Countdown to Death

Melissa Jensen
3737 days ago.

Tikker Logo

Fellow talk radio listeners will be familiar with the Driveway Moment (to be honest for me this is usually a garage moment that is abruptly stopped when the fear of death from carbon monoxide poisoning overrides my desire to hear the rest of the story).

This morning while listening to NPR I pulled into the gas station just as a story was beginning about a new watch Tikker Watch hitting the shelves in the coming year. Figuring that this was just another story about a smart watch destined for failure, this was not a Driveway Moment.  When I returned to the car they were interviewing a couple about how long they had to live and how they felt about having a countdown to this time on their wrist.  Immediately my mind went to In Time, the movie about a day when time truly is currency (Eh, not highly recommended, but it was okay).  My interest was suddenly peaked and the story I heard was about a couple testing out a new watch, Tikker.

The general premise of Tikker is this: You take a long survey when you purchase the watch then subtract your current age and what you get is the amount of time you have left until you are expected to die. Whoa, that is a bid morbid.  That seems to be the general consensus as I researched information on the watch; most sites dubbing it the Death Watch.  That is not the intended purpose. According to the Kickstarter site, this is the Happiness Watch with the purpose being to help the wearer make better, happier choices. The inventor, Fredrick Colting, thought of the idea after his grandfather passed. From their website: “REMEMBER, IT’S NOT REALLY about how much time you HAVE, it’s what you DO with it. A week spent in love and happiness can be worth more than years spent in agony. Wearing a Tikker is a statement to the world that your biggest priority in life, is living.”

$39 Tikker PledgeWhile the funding period was open, for a $39.00 pledge, you could get your very own happiness/death Tikker watch and 2092 people took them up on this offer. Fear not, you can still order the watch from the Tikker website for $59.00. Watches are expected to arrive in April of 2014.

I’m not sure how I feel about this. My guess is that it comes down to optimist vs. pessimist and whether you need a constant reminder that time is precious. I must admit for a fleeting moment I thought about making the purchase, but for me it was more the novelty of seeing people’s reactions when I told them what it was.

Brought to you by: Mills Properties

Photos courtesy of: Kickstarter

Melissa Jensen

Melissa is a native of the Greater St. Louis region. She is addicted to anything Google, and cannot understand why motion activated paper towel dispensers never see her hands.

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