No watches in Trek?

[Avro Arrow]

^ He did have something he kept checking that was presumably a timepiece. It was built into a ring, though, instead of being a standard wristwatch.

Close-up view

 

[ZapBrannigan]

In Stephen Whitfield's MAKING OF STAR TREK book, there is are excerpts from several notes Gene Coon made on various scripts. One of the scenes called for an Enterprise officer to look at his watch, causing Coon to sarcastically remark "Is it a Timex or an Ingersoll?" This indicated that the original series creators felt that watches would no longer be used in Star Trek's time.

I thought the point was to sarcastically say the show couldn't use a 1960s watch, and a spacey one from the prop dept would cost money. Same as pointing out that there was no sink in Kirk's quarters in which to splash water on his face.

But then, the show also had a general rule that clothes don't have pockets anymore and guns don't have trigger guards, so maybe the equally impractical idea the nobody has a timepiece was in fact the intended point. It's just a "super-sleek era" thing.

 

[Tiberius]

Dr. Crusher was wearing a wrist watch in at least one episode.

Okay Gates forgot to take it off in her dressing room, but it's canon now that Crusher sometimes wears a watch.

Code of Honor

 

[Tiberius]

I confess I've struggled with this when writing the books. When Kirk is leading a landing party and there's a specific deadline involved, how does he keep track of the time?

"We have exactly twenty minutes before the planet implodes. Rendezvous back at the shuttle in ten minutes. Let's synchronize our . . . never mind."

Why not the communicators? Flip open the communicator and you can say things like, "Start a ten minute timer." "Tell me what the local time is." "How long to the rendezvous?" and have the communicator speak out loud. And it wouldn't be hard for Kirk to set a timer on his communicator and have it automatically sync with the rest of the landing party's...

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Did the wristwatch in TWOK also function as a communicator?

Yes, it did.

 

[Timo]

Then again, apparently only the Reliant folks had wristcomms. IIRC, Kirk got his from either the late Terrell or from Chekov for his "You keep missing the target!" rant, and apparently kept it, but still preferred his fliptop for calling Spock later on. (Perhaps he feared the wristcomm was as bugged as Chekov himself, or perhaps the fliptops have more functions, better ciphering, or simply greater range.)

Just thought I'd mention this, as we're still in the dark regarding the "standard" Starfleet way of providing personnel with a time reference.

(Personally, I still prefer clock implants, right next to the UT implants. It's not as if any of our heroes would have been guilty of not knowing the time... Except perhaps right after being coshed in the head or something.)

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^ There were wrist-comms in TMP as well.

And in either film, we never saw their display screens up close. It's entirely possible they DID have a time indicator on them.

 

[mb22]

^ There were wrist-comms in TMP as well.

And in either film, we never saw their display screens up close. It's entirely possible they DID have a time indicator on them.

I assume this prop replica is accurate.

 

[Timo]

...But we can probably safely assume that the black area would be a versatile display capable of showing anything from time to Pirates of the Caribbean CXXVII.

Timo Saloniemi

 

[Ssosmcin]

In "Spock's Brain" Kirk looked up toward the viewscreen to check the time as if there was a clock there ("eight hours and thirty-four minutes..."). We never saw it, but he apparently thought there was one hanging there. For a minute.

 

[Timo]

...A very plausible technology (in the real world, and why not in TOS as well?) would be that of a "meaningful look": if you stare at your screen in a certain way, say, locking your eyes in a particular spot of it, the screen will display the time. Or do something else you have programmed in.

I mean, most of Starfleet hardware isn't like that - it's solid reliable buttons and pads and switches. But telling the time is a civilian technology, and Kirk could be operating trivial civilian niceties such as glance-commanded clocks or anti-rain-anti-stain forcefield belts that are frivolous yet not otherwise objectionable.

Timo Saloniemi