AFTER 138 years as a fashion accessory, status symbol, and timekeeper for the civilised world, the wristwatch is finally going the same way as the sundial — into technological obsolescence.
Popularised during the First World War, when the Army handed them out to officers for synchronising attacks, and long considered an essential device for the busy professional, the wristwatch has been made redundant by the mobile phone, PDA and, inevitably, the iPod. These electronic gadgets not only tell the time, but also update themselves when crossing datelines.
But the business jetset is not to blame for the passing of the device first invented in 1868 by Patek Philippe & Co. of Geneva. Sales of diamond- encrusted status symbols such as Rolexes and Breitlings are doing well.
Instead, it is the modern teenager who is killing the wristwatch, according to the Doneger Group, a fashion-merchandising consultant in New York.
In 2005, sales of wristwatches that cost between $30 and $150 (£17 and £85) — the price bracket most appealing to teenagers and adults in their twenties — fell by 10 per cent.
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Watches in other price ranges saw only single-digit growth, while wholesale sales of fashionable Fossil-branded watches within the US fell by 13 per cent during the three months to October 1 last year — their fifth consecutive quarter of year-to-year declines.
The worst news for the wristwatch industry came from the country most famous for its timepieces: Switzerland. Exports of youth-targeted plastic Swiss watches, such as Swatches, fell by 12 per cent from January to October compared with the previous year.
Nick Wiera, 21, from Milwaukee, is typical of the generation that no longer tells the time by looking at its wrist. “Ever since I was little, I’ve been given watches as gifts, but I just don’t like them on my wrist,” he said. “I usually just look at my cell phone, and that’s how I tell the time.”
Justin Nahin, 15, agreed: “I found that any electronic device I can get at a store, like an iPod or MP3 player, Game Boy, pretty much has a watch in it,” he said. “It makes watches seem a bit obsolete.”
Those who dedicated their lives to inventing the portable time-telling device would no doubt be disheartened.
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The oldest known clock was built in Milan in 1335, with England’s earliest timepiece being erected in Salisbury Cathedral 51 years later. The demand for portable clocks came during the 15th century from sailors who wanted to measure longitude. Pendulum-based clocks were useless at sea, leading to the development of a portable circular device powered by a steel mainspring.
Henry VIII was said to keep a portable timepiece on a chain around his neck. Early pocket watches had no minute hand, with the expression “just a minute” coming into general circulation many years later along with the wristwatch.
When Patek Philippe & Co. invented the wristwatch, it was considered a woman’s accessory. It was made manly by Louis Cartier, who gave a leather-band timepiece to his friend, the Brazilian aviation pioneer Albert Santos-Dumont, for use on his aeroplane. During the First World War officers soon found it was quicker (and safer) to consult a wristwatch than fumble inside their uniform jacket for a pocket watch.
Eventually, the Army started to hand them out free, because they allowed attacks to be launched at precise moments. After the war soldiers were allowed to keep the watches and they eventually became a mass-market product.
Although digital watches threatened to make spring-wound timepieces obsolete in the 1980s they survived the fad largely intact. But they have not been so successful when pitted against the mobile phone.
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But wristwatch companies are fighting back. Swatch has launched a model called the Paparazzi which provides news, horoscopes and nightlife listings on a digital display.
Other watch manufacturers are focusing on fashion, allowing teenagers to customise their wristwear. And some young consumers are bizarrely reconsidering using the pocket watch as a timekeeping mechanism because they have grown used to pulling out their mobile phones.