Do you usually wear a watch every day? If so, is it an “old-fashioned” (can you believe we have to write that?) analog watch or is it a digital watch, such as an Apple Watch or Fitbit?
According to the Wikipedia page on the history of watches (a fascinating read, if we do say so ourselves), “The origin of the word ‘watch’ suggests that it came from the Old English word woecce which meant ‘watchman’ because town watchmen used watches to keep track of their shifts. Another theory surmises that the term came from 17th-century sailors, who used the new mechanisms to time the length of their shipboard watches (duty shifts).”
Now ya know! Now, if you have the time (both literally and figuratively), please tell us if you wear a watch, and what kind, in the poll below. Thanks!
I stopped wearing one after smashing several of them while I was working.
I wear a Fitbit. Watch as jewelry when going out. Husband wears a watch & Fitbit and sleeps with both. His watch has an alarm, timer & stop watch. Why he needs alarm is beyond me….we are retired…lol. I use my iPhone if we absolutely need to be up earlier than normal. He uses timer all the time.
Haven’t worn a watch in 40 years. Don’t miss having Siri or Alexa listening in.
My digital watches are by Timex and Wyze. Two Timex Ironman watches, one with a conventional watchband and one with a velcro band. The Wyze watch is also digital, but claims to track my sleep, be able to measure my pulse/heart-rate, my oxygen level, and know how many calories I burn each day and how many steps I take each day. It was $30 directly from Wyze. It also has a stopwatch function, various count-down timers, and several alarms. I can even load pictures on it and pick one to be the watch face. Great deal, great company!
A Rolex
2142
The day I retired I took off my watch. I don’t even know where it is. Haven’t looked back in 20 years!!!
Wear an Apple Watch to detect A-Fib. I even sleep with it because that is when it starts.
I said no, but I really do wear a watch. Once I retired I had a tattoo of a watch on my wrist. Based on a song by Jimmy Buffett (Breathe In, Breathe Out, Move On), my watch is never wrong. There are no numbers or moving parts and it always says NOW! I love showing it off too!
When I was working, I always wore a watch. When I quit one of the last jobs I worked at, the staff all pitched in to get me a watch as a going away gift which I wore for 18 months at a new job until I retired for good. After I retired, which was a little over 10 years ago, the watch went into a drawer. I eventually bought a Fitbit and used it for a couple of years until the band became loose. I didn’t bother to replace the band on the FitBit, so it went into the drawer, too. I now just use my iPhone. My daughter and son-in-law each have an Apple Watch which they rave about, but my iPhone works just fine for me.
haven’t worn a watch since high school (1968).
I have a couple of high end watches I purchased in the military in my travels. Once retired from military I shed the watches. State service didn’t wear a watch. clock on the wall and computer. retired again and done with time except appointment and choses are on my phone. Don’t care about time for it’s mine after all these years. Feels good, very good.
Most digital watches are not Apple, Fitbit, etc.
I wear a Suunto multi-function digital watch.
Took my watch off the day I retired; symbolic of the freedom I felt.
Old fashioned wind-up watch. Can tell time at a glance. Digital – I have to stop and convert, in my head, 10:45 to mean a quarter to eleven. That takes time. I don’t have to find a battery and the darn things cost more than the watch. I am naked without a watch and pocket knife. Pocket knife – that is why I quit flying. No one is getting my pocket knife that I have carried every day since Dad gave my first one at age seven. I wish I still had my first Hopalong Cassidy wrist watch!
Interesting. I also do not fly and would be naked without a vintage knife in my back pocket (50+ years) and a newer, extremely sharp one in my front pocket. The sharp one is for when I am served an extremely tough steak somewhere and they either give me a plastic knife or a butter knife. I can cut the steak even if I cannot chew it. My watch has been in a drawer since I retired; much more fun to guess the time and check with a clock.
Sandra and I both wear Fitness Trackers that has a time and date function. It also tracks our steps, calories consumed (from the amount of steps taken), monitors our deep and light sleep and our blood pressure. Only on special social occasions will we wear an actual watch. Stay safe, Stay well
It was a rotating door, cell phone came in and watch went out. Phone had time on it so I no longer needed the watch. As a mechanic for many years I went through a couple watches a year.
I stopped wearing a watch back when I was in studying for my ministry degree. That was when our professor warned about looking at your watch during a counseling session. He said it can make you appear distracted and that you’re not listening. This was part of his, “what can impede effective counselling” lecture.
Best to have a clock you can surreptitiously glance at behind or beside the client .
I have an older Fitbit I’ve used for years, after my Microsoft HealthTracker completely fell apart (three months after they stopped support for them….) and I still wear it. The VA has a program with Fitbit that gives you a sweet discount on their gear. You can see what they offer here, but you have to sign up for the program (if you qualify for VA benefits) through your VA account.
https://www.fitbit.com/global/us/store/vadiscount/products
Can’t do the survey, I wear both a analog and a apple watch depending on whether I’m working around the house or going out.
Retired. Have clock in phone, and wife whom I just bought new watch, if I need to know.
I haven’t worn a watch since the day I retired almost 20 years ago.
Question: I’ve been a paid reader of this publication for many years and it seems like almost once a week (if I want to comment on a discussion) I have to reenter my name/email. I even check the box for “Save my data for the next time I comment”, but lo and behold, I have to enter it all again. Care to answer?
Hi, Ron. I’m sorry you’re having that issue. I don’t have an answer, but I’ve forwarded your question to Jessica, one of our more tech-savvy staff. Hopefully she can help you resolve this annoying problem. Have a great day. 🙂 –Diane
Hi Ron. We don’t actually have you log in to post a comment. Since you don’t log in to post, we just require you to enter in your information to verify you aren’t a bot. That means a cookie is set that will only hold your data on our site for 10 days or so. Sorry for the inconvenience. we hope you still continue to post!
I too have to re-enter my information. It seems that if I sign in and comment from the same location (without logging in from a different location in the meantime) the information is retained, BUT if I open RV T from a different location and then return to another location, I have to re-enter all information again. Make sense????
BUT, it doesn’t happen all the time either.
I wear a fitbit but change the face to analog. Also change out bands to match what I wear.
As an RN I had to wear a watch with a second hand. I took off the watch when I retired after 45 years in the field and haven’t worn one since. I don’t set an alarm unless I need to be somewhere at a specific time.
Without a watch, I wouldn’t know the time, date or day of the week.
I find an analog watch gives me a better idea of the relative time of the day than a digital watch.
I worked a field service job most of my life, before cell phones. I had to wear a watch to document my time on service orders. I still wear an analog watch. Feel naked without it.
I do carry a cellphone but it’s much easier to glance at my wrist instead of pulling out the phone.
Yes, I wear a digital watch (Timex Ironman), but it is not a “smart” watch like an Apple Watch, Fitbit, etc.
I’m retired but still wear an analog watch as I can sense, in a instant and without thinking, how much time I have left before something else of interest is to occur.
Wearing a watch is part of the uniform,our bus company requires you wear a watch,however when I retire so will wearing a watch everyday.
No. Took it off on the day I retired. Never put it back on. Never plan to.
Uh-zactly!
I have always wore a watch, but once the wife retired I only wear one when we go shopping or doctor appointments,
I have a phone. No need for a watch. But since we retired we don’t care too much about the time.
Since my military time. exact time was highly important in my military function. I always have a watch, digital smart watch now. Able to read blood o2 level and rate at will.
I didn’t have a watch on for years until I got an Apple watch. I now have it on all day. It’s probably because I’m a nerd. But it is great for seeing how much walking I’m doing!
When I retired, a little over fifteen years ago, I took off my wristwatch and have not worn a wristwatch since. However, I admit to wanting to know the time, so instead of a wristwatch I wear a watch that clips on my belt, like a cell phone case does. It flips up and stores so that the face of the watch doesn’t get scratched and also so that when I flip it down it is oriented such that I can read it without having to take it off my belt.
I’ve been wearing wrist watches since I was 14 when my parents gave me a self winding Bulova for my birthday. The only time I didn’t wear a watch was when I was in boot camp, and I didn’t need it there because the D.I. told us what time it was, pushups, double time, chow time, etc. lol
My iPhone serves as my watch/clock. Years back before smart phones I used to wear a watch while I was still working.
Ditto here! As a first responder, always had a watch. When I retired over 16 yrs ago, off came the watch. Who needs a watch nowadays since the iPhone?! Time flies anyway, why watch it!
Nope, I have no where important to go now that Im a retired disabled person. I followed the watch for 35 years.
Same here. Don’t miss it neither. Just one less time piece to reset twice a year.
The day I retired the watch came off. No meetings, no deadlines-no watch!
I always like having an atomic watch (synched to timekeeping radio waves) so I always know the exact true time even when others don’t. Probably the engineer in me.
I hadn’t worn a watch in 40 years or so, two years ago our children bought us Apple watches for Christmas, I felt obligated to wear it. It took several months to remember to charge it and put it back on. Even now I sometimes forget to put it on after charging, new habits are hard to form.
Always had a watch on when working. I collected them like women collect shoes – for the last 50 years. I still have a drawer full of them. After retiring I no longer needed the ridid constraints of time. Instead, my wife got me a day of the week clock because she was tired of my asking what day it was. So a day of the week watch might be appropriate. But then again, I only need to know if it was Sunday or not.
Once retired and on the road full-time, who needs a watch!
Since 1961, it is a Timex Digital Ironman, thankfully not a smart watch.
Not always anything!
Most always digital. Occasionally an analog.