HOT: Watches that tell you when you're ovulating, that tell you if your kid had run across the street, that protect you from gamma rays, that monitor your blood pressure, that tell you when to wake up on the proper cycle, et cetera, et cetera.

DATED (?): Watches that only tell you the time.

Watch Reports has chimed in on the current trend for watches to move into territory, that for now, cell phones and ipods have not treaded upon: health/safety/general life support. And while personal upkeep may very well be an area that the wristwatch will have a leg up, I don't know if this niche will be its savior. I see the trend as part of a bigger trend which includes:

1/ the personal upkeep watch

It's a trend, but will it last? I think only in a very limited capacity.

2/ the watch as accessory item

One direction in which the watch will persist is not so much as a timepiece but as a fashion accessory item. Whether the second hand ticks is irrelevant, what is relevant is whether it's a Patek Phillipe, Fossil, or some funky creation from Tokyoflash. The wristwatch, and this will be especially true for men (as they, in general, don't have the option of wearing bracelets or other types of adornments), will become a beacon of one's personality -- perhaps even moreso than articles of clothing. A man wearing a bright blue scarf, for example, could be a student, a banker, an artist -- there would be no way to pigeonhole -- however if he were bearing a Rolex it would immediately convey a sense of social status/personality.

3/ other technology merging toward the watch

Looking forward even a few more years, what will save the wristwatch is not the watch, but the wrist. It so happens that the wrist is one of the most convenient places on the body to carry an item which needs to be accessed frequently. As future models of cell phone are developed, using flexible OLED technology for example, we may see them commonly worn as we see wristwatches today. This undoubtedly will not be lost on designers, who may in turn begin drawing them up as such. So, in a round-a-bout way, the force leading the wristwatch toward 'obsolescence' may also be its saving grace.