bits.blogs.nytimes.com
The Pebble, at left, and Nike Fuel, can connect to a smartphone and share information.

Cellphones have already muscled onto watches’ turf as a time-telling tool. Now, some of the biggest technology companies are eyeing your wrist, too.

Companies like Apple, Nike and Sony, along with dozens of start-ups, hope to strap a device on your wrist.

It is quite a disruption for the wristwatch, which has not actually been around all that long. Though said to have been invented in 1868 by the Swiss watchmaker Patek Philippe, it didn’t really catch on until after World War I. Before that, people carried watches in their pockets or on chains.

“Watch manufacturers were asking themselves this in the 1900s, if it made sense to have a watch in their pocket,” said Blaise Bertrand, industrial design director for IDEO, a design company. “I think that’s the same question that is being asked now, but it’s in a completely different context with the smartphone in our pockets.”

More…