Watches for Kids: A Gift That Hands Over Responsibility

Age matters less than whether your child actually needs the time for something. Children work on telling the time in the early years of primary school, so a child in their first year — called Kindergarten, Prep, Foundation, Reception, Pre-primary or Transition depending on the state or territory — learns the clock in class, and a watch on the wrist turns that into practice every day. Because the school year starts in late January or early February, after the summer holidays, a first watch also makes a natural present for the start of school.

A good sign is when your child starts asking “what time is it?” or “how long until…?”. For a preschooler who can't read a clock yet, a watch is little more than a bracelet — a sand timer or a light-up alarm clock that shows when it's OK to get out of bed works better.

In practice it looks like this: ages 5–6 an alarm clock or a light-up clock, ages 6–8 a first analogue watch, ages 8–10 a digital or combined watch with a stopwatch and alarm, 10 and up possibly a smartwatch, if your family has a reason for one. For a child about to start school, you'll find more ideas in A gift for a child starting school.

A smartwatch with location tracking is really a small phone. In 2017 the Norwegian Consumer Council had several models tested by a security firm and found serious flaws: a stranger could take control of the watch, track the child's location, listen in and even talk to them. Alerts that a child had left a safe zone weren't reliable either.

That leaves three things to check before you wrap one up. First, who is behind the app and whether the maker still releases updates. Second, whether you can set a list of approved numbers so not just anyone can call the watch. Third, what the SIM and charging will cost you in effort and money — a watch that's flat by lunchtime won't teach anyone responsibility.

And one more question that's easy to miss with a gift: are you giving your child responsibility, or giving yourself peace of mind? A watch that lets a parent follow their location all day mostly teaches that someone else is keeping watch. If you're buying one for the walk to school, agree with your child up front when you'll check their location and when you won't. It's also worth finding out whether the school allows them during class at all.

A watch in the drawer is the most common end to this gift. It's usually not laziness — it's that your child doesn't need the watch for anything, because an adult is still keeping time for them. Go back to the job that came with it: once they have to know for themselves when to leave the park, they'll start glancing at their wrist.

The second reason is comfort. A heavy case, a strap that pinches or a watch that ticks by the bed at night will get taken off. Swapping to a soft fabric strap with hook-and-loop fastening fixes most complaints.

And if the watch gets lost or broken? That's part of the responsibility, just like wearing it. That's why a cheaper model makes sense for a first watch — your child should be learning to keep track of time, not worrying about an expensive object. Agree together whether the next one comes out of pocket money or arrives for their birthday. Both teach that things have value, just at a different pace.

Young children carry responsibility best inside a story. When a child gets a watch together with a book in which they are the hero who beats the clock on a task, the new rule comes with a picture too. At Hero of the Book you can create a personalised book with your child's likeness from a single photo; the digital version costs A$11.99 and is usually ready within 15 minutes — so it works even as a last-minute gift. You can add your own dedication to the book; for ideas, see What to write in a book dedication.