Clockwatcher or Glasshole? Is a Pebble watch less socially acceptable than Google Glass

As a wearables fan (see “Fitbit is the same as a gym membership”) I recently bought and tried the Pebble. The problem I wanted to solve was mainly “which notifications do I respond to without taking the phone out of my pocket and interrupting conversations.” #FWP, I know.

Seems like a great idea until I noticed that people find it more acceptable for you to hear a beep, take your mobile out of your pocket, look at it, dismiss the notification and put it back than simply glancing at your wrist and pushing a button.

The reason is obvious in retrospect: We’ve been conditioned that looking at your watch means “Hurry Up”, “I have somewhere else to be”, You’re boring”, “I have to go” or “ Time’s up”.

I first noticed this at home when my wife started getting irritated by me looking at my watch while I was having dinner with her. At work I experienced the same until I explained it’s a Pebble.

This leads me to think that wearables are a great solution as long as they very obviously look like a wearable device. I have the Pebble Steel which I think contributes to the problem as it looks exactly like a conventional watch. I suspect if the Pebble looked like a wearable I wouldn’t have this issue.

Maybe Google Glass isn’t so bad after all — it’s clearly not a pair of glasses and it’s obviously a wearable device so whoever you’re with expects a different function from the device.

My next experiment is to print something on our office 3D Printer to attach to the Pebble to make it look NOT like a watch and see what reaction I get.

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