ll see watches that take the “Swiss Army knife” approach by throwing in the kitchen sink on your wrist as far as modern technology goes. For the guy who is impossible to buy for, this will be the next thing you can get that gathers dust. Why do I say that? Because the problem is what you think they want is never exactly what they want! But I still think there will be a strong market for devices that will be watches of the future as early as Christmas 2011.
As for me, my watch tells me local time, date, the time all around the world and it has an alarm and a stop watch. That’s all I need. And my Casio was just $19.99!
