The Artevelde College in Ghent, Belgium, may have recently become the first institution to ban students from wearing watches during exams. According to a report in De Standaard (Google Translate), the new rule is in response to the growing availability of smartwatches and the cheating possibilities that come with it.

According to Kristine De Smet, an Artevelde communications officer, the school does not currently have an influx of smartwatch-wielding students. However, Artevelde views students as early tech adopters, and the examination committee fears the instant-information access problems this most recent line of wearables may present.

De Standaard points out that the watch ban will take effect immediately. Partly due to this desire for quick implementation, the institution has banned all watches during examinations. De Smet said that rather than checking all wrists, the general ban proved to be Artevelde's best solution in this light. To be fair, after reviewing the Samsung Galaxy Gear, we can acknowledge some smartwatches can aesthetically match their dumb counterparts quite closely.