I noticed a strange thing recently – if you ask someone the time, they whip out their cell phone and tell you. No one wears watches any more.

What is going to happen to the industry that makes watches? I know that they exist. I see watches for sale in stores, but if you look around, no one is wearing a wrist watch.

In the history of telling time, a curious thing is happening. At first, watches were something that men carried in small pockets in a vest or coat. It had a chain attached to a button to keep it from falling out and getting lost. So that when you asked someone for the time, they would open their coat, search for the pocket, bring out the watch, and tell you.

Now, when you ask for the time, someone searches through their pockets or purse, brings out a cell phone and then tells you the time. It is like we have gone full circle through some sort of metamorphosis that ends up with the same solution.

In between, of course, is the small watch that women wore on their collar or blouse, the wrist watch in its many forms, and now the cell phones.

Less than 100 years has passed from pocket watch to cell phone. That is truly amazing when you stop to think about it. The pocket watch of yesterday served to keep time safely hidden inside the owner’s coat and could be brought out at a moment’s notice. Much like the cell phones of today.

Going back even further, we have the sundials which were not very portable. As inventors came up with different ideas to make time-telling portable, versions of the pocket watch evolved. In the early 1800s, watches were made by fashioning parts one at a time, assembling the pieces, and creating the individual timepiece.

Then in the 1850s, an assembly line plan was used for manufacturing watches that utilized interchangeable parts, based on the mass production model of other products at that time. This made it possible for more and more people to be able to own a pocket watch. Many variations were created during this time from plain, basic models to elaborate, engraved designs.

So, the next time you wonder what time it is and pick up your cell phone, or ask someone else who checks their cell phone, think back to the time when watches were a pocket item to be pulled out as needed. Then tuck your phone back into its pocket or purse and feel the technology that had to happen over the last century in order to get us to where we are today.

And the lesson learned? Well, the answer to that is another question – What is in store for us in the future?