What would it take to bring the wristwatch back to relevance

When most people leave their homes today, they bring two tools with them everywhere they go. They strap a wristwatch on their wrist and slip a mobile phone into a belt pouch or handbag. In the past two decade, the mobile phone has morphed from a wireless telephone to a pocket computer. Todays typical wristwatch is based on technology half a century old. Yes, there have been improvements in metallurgy and materials used, but nothing which there is nothing much you would miss if you put on your grandfather watch. 

Digital watches, arrived, became the mainstream and quickly occupied a niche market for professional needing wrist tools.  But, fashion trends relegate these devices to purpose drive tools that can only be worn during limited occasions. When we remove our exercise gear, we slip off our 10-in-1 device, and slip on a mechanical timepiece which tells time and the date.

For my generation, the wristwatch is piece of your daily wear. Something you got use to putting on every day. Some people put a wrist watch on their wrist every day without realizing that they never use it. I do not know how many time I have seen a friend pull out a mobile phone rather than glance at his wrist when telling time. Truth be told for many, a watch is really just a fashion accessory like a piece of jewelery. For the younger generation, a lot do not even bother with the wristwatch.

I just a decade ago when I would carry all kinds of "tools" in my briefcase when going on to work or taking a trip. A pen, pencil, notepad, a planner, a few files, books or reference materials, and on vacations maybe a map, camera and a novel or bestseller. Today, well I still have the same briefcase I used I bought fifteen years ago, but it is now wrapped in plastic in a cabinet. 

The most I would carry with me now is a small 3-pound laptop, smartphone, wristwatch, wallet. On vacations I would camera with my clothes. The smartphone is actually starting to threaten the camera. If I did not buy one several years back, I probably would not bother anymore today. That is one other "tool" which looks like it is headed to extinction in my repertoire of gadgets.

The only thing I have continued to use, despite the fact that its practical usefulness ended a long time ago is the wristwatch.   

A Suunto X-Lander: Altimeter, barometer and compass.

Companies like Casio and Suunto continue to make digital watches with multiple alarms, stop watches, countdown timers, altimeters, barometers, a compass, depth gauges, dive charts and heart rate monitors. They can keep perfect time by syncing with Atomic Clocks and virtually never need a battery replacement as they can be powered by the sun.

But the reality is that the form factor is too small to add to many modern innovations. Calculators integrated to watches, looked cool, for awhile, but in reality were to difficult to use. Today, your mobile phone is likely to have a calculator anyway. A compass is fine, but GPS navigation and maps are really more useful. Can you imagine trying to read your email or post your status update from a wristwatch?  

The second reality, is that many of the innovations we need on a daily basis have not been integrated into wristwatches. Low resolution LCD displays and tiny buttons hamper the wristwatch as too useful a tool.

Portable music players have sold in the hundred of millions. However, a strap the converts your Apple iPod Nano, into a wristwatch while a cool idea is hampered by the fact  that the Nano does not support bluetooth headsets, and I do not think anyone would be comfortable sticking a 3.5mm jack from their headset to device on their wrist. 

inPulse has watches that pairs a phone, laptop or desktop over Bluetooth and displays important information like caller ID, text messages, email titles, calendar alerts. Caller ID on the wrsitwatch would be useful for someone using a bluetooth headset. 

For a certain generation. I think we like our watches the way they are. But the younger generation needs a really good reason to strap one on their wrist. In a survey in 2006, investment bank Piper Jaffray & Co. found that nearly two-thirds of teens never wear a watch — and only about one in 10 wears one every day.

Another poll found although 86 per cent of people still own a watch, more than nine in ten own a mobile. And those aged 25 or younger were twice as likely as those in their forties or fifties to have stopped wearing a watch, with 28 per cent not having one. As time moves on, less and less people will be wearing wristwatches.

Maybe with high resolution displays and touchscreen functionality, the digital watch might bring that watch back to relevance with the younger generation. Do our fine mechanical watches die with us?