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My primitive digital watch

2020-05-20

    "... so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches
    are a pretty neat idea."
        
        - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

I'm one of those primitive people that holds onto a digital watch these days. In fact, at this point I'm so attached to my watch that it feels like I'm missing something as important as a wallet or keys when I'm not wearing it. Which is quite funny, considering I'm of the smartphone generation and thus I carry an ultra-advanced clock + everything else on me all the time anyway.

And it wasn't too long ago that I didn't wear a watch at all. Only in 2016 did I actually start wearing a watch and even then I only started because I was required to do so during my military service. However, during that service having access to a watch was crucial, both for practical and mental reasons. It's actually quite amazing how much mental comfort you can get in a weird place from just keeping up with the passing of time. Obviously you couldn't keep time with your phone, since you didn't have access to that most of the time.

After passing my military training and being sent to reserve, I didn't feel like stopping wearing it. Even when the strap on my previous watch broke, I simply replaced the watch with a new, relatively cheap one. I'm still not really sure if I get that much practical benefit from it. I think just about the only time I really exclusively keep time with it is when I wake up in the middle of the night and need to figure out how many more hours I can sleep. In this function the watch is better than a phone, since the light isn't overly bright and thus doesn't interfere with my sleep unlike my phone. In most other cases I probably could just my phone. I do obviously take advantage of the fact that I always have a watch on me, so if I really need to tell the time I typically default to checking my watch.

Occasionally my family tries to convince me to get one of those activity watches. They are all kind of obsessed with those things and on the surface level they have some cool little features. However, I've rejected them every time. I don't think I'd benefit from such an advanced watch. If I actually need to keep track of my steps I could do so using my phone and the heart rate and other extra advanced features don't seem too relevant to me. Not to mention the horrendous battery life. My current watch has been operating since 2017 without a battery change, their activity watches can barely do a week on a single charge.

So yeah, I think digital watches are pretty neat. Probably not neat enough for me to get a super expensive one but neat regardless. Even if probably the only real reason for me to have one is that I have been conditioned to expect it to be there, rather than for any massive practical benefits.