Timex Internet Watch Pushes Buttons

With the new Timex Internet Messenger watch, you can receive news headlines whenever you want, wherever you are.

Sounds cool, until you start receiving the headlines. That's when you might decide that any news reducible to a wristwatch-sized factoid probably isn't worth reading anyway.

But more about that later. The Internet Messenger is the latest model in a decade-old parade, from various manufacturers, of watches that double as pagers. It's at the pioneering edge of no-hassle mobile communication: If the information you're getting isn't literally at your fingertips, it's darn close.

Just Watch Me

Featuring service from the national carrier SkyTel, the Internet Messenger allows for a number of different paging options. It's a numeric pager that delivers to your wrist the phone number or numeric message of people who call your pager number and punch it in. A few moments later, your watch starts beeping or vibrating silently (your choice); push a button and the phone number starts scrolling across the bottom of the watch's liquid crystal display. ...