The Wristwatch Looks For a New Use
[1] Last year while writing about students entering their first year of college I made an interesting
observation: these newly commissioned freshmen don’t use wristwatches. In fact, the wristwatch is so
alien to this group of late teens that even the mere action of pointing to a wrist to ask someone the time
is akin to speaking an unfamiliar foreign language. (They use mobile phones and laptops to tell the time.)
[5] Equipped with this knowledge, 5 we could be led to believe that the wristwatch’s time is almost up and that
this piece of technology is destined for the same graveyard as vinyl records or the horse-drawn carriage.
Not so fast. A number of companies are hoping to offer a new product that can take over the real
estate of the wrist, and although these devices can tell the time, they can also go above and beyond the
old stem winder your grandfather likely owned.
[10] One watch that recently caused a lot of excitement online was the TikTok, a watch that uses an MP3
player as its internals. People seemed to flock to this device because of its slick design, and of course
because it had a little fashionable logo on the back.
Another watch that is currently being tested, called the Allerta inPulse, acts more like a computer than a
timepiece. This device is different because its creators hope programmers and developers will “hack” the
[15] watch, creating new applications or uses for it. The Allerta is expected to cost $150.
Eric Migicovsky, chief operating officer of Allerta, the maker of the new watch, said in an e-mail that he
hopes people will use the device as an extension to their mobile phones, where the watch can offer a
third screen of information without someone having to fumble for their phone in their pocket or purse.
Mr. Migicovsky said that installing apps on the new watch will be a simple process. “It’s possible to get up
[20] and run with inPulse within five minutes,” he said, noting that you don’t need to be a programmer or
developer to take advantage of the apps on the watch, but watch owners will have to rely on this
community to build new applications.
Some programmers are already using the new Allerta. One app offers the ability to control a music library
from this watch. Another becomes an extension of a smartphone and shows new e-mail messages
[25] and calendars on the phone through the watch’s display. And finally, a programmer recreated the popular
videogame Doom to be played on this new gadget.
Slightly adapted from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/15/the-wristwatch-looks-for-a-new-use/
According to Eric Migicovsky (paragraphs 6 and 7),
