An interesting article by the Associated Press today discusses how watch sales are dropping rapidly as young people switch to using cell phones to tell the time.
Sales are down 17% from five years ago and, in a recent survey, investment bank Piper Jaffray found that nearly two-thirds of teens never wear a watch and only about one in 10 wears one every day.
This seems to ring true with a lot of young people we spoke to about this issue. Most either use their phone to tell the time or spend so much time in front of a PC that they never really need a watch anymore.
Luxury watches, such as Rolex, remain popular. But even then, the watch is often more about fashion than function, says Max Kilger of Experian Simmons.
“It really is an anchor point – and that’s the end of it,” says Kilger, the research firm’s chief behavioral scientist. “A cell phone is one step up from that; it begins to help you manage your time. And a BlackBerry is one level up from that.”
Via textually and Associated Press
