this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2024
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Digital isn't better it's just different. Also a tonne of wristwatches are still analogue.
It absolutely is tho. Usually more precise, 1:1 translatable into written text, can use the superior 24h system and uses the same reading system that is already taught in school anyways.
"Ususally more precise" > This depends on how precisely it is set, not on the display. Unless it's a connected watch, but then it's much more expensive and less energy efficient.
"1.1 translatable into written text" > Both are, you're reading the same number
"Uses the superior 24h system" > Adding 12 to a number isn't complicated. And with habit, most people who use analog watches and the 24h system know which position of the needle means what number in 24h format without doing the math. Some clocks don't even have digits. Unless you've been sedated and woke up in a room without windows, you'll know which side of 12 you're on. And otherwise, you've got more pressing issues.
Right! Just to prove a point, I am going to make an NTP enabled rolex, and sync it to my microsecond accurate local NTP server! :P
To be fair, I did have a watch that automatically synced itself to the us naval observatories atomic clocks over the air.
Yeah, but you need to factor in the distance to the transmitter. Going to add at least a few microseconds to your time accuracy!
Latency is accounted for in the sync process
Sync process? The other comment was talking about the old receivers for the atomic clocks on SW/MW frequencies. It was a one way thing.
Now in theory if a receiver also had GPS they could account for the distance. But, then they'd get far more accurate time from the GPS receiver so..
The watches/clocks they are talking about listened to WWV, a set of radio stations transmitting from Fort Collins, Colorado. The system long predates the Network Time Protocol you're referring to. Radio controlled clocks/watches had no means for accounting for latency.
Ahh OK my bad. I've only worked with NTP for a long time and wasn't aware of the earlier stuff.
If you're interested in prehistory, listen to this for a couple minutes.
There's nothing stopping an analog clock face from representing 24h time:
🤢 what an utter abomination
This is why puppies die
I was ready to hate it but after a good look, it doesn't look that bad. Doesn't work for small wristwatches but could look nice for a big wall clock.
How many people wear an analog wrist watch to actually keep time anymore? It’s jewelry / a specialized tool at this point.
I wear a watch for the time. I like it more than using my phone.
Yes so do I. And how many of our friends/colleagues wear an analog wrist watch daily to check the time?
My dad and my father in law are probably the only two people i know who regularly wear them.
I used to have one, but now I set my phone clock to be displayed as an analogue clock so that kind of made it obsolete, since it now has all the benefits of an analogue display with the additional advantage of automatically syncing time and adjusting for time zones and daylight saving time.
Depends for me. In my casual day to day I don't but when I had a lot of appointments to meet I find it quicker to check the time on my wrist than bu fumbling for my smartphone in my pocket, something that is probably even more true for women if they store their phone in a small bag due to lack of pockets.
Also, sometimes I like leaving my phone at home because I have unfortunately developed the tendency to give it a short glance whenever I have downtime. If I still need to know the time I can still wear a wristwatch.
Wristwatches are just jewelry at this point tbh. They've been rendered completely redundant by cell phones. The only people under 60 who wear them are doing so as a fashion statement.
I'm sure a lot of wristwatch stans will downvote me but I don't care I'm still right
Ever since college I've always worn a cheap watch on my wrist least for the same reason my grandpa stopped keeping a pocket watch: its more convenient to check on your wrist for the time than your pocket.
Granted we're getting way off topic here since except for a few years its ways been a digital watch. Asserting analog watches are more numerous in models when digital watches are more numerous in sales, therefore reading an analog clock is a useful skill is odd to me. When I was wearing an analog watch for my allergies it was a flieger because the mental tax of making the hands turn into a singular time was a frustration.
I learned, though, from this that how you present time changes how you perceive time. Kids who grow up with digital representations of time consider "the current moment" in a much narrower and instantaneous scope than people who grew up thinking of time as being a spectrum on a dial
Watches are just more convenient. You don't need to carry a phone everywhere and with texts and calls showing on the watch you don't need to find your phone to check.
I use my watch with alarms/ timers to know when I need to clock out or in from lunch etc while I mostly leave my phone at my desk while at work so if I'm walking around the building I still get my alerts through my watch
Watches that can get alerts can show digital time. So, chalk another point up for not learning analog time.
For office attire or going out, sure.
If you're doing repair work, running lines, etc, a watch is the choice. Your hands are busy, so a watch is what you need (Except for specific trades where you don't want to risk it getting caught in machinery).
I can say with 100% certainty that I know large swaths of folks in their 20's and 30's who regularly wear watches. Some smart, some digital, some analog.
Wristwatches don't have the negative psychologically addictive and anxiety-producing effects of smartphones
I use my wristwatch all the time to take dogs’ pulses.
Having a cell phone next to a grumpy dog is asking for a broken cell phone. I’m sure people in other fields need wristwatches as well.
Just because you don’t use them don’t mean they’re not useful.
Also, just because they’re useful doesn’t make them necessary.
I'm a watch nerd with a collection of mechanical watches and I'm not going to downvote you because you're right. I wear them because I like them even though I know they are anachronistic. I can't remember the last time I interacted with somebody significantly younger than me who was wearing a watch, and as I said, I'm a watch nerd, someone's watch is one of the first things I notice about them.
I will say that they are occasionally more convenient than other places I could check the time but I've built my life in such a way that I very rarely have to care about what time it is and I go weeks at a time without checking the time, just wearing them because I'm fascinated by tiny gears and springs doing their business and I like the feeling of it on my wrist.