GOT THE TIME?

The Times They Are a-Changing!

By Jonah Ritter

There was a time when wearing a watch made more than a fashion statement. Telling time was a meaningful function.

A watch suggested you had places to be, responsibilities to fulfill, and people counting on you. Being “on time” mattered because your time—and other people’s time—had value. Of course, owning a watch didn’t make someone responsible. But it could convey that impression, along with the wealth to afford one.

A watch could also symbolize a privilege easily taken for granted: having some command of your own time. Many laborers and servants had little say over their working hours; enslaved people were denied that freedom far more completely. For those whose labor stretched from before sunrise until after sunset, the sky itself marked the working day. They needed no watch to tell them how little of their time belonged to them.

Of course, not everyone could afford a watch. But time mattered to the whole community, so towns and villages placed clocks on towers and public buildings. Erecting a clock was a gift to the people. It gave everyone a shared reference, helping them coordinate their work, keep appointments, and meet their obligations.

The village clock helped a community function by helping its people be on time.

Today, nearly everyone carries a watch. We call it a phone.

As phones took over timekeeping, putting on a wristwatch became less of a practical necessity. For some people, clipping a pocketknife to a belt or pocket offers more everyday usefulness than strapping on a watch.

Traditional watches became mostly a fashion statement. And the more they became a fashion statement, the more their appearance mattered.

Someone could easily spend thousands of dollars on a watch without needing it for any practical purpose. The watch might still communicate success, taste, or importance, but its owner could get the time by glancing at a phone.

Did that mean the buyer would settle for less accuracy?

Heavens, no! You still expected precision. Craftsmanship. The satisfaction of owning something that worked remarkably well—even if you rarely needed it to tell you the time. There was something comforting about knowing that the watch you hardly needed kept such precise time.

He’s watching the time. She’s watching him.

Then there is the pocket watch: A pocket watch takes too much time to use. You have to reach for it, pull it out, perhaps open its cover, check the time, and put it away again.

But a pocket watch is the ultimate fashion statement. It says, “Watch me watching time.”

A pocket watch was also a piece of men’s jewelry—a display of taste, wealth, and standing. To a woman attracted to those qualities, its appeal went well beyond telling time. In that respect, a pocket watch could be downright "sexy."

The times they are a-changing, though. The watch is making a comeback as something functionally relevant.

It will still tell you something you want to know to help you live and go about your day. Only now, that information goes far beyond the time.

It is about you—and what matters to you.

Your heartbeat. Your activity. Your sleep. Information that helps you pay attention to your health and well-being. Reminders about things you need to do. Text messages you can read or listen to without reaching for your phone.

And the possibilities keep growing.

Imagine trying to explain all of that to a watchmaker in the 1800s. A device on your wrist that receives messages, tracks your movements, and measures your pulse? What would that craftsman have made of it?

One thing the early wristwatch makers got right was the location. The wrist is a remarkably convenient place to put something useful: accessible, visible, and always close at hand.

They could never have imagined how useful it would become.

Ironically, the watch is still about time. A watch has always told us how much time has passed and helped us make better use of the time we have left. It still does, now with more ways to help us meet our responsibilities and care for ourselves.

And if paying closer attention to our health helps us live longer, a watch may even help us gain more of the very thing it measures.

Before we put time on our wrists, we found it in the rhythms of creation.

Technology opens possibilities in all things, and timekeeping is no exception. Yet beneath each new invention lies an ancient pursuit: since mankind first noticed the sunrise’s reliability, we have sought to understand the rhythms of creation and bring our lives into harmony with them.

Ultimately, seeking harmony with the rhythms of creation can become a way of seeking a relationship with the Creator. Seen in that light, we can appreciate one impulse behind early religious practice—and why some ancient sacred structures also served as monumental timepieces, marking the movements of the sun and the turning of the seasons. 

In a way, a wristwatch isn’t so far removed from Stonehenge. We’ve just made it considerably easier to carry.

Watches have changed with the times, but that aspect of their purpose remains: helping us make the most of time.

There is so much more to be said about staying on "God time." God gave us "appointed times." The bible, both stories, revolve around them. But I have run out of time—The End.