World War I and the adoption of the wristwatch

[kestrell]

One of the things I always say to tech innovators is that they should find a military use for their product and then pitch it to DARPA. Recently, I went to an MIT lecture by a chemical botanist on the science of scent, and was amused to hear him say that his project was funded by DARPA.

But I digress. The point of this post is that I came across this article on how WW1 caused the widespread adoption of the wristwatch which, until then, had been thought of as a cheap, lower class accessory for those who could not afford a pocket watch.
http://www.vintagewatchstraps.com/trenchwatches.php#knowledgeforwar

Comments

[negothick]

I've just been reading Willa Cather's One of Ours, her novel about an American soldier in the Great War. He thinks to himself that once he had scorned wristwatches as only for sissies, but his military service changed his mind. This echoes the words from the British side in the article: "The wristlet watch was little used by the sterner sex before the war, but now is seen on the wrist of nearly every man in uniform and of many men in civilian attire."

[kestrell]

Oo, I just added that title to my list of books to look for.

[negothick]

As I should have said--thank you for posting!

[xiphias]

In the recent Wonder Woman movie, Steve Trevor has a wristwatch which was his father's. But it's not a wristwatch if you look at it -- it's a small pocketwatch which has been retrofitted with straps.