New Smartwatch

 

My first watch, gifted to me at about the age when I began to read words and equate times with TV shows, had Li'l Abner's countenance on the dial.  I did not know who Li'l Abner was, but at the time the adaptation of the strip had just reached Broadway.  Within a short time, that comic which appeared in the New York Daily News, Sunday's in color, would become priority reading.  I learned that the Presidents of the decade include reading it in their morning schedules but for very different reasons.  I do not recall if that was my last watch with a popular theme on the dial. 

All subsequent watches served a more utilitarian purpose, to let me know the time.  I needed to know this for a variety of reasons, initially to not miss my preferred TV shows or when to return to class after a break.  As standardized tests became pervasive, doing my best on them required a certain amount of pacing.  The room in which I recorded answers with a No. 2 pencil did not always have a clock in easy line of sight.  No sponsor ever prohibited a watch, some even included this it its things to bring to the exam.

I always bought cheap watches, Timex or similar generic.  Some had leather straps, some metal expansion ones.  Each would leave an indentation on my skin.  All had a plain face with Arabic Numerals.  Sometimes all 12, sometimes only 12-3-6-9.  I do not recall any with Roman numerals, though there might have been.  I rarely had to get a new band.  The watch would usually need replacement first, sometimes by a baseball smashing the crystal, more often by the wind mechanism failing.

When digital battery watches came out, I took an instant liking to them.  They were cheap, almost disposables, at least the on sale brands that I bought from the local discount stores, probably beginning in the 1980s.  Numeric dials were fine, but I especially liked the accessory buttons that set a timer or an alarm or backlit the numbers.  Those have short lifespans, though I learned quickly how to change the button batteries.  Despite their utility and economy, few stores sell them anymore.

Like most innovations, what we now call Smartwatches carried a high price tag as novel products.  Once patents expired and mass production moved to Asia, a very functional product could be had for a song.  E-commerce transferred their availability from my usual stores to Amazon.  My first one took some effort to set up, but served me well.  Its vibration mechanisms began to fail after a couple of years.  The charger eventually malfunctioned.  I ordered a replacement that looked like its charger, but they are not interchangeable.  It did not fit.  Just as soon spend the $40 and have a new, slightly upgraded timepiece for a couple of years.

It arrived.  Not easy to use.  Came mostly charged, or at least enough to program.  This was easy for a 20-something, not so easy for a septuagenarian.  Even putting the band on took some effort.  Reading one sentence at a time in the manual I got the app onto my phone and the Bluetooth to recognize the watch.  Could enter my age, email, height and weight.  Choose a dial face that I can change later.  I did not have to set the time.  I assume it will reset if I ever cross time zones, as I did on the road trip. My pulse is nice to know when finish my treadmill sessions, now on hold due to illness.  And I really find the countdown timer useful for all sorts of things, from the kitchen to coping with insomnia.  And for only $40, almost disposable.  I think next time I need something from Amazon, I'll add a new charger that fits my old watch, though I really don't know if the failure comes from the watch or from the charger.  Then I'll have a spare.