‘Wearable technology’ is nothing new!

If you thought having a computer screen attached to your glasses means so-called “wearable technology” is 21st century, think again. Smithsonian magazine tells us that wearable technology was a phenomenon—in the 19th century!

With a digital clock on almost every object, well at least in a kitchen, Smithsonian writer Clive Thompson asks to think back to when the exact time was elusive to most humans, save those with a knack for discerning time from the sun’s position in the sky. He said that it was not until the medieval period, when the masses could hear the hourly tolling of church bells, that people could accurately determine the time. Only the wealthy could afford clocks in their homes.

How workplaces functioned without a way to set precise times for schedules, meetings, and appointments or to time anything from trains to industrial processes is difficult to imagine. “Chaos ensued,” according to the article.

However, workers were often tied to viewing the one clock in the company lobby to determine the time. However, a high-tech revolution erupted with the advent of a portable way to tell time—the pocket watch. Workers could carry the time with them!

And so, the advent of more pocket watches was a boon to commerce. The pocket watch was not just a technological revolution, but “a cultural marker,” writes Thompson, who said the wearing of a wristwatch showed a person was not only successful, but punctual—and reliable.

But there was one problem with pocket watches—they weren’t too easy to use while riding a horse or doing anything physically active. So someone came up with the idea of strapping a pocket watch to the wrist, and the “wristlet” or wristwatch was invented.

Acquiring the most basic of information—the time—became easy. Now we have instantaneous, real-time, information from around the world at our fingertips, literally, 24/7, with smartphones in our pockets, and “smartwatches” are on the way. So it seems like computers are having an eerily similar evolution to timepieces—it’s back to the future.