What Good Is A Watch If All It Does Is Tell Time?

It's probably a safe bet that you own a watch, and more than likely you have it on your wrist right now! Go ahead, proudly display your watch right now! While you are admiring your watch, compare the time displayed on your watch with other watches around you, or with other time devices. Most likely the times displayed are different from your watch. Do you wonder which one is correct? Do you fret not knowing what the "real time" is? Does it matter? Do you really care?

Recently I experienced a very traumatic event. I discovered that my two watches stopped working. For them time was standing still, yet for me time kept ticking on and I was at a loss because I did not have immediate access to a time piece. For those of you who think that you are not clock watchers, just go for one day without a watch on and note how often that you look at your bare wrist for the time and then look elsewhere for the time. For me, it became a very disturbing experience and quite unaccommodating not to have time on my side - that is, on my wrist.

My quest became to purchase a new watch while autopsies were being performed to determine the demise of my two comatose watches (dead time)! In my quest, the question arose: What do I want a watch to do for me? That is, do I want a watch just to display the time or shall I impose other criteria?

Still at a loss having not yet purchased a new watch, I am reluctantly bound for the "time being" to wear a watch not up to my standards. I need some help so I pose the question to you, my honored and trustworthy reader, what kind of a watch should I be looking for? In other words, what good is a watch if all it does is tell time?

Let's start with the basics: A watch should provide one with the time - period; or perhaps that's a question mark? You see, just displaying the time is not that simple because there are many implications and considerations in that one simple requirement to "tell the time".

For example:
1) Accuracy: Is plus or minus a few seconds adequate or shall it synchronize to the National Atomic Clock with an accuracy of a millionth of one second deviation over two hundred years? Hey, that may be a critical decision when it comes to timing popcorn in a microwave oven!

2) Analog or digital: Do you realize that with the proliferation of digital displays how many of our youth today do not realize that Mickey Mouse has one arm longer that the other? I'll let you ponder that for a moment.
- If opting for an analog display, do I want each minute marked on the watch face? Do I want a second hand? Do I want a separate dial for the second hand so I can become mesmerized by the speed of that tiny hand screaming around that tiny dial, just watching time fly!
- If opting for a digital display, do I want the seconds displayed? Do I want the the twelve-hour or the twenty-four hour display? Fortunately, most digital watches offer both formats thus precluding us from wearing two separate digital watches at once.

3) Calendar: Do I also want to have displayed the date? How about the weekday and the date? How about the month too? And the year too? How about one with a perpetual calendar that automatically compensates for Leap years?

4) Waterproof or water resistant: And how many meters do I need the watch to resist water intrusion? Let's face it, will I be satisfied with a watch that will keep on ticking after a quick dip in a six-foot deep pool or with a watch that is guaranteed for over (or is it under) 300 meters. That reassurance may provide me with many a restful night.

DECISIONS - DECISIONS - DECISIONS

But, our decision menu has just begun! Today, in this time (to be semantically correct), with current technology just knowing the time and date 300 meters underwater in just not sufficient at all; substandard at least! Where would we be in this competitive and demanding world if all our watch did was to tell the time?

Why buy a watch that just tells the time when you can have a watch that:
- Plays Beethoven's Fifth on the hour or fraction thereof;
- Has a stop-watch function which is critical for timing grass growing;
- Multiple alarms that always seem to sound in the middle of a meeting or during church services;
- Doubles as a TV or VCR / DVD remote controller;
- Monitors your pulse or your blood pressure;
- Beeps in sync with your jogging pace;
- Vocalizes the time at the touch of a button;
- Dual time-zone functions so you know what time it is where you are not;
- Timers that count up or down;
- Offers a full-function calculator;
- and some watches even claim to light-up the night sky with its luminance!

All these functions and MORE...But...What more could one expect from a watch? Well, there is the Data-Link watch with which you can down-load from your personal computer such scripted messages and events such as:
- A fully programmable calendar with reminders and alarms to remind you of events such as meetings, birthdays, etc,.
- An address and telephone directory;
- Messages and memos;
- All functions one expects from a "Day-Timer" PLUS most of the features mentioned above.

And guess what else this modern-day Data-Link watch does - you won't believe this - go ahead and guess, I'll wait...

Yes - it tells the time!!!!!!!!

So, really, what good is a watch if all it does is tell time?

(Technical Presentation: Achievers Toastmasters Club circa 1995)