You ever get the feeling that someone is doing this just as a personal joke? I mean, I can see some guy sitting around the house betting his buddies that he can make the US government chase it’s own tail. The bet is accepted and we get news like this:
watch-lighters and watch-altimeters
Anyway, if you think about it (no, I suspect that the TSA people are not asked to do this) the only way you could use a watch with a barometric altimeter as a trigger mechanism would be to have the watch loaded as luggage in an unpressurized cargo hold. I think the big idea about all the hoo-haa you go through when you check your bags is to make it impossible for a passenger to get anything into the holds once its been through security. Thus, why check your watch to see if it is an altimeter? Does the TSA think that this kind of watch is being used as some sort of terrorist marking device? I must be missing something… Next thing you know laser pointers will be outlawed because they could dazzle a pilots eyes. I’m waiting for those to be pulled off the market… Baka.