July 10, 2007 - Watch For Trends

Three years ago we did our first watch watch. We walked down State Street watching timepieces go by - counting the number of wrists with wrist watches and bare arms without. We made reference to the fact that technology was killing the wrist-adornment star. We said (in our usual snappy tone), "Sure, people can get the latest hour and minute information from their cell phone or PDA, but nothing beats a quick flip of the wrist for efficiency and flare."

Of course, "PDA's" are now called Blackberries, but the same thing holds true. Doing the same survey three years later would surely give us a good idea if in fact, the times really were a-changing back then.

Our three-year-old story serves as a bit of a time capsule as well. In the September 2004 article, we mentioned that Tom's Toy World was closing, Sweet Alley was opening, there was limited turning to and from Victoria Street, and Mason B. Mason had recently passed.

Yesterday the dedicated staff of edhat.com went back and did the exact same survey as the one we did during those simpler times. Just like last time, we walked the entire length of downtown State Street. Just like last time, we had difficultly distinguishing bracelets from watches. And, just like last time, long sleeved shirts were the bane of our data collection process. You can't see whether there are hands and a face unless you can see the wrist. Note to Ed: If you want to do a fashion survey some time soon you might consider counting young girls in long black sweaters and hoodies. Even on a warm summer day, the shirts were black and long like limousines pulling up to a curb of a swanky hotel.

After a full hour-long walk, wristing life and limb, we tabulated our data and concluded that yes, Virginia, there is a trend. This time there were significantly more timeless wrists than there were 3-years before. This time only 41.4% of people wore watches. Last time it was 61.3%.

If seemed to us that older demographics (i.e. old people) were much more likely to don watches than younger demographics (i.e. young people). And, while we didn't see much public display of portable devices, we can only assume that they were there somewhere nearby, keeping up with time - ready when asked.

The winner of yesterday's contest, with a guess of 41%, was EZ2 - or in this case 2 EZ. EZ wins an Edhat t-shirt, available for pickup at Highlights Salon.