We foresee a time in the not too distant future when all things will incorporate more than a single function. No longer will we just use a fork, but it will be a digital thermometer too, to warn us if our food is too hot. Our shoes will include pedometers, our hats barometers. The safety pin will have a tiny wireless ID tag, so we can know if our pants are undone. Don’t scoff, it’s inevitable good people.

For an early example of the genre, let’s examine this innocent looking RumbaTime Perry Go wristwatch. To all extents and purposes nothing more than a simple unisex timepiece, water-resistant to 99 feet and with a precise Japanese quartz digital movement. But look closer. Allied to that demure exterior is a VISA powered VITA contactless payment system, which will let you buy stuff in stores simply by waving your arm –  preferably the one wearing the watch, we assume –  towards a reader of some sort. Clever clogs indeed.

The trick lies in the tiny card you insert into the watch band. Of course you might say that you could attach a tiny card to any watch band, and you’d be absolutely correct. But in that case you probably wouldn’t get a free year’s worth of VITA subscription included in the purchase price of the watch, as you do here. Thereafter it’s $9.95 a year, so think of the massive saving! Anyhoo, the price of this punctuality meter and shopping tool is $49.99.