The smart watch has been around for more than ten years. It gained mass market attention only recently because technology has been able to cram more functionality into something relatively small.

The talk of smart watches replacing the traditional 'dumb' watch reached the next level when Apple threw down its gauntlet with the Apple Watch.

If there is one company out there that can make a piece of technology become an essential part of your life, Apple would be it.

When the iPad first came out, many ridiculed it and wondered why anyone would use it if they already had smart phones, desktop computers or laptops. Well apparently, a lot of people found many uses for it. The same can be said for the iPhone and iPod.

Will the new Apple Watch do the same and redefine watch-wearing? No. Not in the next 10 years at least.

Why do we still wear ties?

Other than constricting our breathing and giving us unnecessary hand-eye coordination practice in the mornings, do ties serve any function at all?

People wear it to add some formality to their outfit. Beyond that, ties serve little to no practical purpose.

But we still wear them. We do it because it's an ingrained part of fashion. It has become a part of an outfit. Different coloured ties help us express our individuality. Ties tell our story.

But the Apple Watch is a watch and more!

Traditional watches tell the time. So do Apple Watches. Even your mobile phone tells the time. So why do people still wear watches?

I would suggest that watches aren't worn primarily to tell time now. They are worn as an accessory, as an expression, as a status symbol.

The Apple Watch can do all of that, and provide more. I'm pretty sure when the Apple Watch lands, it's going to provide many other things like health monitoring, location-based services and other snazzy nifty uses.

But the Apple Watch is not a tie.

There are two things right now which watches do that smart watches can't. People buy watches to mark significant milestones - graduation, first child, big promotion, etc. People also use watches as heirloom pieces to be passed down to the next generation.

Can the Apple Watch do that? To some extent, you can buy it to mark milestones, but will the Apple Watch last long enough to make it a meaningful purchase? Will you be able to wear that Apple Watch in twenty year's time to tell someone 'I bought this watch when I had my first child, and will give it to him on his first day at work"?

Now that's a story an Apple Watch cannot tell. Yet.

The next generation may be the change Apple wants

Apple is probably playing a very long game. The generation today probably has an entrenched view of the watch as they do of the tie.

Perhaps the toddlers of this generation will be the ones to adopt smart watches. Instead of a first Casio or Swatch, their first watch would be a smart watch like the Apple Watch.

They will grow up in a world where the thing you wear on your wrist is supposed to serve many different functions, and an analog watch just does not cut it.

Maybe then, will the Apple Watch replace the regular watch.

But we will probably still be wearing ties in the next fifty years.

Top image from Apple

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