Jake's Watch

Posted By: Nancy
Date: Thursday, 7 September 2000, at 10:48 p.m.

Jake is struggling through a bus station with two huge and obviously heavy
suitcases when a
stranger walks up to him and asks "Have you got the time?"

Jake sighs, puts down the suitcases and glances at his wrist. "It's a
quarter to six," he says.

"Hey, that's a pretty fancy watch!" exclaims the stranger. Jake
brightens a little.

"Yeah, it's not bad. Check this out" - and he shows him a
time zone display not just for every
time zone in the world, but for the 86 largest metropolises.

He hits a few buttons and from somewhere on the watch a voice
says "The time is eleven 'til six"
in a very West Texas accent. A few more buttons and the
same voice says something in
Japanese. Jake continues "I've put in regional accents for
each city". The display is unbelievably
high quality and the voice is simply astounding.

The stranger is struck dumb with admiration. "That's not
all", says Jake. He pushes a few more
buttons and a tiny but very high-resolution map of New York City appears
on the display.

"The flashing dot shows our location by satellite
positioning," explains Jake.

"View recede ten", Jake says, and the display changes to show eastern
New York state.
"I want to buy this watch!" says the stranger.

"Oh, no, it's not ready for sale yet; I'm still working
out the bugs", says the inventor.

"But look at this", and he proceeds to demonstrate that the
watch is also a very creditable little
FM radio receiver with a digital tuner, a sonar device that
can measure distances up to 125
meters, a pager with thermal paper printout and, most
impressive of all, the capacity for voice
recordings of up to 300 standard-size books, "though I only
have 32 of my favorites in there so
far" says Jake.

"I've got to have this watch!", says the stranger.

"No, you don't understand; it's not ready -"

"I'll give you $1000 for it!"

"Oh, no, I've already spent more than -"

"I'll give you $5000 for it!"

"But it's just not -"

"I'll give you $15,000 for it!" And the stranger pulls out a checkbook.

Jake stops to think. He's only put about $8500 into materials and
development, and with
$15,000 he can make another one and have it ready for merchandising in
only six months. The
stranger franticall finishes writing the check and waves it in front of
him. "Here it is, ready to hand
to you right here and now. $15,000. Take it or leave it."
Jake abruptly makes his decision. "OK", he says, and peels off the watch.

They make the exchange and the stranger starts happily away. "Hey, wait
a minute", calls Jake
after the stranger, who turns around warily. Jake points to the two
suitcases he'd been trying to
wrestle through the bus station. "Don't forget your batteries."

Nance

 

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