Andy Gets All Wound Up

How Many Watches Do We Really Need?

(CBS)  This segment was originally broadcast on Dec. 3, 2006.

The following is a weekly 60 Minutes commentary by CBS News correspondent Andy Rooney.

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I can't make out what it is with people and watches. No one needs more than one to find out what time it is but most of us have half a dozen watches in drawers around the house that they we never use.

There are an incredible number of ads for watches in newspapers and magazines, so people must buy a lot of them.

Some magazines have a whole special section. They look great, but most of them aren't time pieces, they're show pieces.

If you wore an expensive wrist watch like some of the models shown in the ads, you'd probably go around all day with your sleeve rolled up so people could see it.

The other day I asked Keith Kulin, who edits these pieces, to bring in any watches he had home so I could put them on my desk here. I was expecting four or five; Keith brought in sixteen watches that no one in his house wears anymore. I think you'd find these in a lot of homes too.

Watchmakers think of all sorts of clever ways to make watches look unusual so we’ll buy another new one. Different numbers, Roman numerals sometimes, other times they just indicate the hour with a dash or something.

And then there is the pocket watch. No one I know carries a pocket watch anymore. Pocket watches for men went out of style with vests. A vest always had a watch pocket but when men stopped wearing vests they stopped using pocket watches because there was no place to put one.

I bought one watch several years ago because it only costs $9.99. I was going to give it to one of the kids for Christmas but I never did. I don’t like metal watchbands, my wrist hairs get caught in it.

I pass stores all the time with windows full of expensive watches. I think a lot of women wear watches as jewelry.

A diamond-encrusted watch ought to have a price tag showing instead of the time. The funny thing about an expensive watch is, it doesn't keep any better time than a cheap watch.

I wear a cheap watch. Not a lot of extra stuff on the face. Keeps perfect time. The only time I reset it is every few years when I put in a new battery. I wear it face down.

I got a watch from CBS for being on 60 Minutes for a long time. I got it a long time ago, too. After all these years you'd think CBS could spend a little more and give me a watch with numbers on it.

[tkwp]

The Thousand Watch Project ("TKWP").

The idea behind this project is to collect 1000 watches (via donation) and have each donor write an epitaph. It is Moskow Linn''s assertion that "With the advent of cell phones, wrist watches are dying a slow death. But it is difficult (if not impossible) to throw out your old wrist watch even if it is broken. Is that because when it was worn it was almost an integral part of the body? Does it represent an important moment in one%u2019s life?".

We love Moskow Linn''s idea for the ten word epitaph, and many of them are really great. Some are funny, some are nostalgic, and some represent specific moments in time, but they are all unique.

Once the project has received 1000 watches, the entire collection will be donated to the Smithsonian Gallery in Washington DC, as "An Illustrative display of this moment in time."

So far about 350 watches have been donated, so there is still time to send yours in. They do not need to be functioning or even complete, to be featured in the collection. Each featured watch will be tagged with the epitaph included by the donor, and will be available to view online, and eventually in person at the Smithsonian Gallery.

To donate your watch to The Thousand Watch Project, please send it to:

Moskow Linn Architects
88 Broad Street
Boston, MA 02110

Be sure to include your own ten word epitaph and email address if you would like to be contacted when the item is available to view.

[rogernewell1]

I can remember only one thing that a college president said in speaking to my high school graduating class in 1956. He told the story of a man who was retiring. He was given a pocket watch as a retirement gift. When he opened the cover the man found that the only thing inside was a note saying, "If you come back again, we will give you the works."

[hitoyou11]

Another rerun... Please retire and let Seinfeld take your place.
Please not Seinfeld, let Seinfeld retire. Let him do any thing, just keep him off TV.

[helloall34]

Another rerun... Please retire and let Seinfeld take your place.

[cmehring]

..... continued
However, as yesterday, today%u2019s advances in technology and innovations in science are born out of the ability to halt and think, they are born out of a mood of tranquility. A mechanical wrist (or pocket) watch with its characteristic and soothing %u201Ctick tack%u201D sound lets us remember this fact and makes us aware of a commodity which is more precious today than ever before, TIME.
Dipl.-Ing Carsten Mehring, Ph.D.

[cmehring]

Indeed, most accurate time keeping is provided by quartz technology or should I say by uplinking to an atomic clock, i.e., time-keeping based on the atomic scale with time measured in terms of the high-frequent oscillations of a quartz crystal or an atom.
However, besides new developments and improvements in current watch technology (see for example ergo-electronics.com); the watch industry has also seen a Renaissance and renewed fascination with mechanical watches in recent years. Indeed, to this day, mechanical watches provide a benchmark for engineering design, quality, innovation and human ingenuity for the most respectable watch manufacturers and their master watchmakers. Mechanical watches relate to the end of the physical scale which is opposed to the atomic scale, i.e. the astronomical scale or celestial mechanics. Here, time is measured and observed via the continuous turning of hands and the rotations of a multitude of interlocking wheels analogous to the motion of the planets around the sun and their rotations around themselves.
If you will, the evolution from mechanical watches to electronic (quartz) watches, with time measurement relying on ever smaller physical and time scales, also reflects, in some sense, the changes in human life throughout the last centuries; from the slower paced life before the industrial revolution to the fast-paced life in the information age.

[garyc21]

My daughter and family gave me a pocketwatch 2 years ago and I just happen to have 2 pairs of pants with watch pockets and I proudly wear the watch every time I wear these pants. In fact I am wearing them today.

Gary Collins
[e-mail]

[aztecdakota]

Wrist watches are TOPS!!!! Ask anyone in the Military. Makes operations much more effective and coordinated. OR you can pull out your cell phone while crawling up a gully under heavy fire, waiting for that air strike at Zero Eight Hundred.

[tilliebees]

Hi Andy, My husband and I have watched 20/20 for 27 years. He loves the show and I watch it to see you. I don''t always agree with you but appreciate your opinions and you make me smile. Tonight when you were talking about watches and made the comments you made about pocket watches I realized how uninformed you were. My son-in-law has repaired and sold antique pocketwatches for years. 3 years ago he started carrying new high end pocket watches and accesories along with vintage and antique. He has a huge business. I invite you to look at his website (pocketwatchsite) and then come spend a day with him. You will find that people order not only one pocket-watch but 3 or 4 at a time. We are amazed at the 100''s of sales he makes a year and the demand their is for both antique and new pocket-watches. You owe watch-makers an apolgoy!
B Hunter
Utah

[drlee6530]

To the on and only Andy Rooney. I have been watching you for many years and ca no remember a store I did not agree with. When you did the piece on watches I had to write and let you know as a very technical person and consultent for over 20 years I hated having to reset my clocks and watch. To solve this problem I use awatch that recieves a siginal from Bolder Colerado on 60 Khz and I never have to set ane time piece I own as they all set automaticle even for the change from daylight time and standard time. I love daylight time as I can go to work in the day light and go home in the sun light, Yet the people that dreamed of swiching beteen the two needs to be chastised as all life on this earth need sunlight to surive. In humans it produces vitamon D and if you do not get enough ov this vitiman you loose bone density as your body can not use Calcium to keep your bones strong. So my sugestion is clocks and watches that automaticly keep the proper time and get rid of Standard time so people will get sunlight for their health.
By the way keep helthy as it would be a great loss to loose your quality advise!

With Great Admeration from a long time Fan!

Dr. Dana-Renee Lee PhD