Smart watches are watches after all

The wristwatch has been called the "first wearable computer". Not the smart watch, but the classic, mechanical, wind-up wristwatch. I agree -- with a reservation about pocketwatches as being the first wearable computing devices.

Apple made a big splash in the news this week, finally announcing their smart watch (among other things). Apple calls their product a "watch". Is it? it seems much more than a plain old watch.

Apple did the same with their iPhone. The iPhone was really a small computer equipped with wireless communication. Yet who wants to carry around a small computer (wireless or not)? It's much easier (psychologically) to carry around a phone.

Looking at our experience with the iPhone, we can see that iPhones (and smart phones in general) are used for many purposes and only occasionally as a phone. We use them to take pictures, to watch movies, to play games, to read e-mail, to send and receive text messages, to navigate, to calculate, to bank online, ... The list is extensive.

Applying that logic to the Apple Watch (and smart watches in general) we can expect many purposes for them. Some of these will duplicate or extend our phones (those small wireless computers): notifications of appointments, navigation, display of e-mail and text messages, and of course to tell the time. Smart watches will offer new functions too: payments at checkout counters, unlocking house doors (equipped with smart locks), unlocking automobiles (and possibly replacing the key entirely), exchanging contact information (virtual business cards), ... the list is extensive.

Smart watches will provide convenience. Smart watches will also add a degree of complexity to our lives. Is my watch up to date? Have I charged it? Is my watch compatible with a merchant's payment system? Does it have a virus or other malware?

We'll call them "watches", since the name "small computing device that I wear on my wrist" is unwieldy. But that was the same issue with the original pocketwatches and wristwatches. They, too, were small computing devices. (Some, in addition to telling time, displayed the phase of the moon and other astronomic data. In the twentieth century, wristwatches often displayed the day of the month.)

So, yes, smart watches are not watches. They do much more than tell time. And yet they are watches, because we define the term "watch" to mean "small computing device that I wear on my wrist". We have for more than a century.