Constantly looking at your watch usually means that you're not enjoying yourself, counting down the seconds until something more interesting comes along. However, what if looking at your watch actually helped you stay in the moment?
That's exactly what What? Watch attempts to do. This watch won't count your steps or give you email notifications, but it will help you keep track of all of the big and little moments in your life that you'll want to remember forever, from a first kiss to a first birthday.
I recently got to see What? Watch's new Stop The Time watch up close. There's a red button on the watch that, when you press it after experiencing a memorable moment, it creates a visible mark on your wristwear. The marks appear in black or white, depending on the color of your watch face, adding contrast to the modern and simplistic design of the piece.
All of those moments that you log into the watch are also timestamped and synced with the What?Now app, which is available for free for iOS and Android devices. Within the app, you can add photos and text to provide a visual representation of your memories, like a next-level photo album with round pics that mimic a watch face. Individual memories can also be placed into collections called stories that play the photos as a timelapse video with the timestamp of each moment in the corner. You can then share these moments and stories with others through a text message or social media, for instance.
The Stop The Time watch comes in four styles: the basic stainless-steel case Classic ($299), the militaristic Radar ($249), the sporty Modern ($169) and the limited edition Pocket model ($349). Most of them come with a variety of bands, watch faces and finishes to choose from.
As someone who wears a watch as an accessory that just tells the time, I think What? Watches are definitely up there with the best of them in terms of style. Having your memories visually recorded on the watch face also gives the device a neat and constantly refreshing design. The way the What?Now app organizes all of your memories chronologically with clearly labeled timestamps is also a nice touch that seems primed for sharing.
However, it seems like always thinking about whether or not to click that red button to record a moment on your device would actually take you out of the moment, effectively doing the opposite of what the What? Watch is trying to restore in the ever-connected world we live in now. But at least the What? Watch and its corresponding app will make it easier to look back on the moments you may have missed while capturing them.
