ZOZ objects can be ubiquitous - page 2

Around 1980, digital watches started to become widely available. There were lots of advertisements, always focused on the technology. The messages were "Our watch is accurate to 3.7 seconds per week", "Our watch battery lasts 9 months", "Our watch uses the latest ZAE-32 chip running at 87.5 GHz", etc. It was always about the technology, about the specs. Our watch has better specs than their watch!

And then by around 1985, all of the digital watches got cheap enough and accurate enough and lasted long enough that nobody really cared anymore.

And then a company called Swatch came out with a line of watches whose only advertising message was "They come in lots of colors! Wear one and be cool!".

This, to me, was the transition of the watch from "Technology" to just "stuff". I don't have a name for the "just stuff" it becomes, but I know it is no longer "Technology". It just "is".

It had woven itself into the fabric of everyday life, now indistinguishable from it.