Brother abu hasan, Ala Hazrat did refer to wristwatches with a metal chain (as brother noori said) and a few scholars still follow that opinion.
there is a difference of opinion on the permissibility of wristwatches with metalic chain. 'huzur mufti-e-azam hind 'hazrat molana Mustafa Ridha Khan 'alaihi rah'ma wa ridhwan opined, even after some scholars argued with him quite at lenght, that it was impermissible, whereas 'hazrat allama moalana sharif al-haq amjadi was of the view that it was legitimate. many of our contemporary ulama too do not allow it, among them are 'hazrat allama molana akhtar ridha khan, 'hazrat molana abdul 'hakeem sharaf qadri,'hazrta molana shah turab al-haq qadri and many others (may Allah save them), whereas i've seen several other ulama wearing such wristwaches. i conjecture that to be on the safe side and specially to avoid difference of opinion, those who wear such wristwaches should remove them while praying, though prayer would be valid according to the ulama who allow it.
the earliest wristwatches for men were produced commercially in the early 20th century - and almost all of them came with a leather strap. infact, prior to this, it was a horror for a man to wear a wrist watch as it was considered unmanly and jewelry item worn by women. at that time pocket watches were fastened by a chain around the neck or to a coat pocket. this fashion change from pocket watches to wristwatches was taking place in europe and it was only much later that wristwatches became common in india. given this context, it is fair to assume that alaHazrat was talking about gold chains being worn by men to fasten pocket watches and not about the metal bands that are ubiquitous in our times. Allah ta'ala knows best. --- a few sites of interest: http://www.omegawatches.com/index.php?id=263 http://www.nawcc.org/museum/nwcm/galleries/wristwatch/wristwatch.htm http://www.nawcc.org/museum/wwspecial/ww6.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_watch http://www.thewatchprince.com/Watch-Resources http://www.which-watches.com/history.html http://people.timezone.com/mfriedberg/articles/Wristlets.html http://www.thewatchguy.com/ http://www.ozdoba.net/swisswatch/history_toc.html http://www.pixelp.com/gruen/1904.html http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/Pocket_watch
I believe it's from this lecture (nearly 20 odd years old i think and many ulama present - looking quite young!): http://www.yanabi.com/mediadb/main.cfm?file_id=5708&BookmarkID=0 brilliantly answers objections on Hadith Nur, another gem ...just hope it was longer
Assalaam Alaikum When someone informed Ata Muhammed Bidyalavi (RA)Sahib the wearing a watch with a metal chain is not allowed(as he wore one) according to Ala Hadrat(RA) he replied "I am a muqallid of Abu Hanifa(RA),not Ala Hadrat(RA). Great Admirer yes,blind follower no!
mufakkir e islam pir sayyid 'abdul qadir jilani said that he has met with knowledgable people from 84 different countries but has not seen anyone with as much 'ilm as ustad al-'ulama 'allama 'ata muhammad bandyalvi.
Ustad-ul-Ulama Maulana Ata Muhammad Bandyalvi was asked, who is a scholar in this day? Allama replied today's scholar is he who is capable of reading correctly the titles of the books of Imam Ahmad Rida rahimahullah.