With the advent of smartphones, wearing a wristwatch seems old-fashioned. However, there are many situations when it’s not convenient to haul out a smartphone to check the time – most sports activities (e.g., if you use a watch to time yourself), working in the yard or garden, hiking or biking, or if your work is manual labor.
You can up the style factor by wearing a solar watch. They’re no more expensive and look just like a regular watch (the solar cells are built into the face of the watch and are indistinguishable). Timex has a line of inexpensive, stylish solar watches. Citizen calls their solar watches “Eco-drive.” You can see from the links, solar watches are every bit as fashionable as regular wristwatches – more so!
I purchased a solar watch because I was tired of going to a jeweler every year to have a new battery installed. The battery is good for 3-9 months outside of the sun (depending on the brand), i.e. without recharging. A day on a sunny window sill (or 3 hours in direct sunlight) and the battery is good to go for another 3-9 months. The literature says they don’t even need direct sunlight but charge the battery in any kind of light, even a desk lamp. If you live in a cave, you can get a solar watch charger (or just place the watch face up under a bright light for 6-8 hours).
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Excerpted from Going Green, available as an eBook at this list of eBook retailers online.