Cellphone era brings frown to watchmaker faces

09 july 2006

Time changes everything.

last year as people turned to their cellphones, iPods and PDAs to monitor the minutes. Clocks likewise saw a small 2 percent dip as more businesses got rid of public clocks, according to a new report from Packaged Facts, a consumer goods research group.

'Now that we have cellphones, what's the need?' said 15-year-old Veronica Mulhall of Atlanta as she lunched at CNN Center with her youth group. Mulhall said that although she has a watch, she actually uses either her iPod or cellphone to tell time.

'I just use my watch - it has pretty stones - as a bracelet,' she said. 'I'm not even sure the watch works.'

Tony Uceda, a youth group leader who'd just chaperoned 10 teenagers around the Georgia Aquarium, also sported a bare wrist. Only one of the teenagers in his church group dons a watch on a regular basis.

However, Packaged Facts reported that the industries are unlikely to unwind anytime soon; watch and clock sales tend to be cyclical, and the group expects sales to rise slightly by 2010.

'Watch and clock marketers continuously rebound with sophisticated fashion-inspired, high-tech and sports designs,' said Don Montuori, publisher of Packaged Facts, in a statement released last month. He added that kids' watches with licensed cartoon characters continue to be 'strong sales drivers' as well as designer names and logos for adults.

'And what about deep-sea diving, or if you are at a baseball game when it's raining?' said Jim Bland, spokesman for the National Association of Watch and Clock Collectors. 'You are going to want to keep your cellphone under plastic.'

He also believes time-tellers are simply evolving. For now, he believes watches are 'event-driven' - used as a fashion accessory or while working out. But he sees watches eventually becoming a must-have again.

'It's just a matter of time when a cellphone and PDA will be strapped around your wrist,' Bland said. 'And then you're back to having a wristwatch.'