Ask yourself, what does your watch say about you? Has it ever crossed your mind what your watch says about you? Chances are you’re among the many who have thought about switching to a smart-watch. And, fair enough too.
It can send emails and tell you what the weather will be next Tuesday, your current heart rate and if you need to walk a few more laps around the office in order to make your daily step count. Yet, although your smart-watch might make you appear more tech-forward, many would argue it is not doing anything for your personality or first impression.
Higher Level of Conscientiousness
A white paper released by the University of Lancaster and York, UK, which compared personality traits between individuals that wear conventional wristwatches against ones that do not, raised some interesting points. The results showed that those who wore traditional watches not only showed higher levels of conscientiousness, but also arrived significantly earlier to appointments. But how can this be?
With all the exciting features, you would assume that increased productivity would be a given. This, however, is not the case. Due to all the distractions that having a watch connected to your social media accounts brings, smartwatches have been shown to decrease productivity. In addition, due to their poor battery life, many people found their devices dying on them when they needed them most. Meaning, many waste time charging their accessories just to tell the time.
Do CEOs prefer Traditional Watches?
A study undertaken and published in TechHive showed that CEOs prefer traditional watches over smartwatches, not just on their wrists – but on yours too. Even the more luxurious devices being labelled as looking ‘cheap’. So why is everyone buying them, you ask?
Well, they’re not.
Although, wildly popular when entering the market, it didn’t take long before the early success stories began to disappear. Often Labelled as “underwhelming and overpriced”, the main reasons for the quick disinterest could be linked back to bulky size, high price and that the functionality was too limited for what you were paying for. The sales of smartwatches as reported by the International Data Corporation (IDC) has dropped by 32% on a year-by-year basis, whilst the sales of Fitbits have dropped by nearly half in the last quarter, from 5.7 million to 3.4 million devices.
Traditional Watches
The good news? Traditional watches are back! And not only will they get you to your meetings on time and catch the eye of your boss, but they also will not restart on you, need an iOS update or tell you to get up from your desk to ensure you hit that daily steps quota. What else could you want in a watch?
General Manager, Grant Menzies, argues that while smartwatches have changed the watch-making game, there is a notable resurgence of traditional and analog watches.
Bespoke Watches
“Although, smart-watches have been growing in popularity over the last few years, it has actually benefited us to a degree – people are now looking for unique timepieces with a strong story in order to stand out from the masses,” he says.
“We’ve always been handcrafting our watches and have even produced industry-specific watches that cater to deep-diving, mining and even extreme mountaineering. And, on the back of this, we have actually had the opportunity to produce three bespoke watches that accompanied the Ascent Himalayas Team on their Mt Lhotse and Mt Everest ascent last year. Tell, me how many smart-watches can claim that?”
A smartwatch, if you flick your wrist in just the right way, may tell you the time and how many unopened emails you have backed up. However, many, including Mr Menzies, would argue that they will never live up to the aesthetic style and character analogue watches bring when worn.
So next time you find yourself in the market for a new watch, remember to ask yourself what it is actually for, before you rush toward the latest gadget watch. Do you really need another hi-tech distraction or just a time-iron, in which case, there is not much that can stand up to a good old quality watch. Tic Toc!
