The Wristwatch, R.I.P.

The cellphone has pretty much killed off a number of once-ubiquitous devices, including the pager, pocket calculator, alarm clock, and land line phone (Wired came up with a dozen now-obsolete gadgets, see here and here).

Add to that list the wristwatch, which was a standard accessory before you could simply flip open your phone to see the time. Watches seem quaint now, a device operated by springs and gears fastened to your arm by leather straps. But as The Boston Phoenix reports, two architects are creating a monument to the antiquated contraptions now winding their way to obscurity.

Keith Moskow and Robert Linn, principals of the Boston architectural firm Moskow Linn, have launched the Thousand Watch Project. They've posted ads on Craigslist pages around the world soliciting other people's watches. Each one they receive is tagged, inscribed with a short donor-supplied epitaph, photographed, and uploaded to the Web page. They've so far amassed close to 400, and once they reach a thousand, Moskow and Linn plan to exhibit the watches dangling from the linings of 20 trench coats, before donating the collection to the Smithsonian.

They also hope to answer the question of why it is difficult for people to throw out their old wristwatches - whether it's because we wear them so close to our skin that they become like appendages, or perhaps because they remind us of all the moments in our lives we've watched tick by.

(Photo by Sanford Kearns)