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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"All historians agree that George Washington's greatest regret was not being {{
There's something cool about wrists and devices on them. Wristwatches are cool. Wristwatches that call your [[Superman|special friend]] are even cooler.
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Often a result of [[Where Does He Get All Those Wonderful Toys?]]. Can be used as part of a [[Nonuniform Uniform]]. A subtrope of [[Shoe Phone]].
{{examples}}
== Anime and Manga ==
* Light Yagami hides a piece of his ''[[
▲* Light Yagami hides a piece of his ''[[Death Note (Manga)|Death Note]]'' inside his watch, meaning he can kill anyone at any time.
** [http://www.hiyoooo.com/ Hiyoooo.]
* Roger Smith uses one to summon ''[[
** Plus, it has a grappling hook. And a remote control for his car's rocket launchers.
*** And a laser. But we never see him check the time.
* In ''[[Science Ninja Team Gatchaman
* The Pockets from ''[[Tower of God]]''. Not only are they timers and watches, they also work as phones, contract forms and babel fish.
* Erio's [[Blade
* Chao's {{spoiler|time machine}} in ''[[Mahou Sensei Negima]]'' looks like a large pocket watch.
* In ''[[
* [[Lupin III|Lupin's]] can contain any number of cool things, but a grappling hook is seen the most often
* Faye Valentine of ''[[
* ''[[Giant Robo]]'': Daisaku controls the eponymous giant robot with one.
* Youji from ''[[Weiss Kreuz]]'' hides his garrote wire inside his already cool-looking diver's watch.
* Ed's pocketwatch in ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist (
== Comic Books ==
* Jimmy Olsen in ''[[Superman]]'' has his Signal Watch, which tells the time and gives off a high-pitched frequency that calls up his pal Superman.
** Note that Superman finds the sound annoying, especially after Jimmy [[Super Dickery|started using it every time he needed a favor]].
* ''[[
* Funky Koval from the eponymous Polish sci-fi comic had a watch fitted with a miniature buzzsaw he used to cut the ropes he was tied with in one of the books.
* Before ''[[The Scottish Trope|That Which Shall]] [[One More Day|Not Be Named]]'', [[Spider-Man]] had given MJ a webshooter disguised as a charm-bracelet.
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== Film ==
* ''[[Spy Kids]] II'' had Juni and Carmen receive special watches that did everything but tell the time. Gary and Gerti however, received ones that did tell the time.
** ...[[Awesome but Impractical|and were several times more bulky for one additional function.]]
*** Well, Gary admits it IS a prototype.
* [[James Bond (
** To the point that in one of the later films, the villain took away his watch because [[Dangerously Genre Savvy|he knew it was a gadget of some kind]].
** In ''[[From Russia
* ''[[Our Man Flint]]''. Derek Flint's watch could wake him up out of suspended animation and act as a microscope.
* ''[[Undercover Brother]]''. Smart Brother gave the title character a watch that could spritz hot sauce on white people's food to make it edible.
== Literature ==
* In [[Kim Newman]]'s ''Diogenes Club'' stories, it's strongly implied that there's something interesting about Charles Beauregard's pocket watch "with the intricate crystal workings". [[The Men in Black|The Undertaking]] refuse to let him into their HQ while carrying it, and he ''certainly'' refuses to let them look after it while he's there. Sadly, the glossary page explaining what it ''does'' has been censored by the current Diogenes chairperson.
* In ''The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything'' by John D. MacDonald, the hero inherits a gold pocket watch that stops time for everyone but the person holding it.
** ''The Girl, the Gold Watch and Everything'' was homaged in ''Lady Slings the Booze'' (part of the ''[[
** Also homaged (without credit) in the ''[[
* The ''[[Doctor Who Expanded Universe]]'' novel ''Borrowed Time'' has a similar idea, with a twist. The people Mr Symmington and Mr Blenkinsop give their wristwatches to are literally ''borrowing'' the time, and will be expected to pay it back. With compound interest.
* In [[Andre Norton]]'s ''[[Spy Fiction|At Swords' Points]]'', a disc of gold set with semi-precious stones is placed inside the back of the main character's otherwise ordinary wristwatch. It identifies him as a member of a counterespionage [[NGO]]. When a Dutch journalist who may be something more takes a look, his response is, "Any assistance we can render is yours."
== Live
* The teleport bracelets from ''[[Blake's
* ''[[
▲* The teleport bracelets from ''[[Blake's Seven (TV)|Blakes Seven]]''. Apparently they had to be regularly replaced because the cast and crew kept stealing them as presents for their kids.
▲* ''[[Doctor Who (TV)|Doctor Who]]'' got there first, with the teleport-wristwatches featured in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S1 E5 The Keys of Marinus|The Keys of Marinus]]'' (like ''[[Blake's Seven (TV)|Blakes Seven]]'', written by [[Terry Nation]]). The Seventh Doctor had a pocketwatch scanner, which he used in ''[[Doctor Who (TV)/Recap/S26 E4 Survival|Survival]]''; possibly in other stories as well. The Chameleon Arch pocketwatch in "Human Nature"/"The Family of Blood" and "Utopia" DEFINITELY counts as a gadget-watch. It {{spoiler|holds the memories and Time Lord nature of a Time Lord who's going ''so'' deep cover he gives himself false memories and even reads genetically as a human or member of any other target species.}}
** Vortex manipulators (wriststrap teleport/time machines used by Time Agents and River) might also fall under this; one would assume a time machine can tell the time.
* [[Chuck]] has a "government issue watch" that can be used to trace him. He's also seen talking into it as a way of communication.
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== Newspaper Comics ==
* ''[[Dick Tracy]]'' and his [[Comm Links|radio wrist watch]] is one of the earliest examples of this, having been conceived way back in the 1940s when actual radios still had vacuum tubes. More importantly, Tracy's has received upgraded versions with additional functions over the years to keep it up to date.
== Tabletop
* ''[[Dragon (magazine)|Dragon]]'' #130 had an article with 17 special watches for use in ''[[Top Secret]]''.▼
* ''[[Star Frontiers]]'' common equipment includes "chronocom" - watch (with stopwatch) and short-range radio communicator (with videophone).
▲* Dragon magazine #130 had an article with 17 special watches for use in ''Top Secret''.
== Video Games ==
* The COMP terminals from certain games in the ''[[
▲* The COMP terminals from certain games in the ''[[Shin Megami Tensei (Franchise)|Shin Megami Tensei]]'' series serve various functions. In all games, they contain a ''Demon Summoning Program'' used to call demons that you have contracts with. In ''IMAGINE Online'', it also holds the Demonic Compendium and the chat program as well. Certain hacked COMPs serve as dungeons, and some special COMPs can style your hair!
* In the ''[[Phoenix Wright]] [[Ace Attorney]]'' series, Matt Engarde has a bracelet that works as a cell phone, and ''[[Apollo Justice]]'' has a special one that can tell his whenever someone around is feeling a strong emotion, so he use the Perceive System to find tells in his witnesses.
* The Pipboy from ''[[Fallout]]'' 3.
* The Omni-Tool in the ''[[Mass Effect]]'' series serves this function, it is pretty much a wrist-mounted laptop/communications system that can be used to hurl tech attacks and looks like an orange-yellow glove thing. Come ''[[Mass Effect]] 3'', you can effectively use one as a [[Laser Blade]].
* In ''[[Absolute Obedience]]'', the Russian [[Honey Trap|spy]] Zhores Barsoukova appeared to have one of these. {{spoiler|It turned out to be a completely ordinary watch, and a decoy from a less compromised spy.}}
* The Spy from ''[[
** However, one of them is a pocket watch instead of a wristwatch.
* The PokéGear, introduced in ''[[
* In ''[[Secret Agent Barbie]]'', a watch is used by [[Barbie]] to communicate with her friends back at base while she’s on a mission. When it’s not being used in this way, it functions as a minimap/GPS type thing.
== Web Comics ==
* ''[[
** Later Tedd figure out how to make "[[Magitek|spell watches]]" - essentially, programmable wands enchanting the user on push of a button.
▲* ''[[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]]'' has [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2003-12-31 walkie talkie watches]. Not much compared to a cellphone or a real walkie-talkie, but it's fun, convenient (though less so than a headset) and concealed.
== Western Animation ==
* Bob from ''[[
▲* Bob from ''[[Re Boot]]'' has Glitch, which literally does anything he wants it to do, even if he doesn't know the exact tool he needs.
* There's a subversion on an episode of ''[[Tiny Toon Adventures]]:'' Plucky is showing off all his [[Shallow Parody|Immature Radioactive Samurai Slugs]] merchandise, including a "Two-Way Wrist Slug."
{{quote|
'''Plucky:''' Nothing! But it only costs $29.95! }}
* ''[[
* The Tracy Brothers in ''[[Thunderbirds]]'' communicated with each other using these.
* Brock, Rusty, and the eponymous brothers in ''[[
* ''[[
* Parodied in ''[[Sheep in The Big City]]'' when Sheep is recruited by a spy organization and receives a watch... that can tell the date. When the enemy Mooks look at it, they scream "He has a watch that tells the date! ABORT MISSION!" and start evacuating en masse before the Angry Scientist shows up and says it isn't dangerous.
* Scrooge's nephews had one (and caused predictable chaos with it, and allowed villains to steal it, etc.) in the ''[[
* ''[[Clue Club]]'''s wristwatches have a pager function.
== Real Life ==
* Real spies used at least two different models of gadget watches: one was a pretty obvious photographic camera, the other had a hidden microphone designed to be used with an external recording device.
** Viktor Suvorov described how during his training he used a watch with a microphone. Apparently, using it during a dinner was a mistake - all the clinking of the cutlery made the speech difficult to hear.
* There are [http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/gps-watch-location-finder-data-logger-photo-tagger/ GPS watches], [http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/special-ops-quad-band-touchscreen-cellphone-watch-black/ cellphone watches], [http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/original-watch-mp4-player-8gb-black-15inch-screen/ MP4 player watches] and [https://web.archive.org/web/20120421161028/http://www.chinavasion.com/product_info.php/pName/spy-camera-watch-allmetal-watch-with-8gb-memory
*
* Paracord armbands have a number of items including watches, compasses, a rather primitive knife in the buckle, as well as the paracord itself.
{{reflist}}
[[Category:Espionage Tropes]]
[[Category:Costume Tropes]]
▲[[Category:Trope]]
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