Would you swap your $10000 Rolex for a $149 smart watch?

Smart watches are hitting the headlines again and there are a couple of new stories doing the rounds. Apparently Samsung is ready to launch its Galaxy Gear smart watch. It is said to have a three inch screen, which sounds too big to fit on your wrist. It also has a 10 hour battery life too, which is far to short to be useful. It would not surprise me if this news story was more fiction than fact.

Google is also in the news, having bought smart watch maker WIMM Labs. This is to boost its smart watch development efforts and it is obvious that the company is working on a device. Rumours of Apple's iWatch persist and apparently Apple will make 63 million of them over the next year.

It is always difficult to predict how new technology will change people's lives. When the mobile phone was designed, who knew how popular texting would be or the development of smartphones that enable you to stream movies to you while you are waiting at the bus stop?

Watches are different though. Although we buy watches so that we know what time it is, is this the primary function? If so, why do people buy $10,000 Rolex?

A $10,000 watch doesn't tell the time any better than a $100 watch. In fact, you can get a cheap digital watch with a 10 year battery that's accurate to a couple of seconds a year.

Watches are not just for telling the time. They are jewellery, they are a statement of fashion, status and wealth. A good watch can impress people when you meet them. People buy expensive watches so that they can stand out from the crowd and not because they want to look like everyone else.

Would you swap your $10,000 Rolex for a $149 smart watch?

Of course you wouldn't. I really don't know how this will affect sales of smart watches. At best we will only buy smart watches to wear part of the time because, well, they just aren't as smart as a Rolex.