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The Watch.
As part of my attempt to unpack my wristwatch, I would like your feedback on how you use time. I want to know what you use to keep track of time. Some people might use their watch or their cell phone to track time, or they know the clock in their car is fast so they go by the one in their room. What do you use to keep track of time, and how often do you use it? Try to track how often you check the time, over the course of a day or even an hour. I think most people will find they actually track time much more closely than they realize.
Posted at Feb 27/2006 10:34PM:
Diana Medina: I rely on both my cell phone alarm clock as well as my regular alarm clock to wake me up in the morning. I have set my regular clock 10 minutes ahead, and that means the my cell alarm becomes my snooze button. Throughout the day I use my cell to track time and I do check it alot (during classes, whenever I go out, whenever I'm about to do work). I used to wear a wristwatch, but mainly for fashion because I still ended up relying on my cell phone for time. Now, though, I don't even bother wearing a watch as they have become annoying to wear.
Posted at Mar 02/2006 10:11AM:
Jennifer Ladd: I
always wear a watch and feel naked when I forget. There's something comforting about being able to know what time it is at any point in the day, especially when bored in that really long lecture. Also, as we speak, I am wearing that trusty watch, have a clock on my laptop, can see the time on my alarm clock right next to my laptop on the desk, know that there is a clock on the microwave and then another one on the bottom of the CNN headline banner...wow
Posted at Mar 02/2006 10:15AM:
Jennifer Ladd: Also, in terms of watches, I think an interesting comparison would be digital vs. analog...my brother swears by digital and claims that my watches are useless...I have the "stylish" watches I guess, the ones where it's not fashionable to even have the numbers so there is just a little dot where the 12, 3, 6, and 9 should be...also, as Diana wrote, many people seem to wear watches simply for the look...e.g. The Happy Sport...I'm pretty sure this one is more for admiring the floating, sparkling diamonds than for checking the time
Posted at Mar 02/2006 12:20PM:
[Maggie]: I have never been the kind to wear a watch. Even when I've received watches as a gift or the few times when my mom took me to a department store to specifically get me a watch to wear, it usually lasts on my wrist for only a few weeks. I don't like to wear watches because I find them uncomfortable (I don't like to wear bracelets either). I mainly use my cell phone to tell time or I'll ask my friends what time it is and get them to take out their cell phones even though I know I could just pull my own cell phone out of my bag. The last few times I remember actually wearing a watch was when I put one on as an accessory to an outfit. The watch doesn't even work!
Posted at Mar 13/2006 09:51PM:
Karl Pichotta: I hate that I carry a watch. But I must. Before I got my cell phone last year, I wore a pocket watch. I couldn't stand to wear a wristwatch because I would check it all the damn time. So I got a pocket watch (1) because it was frigging cool, and (2) so that it would take conscious effort to check my watch. I would have to reach into my pocket, yank on about a foot of chain, and pull out a watch. I couldn't do it without considerable effort. I now use the cell phone in my pocket as a watch (as I have three broken pocket watches to my name - they make those things really terribly). Really, having a cell phone is really the same - it's hard to reach into your pocket, pull out a cell phone, and press a button on the side of the phone without realizing that you're doing it.
Also, clocks very often make me think of Quentin in Faulkner's "The Sound and the Fury." The Reductio ad Absurdum of human existence, he called them. Now, I really have no idea what the hell that means, and have spent months trying to figure it out. I think I'll get it some day. Until then, I'll just assume Faulkner's pretentious and leave it at that.
Posted at Mar 14/2006 12:36AM:
Chun Kai Wang: Someone told me that Rolex watches are not watches. They are jewelry. When the CEO of Rolex was interviewed and the question was "How do you plan to compete with other watch makers such as Citizen?" And the CEO answers "We are in different industries". Apparently, people with Rolex watches let other people read the time off their watches when asked the time as opposed to reading it himself.
Posted at Mar 22/2006 11:35AM:
chris witmore: Hey Brenden. What strikes me is that we are not talking about 'time' as much as we are discussing 'clock-time.' What interests me is that the watch mediates a single time package of synchronization the world over. This was not always so and indeed this process was spurred in the 19th century by railroad timetables. This connects with your interest in airplanes. Remember trains also need a switchboard to monitor where trains are at all times. Swing by the Metamedia lab and have a quick look at Bowker's Chapter 1 in
Memory Practices in the Sciences if you have the
clock-time.
