I enjoyed the article about wristwatches very much. The article
implied that wristwatches are now becoming obsolete and are not
keeping up with the new, wired world. However, one can think about
this in a contrasting fashion: perhaps the Internet age has not yet
figured out how to take advantage of the wrist. A wristwatch is
something that can be easily carried on one's person -- much more
easily than an iphone or blackberry -- and represents a device that
people are historically quite comfortable with. It seems to me a
failing of all the Apples and Sonys of the world that they haven't
figured out an intelligent way to incorporate electronics into the
wristwatch "form-factor." Perhaps a wristwatch can be used as some
form of high-tech identification card or as a USB key in addition to
its time functions. Maybe one day we'll actually see the advent of a
usable "wrist phone" as we have seen heralded in the comics of the
past.
Mark Gerstein
North Haven, CT
Unpublished letter in response to:
http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2010/11/a-new-wrinkle-in-time/8249
A New Wrinkle in Time
By MATTHEW BATTLES
