Before the advent of the cellular telephone, pretty much any self respecting person would not be caught without a timepiece on their wrist. Nowadays, most people prefer the convenience of the cell phone, or "21st Century Pocket-watch" (that's what I call it), and I think that's a shame, because the good old-fashioned analog wristwatch is a timeless essential that I think every man and woman should have. Why should you wear one? Let me explain...

1. It Tells Time!

Yeah, duh. But let's not forget that it tells time conveniently on your wrist, without having to dig through your pocket or purse for your phone. All you have to do is turn your hand and look slightly down (or better yet, pull it up to your face for what I call "the dramatic movie-style watch look-at"). They are also usually accurate within a minute depending on the type of course, and the quartz models last a year or two without a battery replacement. Now, I know what you're thinking "my phone is always accurate to within a millisecond all the time!" Well, I don't know about your phone, but my phone has been acting strange lately and sometimes seems to stop time, so it may be 20-30 minutes slower than the actual time. Don't put too much faith in your trusty phone, it may mislead you!

2. It Tells Direction!

Any old analog (or digital if you use some imagination) watch can tell direction as long as you can see the sun and know which hemisphere you are in (if you are close to the equator you will need to know what time of year it is too). If you want more info, read my blog post on Navigating Without a GPS here.

3. It Looks Classy

A good looking analog watch is a timeless piece of men's and women's fashion and has been for over a century. For men, it is one of the only pieces of jewelry we can acceptably wear in pretty much all situations. What defines a "good-looking" watch will depend on the beholder, but for men you should be fine with a simple dial and leather strap. Metal bracelet watches are also acceptable in most circumstances, but are generally referred to as "sports watches" and are not considered as elegant as a leather-banded watch. I personally have 3 watches that I rotate in my daily wear, one with a metal bracelet, one with a brown leather strap, and one with a black leather strap. Having these three gives me a lot of versatility with the rest of my outfit, but if you are just starting out then assess your daily wear and choose which one you like best. A metal bracelet watch is probably the most versatile, you can wear it with casual clothes or a suit with no problems, but to me it is a tad overdone these days, so I would say to perhaps start off with one but work to add some leather-banded models eventually. Whichever one you choose, a good looking watch can really complete an outfit and make you look like a confident and responsible adult.

As for women's watches...I don't really know a lot about these, but historically they are much smaller than men's watches and can usually have a larger variety of bracelet and face types. That being said, I know it is something of a fashion trend these days for women to wear large (pretty much men's sized) watches that are very shiny, and I don't really know if I like the look or not. I think that a small and elegant looking watch for a woman is pretty timeless, and you are probably less likely to look at it 5 years down the road and go "ha, those were the days!"

One more thing about sizes, I don't know if it is because women's watches are getting bigger, but men's watches are getting enormous and don't seem to show any signs of slowing down. I personally don't like this trend as I have small wrists, and if I were to wear a giant men's watch it would look like it is wearing me. So, if you are a guy, choose a watch that fits your wrist nicely, but don't get one that the face completely overlaps, as it will just make your wrist look smaller. If you have massive wrists and can wear a giant watch with no problems, then more power to ya.

4. It Conveys Responsibility

This goes with #3 a little, but is more of a philosophical reason than a sensory one. Like I said in the first paragraph of this post, it used to be a standard for people to wear a watch, and in the early days of timepieces it was a sign of status. Early watches were expensive and could only be afforded by wealthy people, who were also the types of people most likely to need a watch, as they were important and had places to go, people to see, etc. It was also a necessity for certain professions and activities, such as piloting and SCUBA diving (these two activities spawned a multitude of watch brands that are alive to this day). So, the combination of status and practicality led watches to be associated with, well, people of status who knew what they were doing. Over time, watches became more available to the masses, and in the 80s with the "quartz revolution," they became cheap enough that anyone could afford to have an extremely accurate watch. Even so, the perception of watches as symbols of responsibility has continued and is still alive to this day, although now it is more of a subliminal message. You see, if someone sees you wear a watch, they may not directly think "that person is wearing a watch, they must be responsible," but it will combine with the rest of your overall appearance to create a persona that someone will perhaps interpret as responsible or trustworthy.

This is even more true today with the decline of watches and the rise of cell phones. It is assumed that everyone has a phone and thus a way to tell time, so when you wear a watch it suggests that you are going over and beyond what is necessary in order to tell time. It seems like a little thing, but in industrial societies the perception and knowledge of time is a very deeply rooted and fundamental attribute that resonates with people on many levels. If you are young and just starting out in a career, then wearing a nice (not necessarily expensive) watch will help you get a good first impression with your boss or other VIPs at your workplace. If they wear a watch themselves, then they might take note of yours, and even if you are wearing a $100 watch and they are wearing a $10,000 watch, they will see that you have good taste and appreciate that you are passionate enough to make the effort of having a nice watch even though your financial situation may not allow an extremely expensive one. If, on the other hand, they look down upon your watch as inferior and think less of you for trying to pass off a cheap watch as "nice", then I would say that they are just a rich douchebag and you shouldn't concern yourself too much about it.

5. An Analog Watch Gives a Better Concept of Time Than a Digital Watch

So, the previous reasons told that analog watches were classier, dressier, etc. than digital watches, but some studies have shown that analog gauges are actually better for perception than digital ones. What does this mean? Think of it this way, a digital watch gives you the exact time to the second, or at least the minute. It's easy to look at a digital display and say "it's 4:23 p.m.," but what is really going on in your brain? That time is just interpreted as a number, it means very little until you can associate it with something. The reason why we want to know time is usually due to us wanting to know how long it is until we have to do something. Say you have to be somewhere at 4:30 p.m., then your brain would interpret the previous time as "it is 4:23, I need to be somewhere at 4:30, this means I have 4:30-4:23 = 7 minutes until I have to be there. That's all good and well, but it took some extra brain work. With an analog display, your brain doesn't necessarily do any math, it just looks at the hands and spatially perceives the time. This means that it is in many cases quicker to get a good perception of time with an analog display, although it may be harder to tell someone what time it is.

While this may not seem important when it comes to telling time (did that extra brainwork really take that much effort?) but it is of vital importance when designing things like airplane cockpits or car dashboards. We've had the ability to put digital speedometers and RPM gauges in our cars for decades now, so why don't we have them? Simply because analog displays cause people to fixate less on the exact number and gives them a better idea of things like how their speed or RPM is changing (I know some cars have HUD digital speed displays, and I personally don't like them and find them distracting). To see how this affected airplane gauges, and a study was done in 1986 by Koonce, et al. that investigated how people responded to digital instrument panels, and the results showed that digital displays were harder to learn and resulted in more errors.

So get an analog watch! They look great, are practical, and will show the world that you mean business!

References: