Posted 12/16/2005 05:38:00 PM by Douglas

Are wristwatches going to disappear? Probably, but not among anyone that cares about watches.

OF the eight twentysomethings chatting at a table at Luby's, half don't wear watches.

"I can get the time from my cell phone," was the main reason cited by the watchless.

To wear or not to wear is a generational thing, several said.

"My mom and dad wear watches. They're not as big into technology," said Crystal Elliers, 23, a Loyola University, New Orleans, law school student.

Maybe that's a bad example, but Luby's? twentysomethings? Why the hell would a twentysomething at Luby's need a watch? Ok, let's take a step back. Why the hell would a twentysomething be at Luby's? All good questions. But does the omnipresence of the "time" mean an end to the wristwatch?

The fine-watch market — products selling for $50 and up — generated $4.3 billion in 2004, according to LGI Network, a leading retail measurement service for the watch and jewelry industry. Over the first 10 months of this year, sales for the bulk of the fine-watch business — $150 to $10,000 watches — are up 7 percent in dollars and 1.8 percent in units sold, compared with the first 10 months of 2004, according to LGI. The average price for a man's fine watch is $839 in that same category, compared with $628 for a woman's watch.

"The high-end watch market is pretty strong," said Andrew Talbert, LGI's chief operating officer.

A "fine" watch is one that costs more than $50? Holy crap, do I have some "fine" watches! But back to the story, who is going to take up the slack of the slumping watch sales?

"For every guy that's stopped wearing a watch, there's a guy taking up diving and getting a diver's watch," he said.

So for everyone that gets the time from a cell phone and stops wearing a watch, a guy takes up diving? That's what the watch business is hitching their cart to? Ouch. But there's something indescribable about a watch, right? Something watch people understand that they could never convince others of. Right?

"A watch is worn next to the skin, and for most people the same watch is worn every day," she noted. "Only a wedding band can compete in terms of intimacy and permanence."

"The circular nature of a watch — the hands going around — and their meaning — marking time — are universally appealing," she said. Many watches offer their owners the chance "to enjoy a thing of beauty by simply glancing at their wrist."

"I constantly notice people feeling their watches while they're talking or admiring each other's watches, particularly men. What else do men have to play with like that?"

Um, I'm a guy that loves wristwatches, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and answer that last question with something that may or may not be inherently obvious: their balls?

Still, I can't understand why I have the uncontrollable urge to buy one of these. Shit, I don't even speak German.