Apparently, they were needed by pilots in the early era of flight. They needed to keep track of time, and at the same time they had to control the aircraft, which, at the time, was a hard physical work. So, wrist watches became a necessity, then cool, then a fashion item.

My intro to aerodynamics book told a story similar to this one: http://monochrome-watches.com/...

Call me EU-biased, populist, fourth Reich apologist or whatever, but I don't see how the Euro has been bad for Belgium by looking at its GDP growth. It isn't spectacularly different before/after the Euro, but it seems there is a lot more economic stability after than before.

Belgium:

Before Euro: http://www.tradingeconomics.co...

After Euro: http://www.tradingeconomics.co...

As for France, the tendency of diminishing growth has been there since at least the oil shocks, nothing in the chart I see that would point to the introduction of the Euro as the culprit.

http://www.tradingeconomics.com/charts/france-gdp-growth-annual.png?s=frgegdpy&d1=19500101&d2=20151231

I want to see how a "financially independent" Greece does, really, except it won't be pretty. If the historical record is any indication, they'll be the third-poorest Balkan nation, ahead of maybe Macedonia and Albania but behind everybody else, with a GDP per capita at a healthy 15-20% of the EU-12 average and an economic growth in the low 50 points of one percent when times are exceptionally good.

Unless they have another coup d'etat or, maybe, get bought wholesale by Istanbul or Moscow with all the expectations of good government that such a deal implies.