is it the marketing or am I just an old fart?

Dick tracy watchAfter what I consider a slow start, I am seeing more and more Apple wrist watches.

These watches are almost what the Dick Tracy comics of yesteryear predicted would be on people’s wrists.

Only better.

And more expensive.

You can check mail, messages, music, your heartbeat and steps and, somewhere in there, you figure out what time it is.

In short, the super cool techie stuff about this wristwatch should mean I should have one by now.

Checklist item #1: It’s a tech gadget and it works with my other tech gadgets

Checklist item #2: It’s an Apple product and I already have a bunch of those so the watch and those devices could work together…ah synergy!

Checklist item #3: Range of pricing means I wouldn’t have to spend a ton to get one

Checklist item #4: I collect wrist watches – I have for years and have all kinds – this item should be right up my alley

And yet I have not purchased the Apple Watch and really haven’t had any desire to do so. None.

So what’s wrong with me?

Well plenty, but for this post let’s just focus on why I don’t feel the need for an Apple Watch.

Watches 1970 2017When I see the Apple Watch, my mind drifts back to the 1970’s and the new (to that time) LED display watches that were all the rage.

These watches looked like ordinary watches except the face was completely black. To see the time you had to use your other hand to press a button on the wrist watch and up would pop an red LED display of the time. Or date. And that’s pretty much it.

These watches were initially selling for hundreds and thousands of dollars and even as a grammar school student I was obsessed with them. I saw those watches and HAD to have one.

Now folks, I need to be clear, the technology in these watches was minimal. What you see today in an LED display was what was in these watches. That. Was. It.

Somebody in China must have made billions off the stupid Americans. More power to them – that’s just good old consumer marketing.

My parents got me a very cheap version of an LED display watch and I thought I was the coolest kid around.

But I realized soon just how stupid this was – now I needed an extra had just to tell time. I couldn’t just look at my wrist, I needed my other hand to reach over to its opposite wrist and press a button. Where is the convenience in that?!

So now, when I see the Apple Wrist Watch, that’s what I think: where the convenience in that?

I’ve already got a phone that does everything the Watch does (and more) on a larger screen. Plus with the watches I have, I don’t have to recharge them like you do with an Apple Watch.

But my demographic profile and socio-economic status says I should want, nay, need an Apple Watch.

Is this this me being an old fuddy-duddy? Or am I being smart?

You’ll have to let me know because, as usual, I have no idea.

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