Digital watches…

[justidutch]

… are a pretty neat idea. They immediately tell you the time without mucking about with sticks of different sizes on a dial, they beep at you in a friendly manner when you push their buttons, and they will even tell you down to the tenth of a second exactly how long your walk down to the chemist's took.

I haven't owned one in decades, but I sure miss them!

[Flymetothemun]

Mate, I've had a Casio CA-53W for about 5 years now. 15 US bucks (6.72 GBP/21.20 AUD, based on your use of the word "chemist's), Smart, industrial and utilitarian design which I love to bits, and it's the best watch I've ever owned. And the beeping of it's a lot better than most piezo beeps on other watches. Seriously mate, pick one up,

[Plume & Akakak]

I haven't been wearing a watch for more than 15 years, and I don't miss it. Maybe a utopian mini-Clock of the Long Now though.

[Slam_Jones]

I actually miss my analog watch more than my digital one :\ Digital one is nice and all, but it look boring... plastic and pleather and whatnot.

I stupidly wore my nice watch snowboarding, and got mugged by the mountain. Well, technically, I threw the first blow by attacking it with my face... but the mountain decidedly won, and took my watch for the trouble.

Shoulda left it in the car

[Shpaget]

I stopped wearing my digital watch when I turned 8.

Now I carry the spinny, pointy, sticky, dialy thing that doesn't beep at me in the middle of the night. It's solar powered, so it's supposed to not need battery changes, just an occasional sunbathing.

[Flymetothemun]

I stopped wearing my digital watch when I turned 8.

Now I carry the spinny, pointy, sticky, dialy thing that doesn't beep at me in the middle of the night. It's solar powered, so it's supposed to not need battery changes, just an occasional sunbathing.

http://www.yorkshire-watches.co.uk/seiko/SNE241P1/close.jpg

Thinking about it I WOULD wear an analog watch, but I'm too much of an outdoorsman to have a delicate mechanism survive. Just yesterday I chopped down a pine tree and with the heaving that I was doing with my axe and the lifting that I was doing hauling it out I think that I would've damaged a watch mechanism. And every time I go out on the water I always manage to get wet.

[RainDreamer]

I haven't wear any watches at all ever since I got a smartphone. Maybe it will be a smartwatch someday,

[Bill Phil]

I get the joke about the chemist!

Yeah, digital watches are pretty cool...

[Alphasus]

From the hitchhiker's guide:Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

I share the same point of view. Personally, if it only tells time, then I may as well have an analog watch or a smart watch.

[GoSlash27]

I got one of these mainly because I love E6-B flight computers, but I hardly wear it anymore. Smart phones make them pretty much superfluous (although I still wear it on formal occasions)

Best,

-Slashy

[zekes]

90% of the time I use a pocketwatch, which IMHO are superior to watches in every way.

In terms of wristwatches, though, I've always preferred the old wind-up watches, I have a 1980's soviet one that's really quirky, but it's great.

[Camacha]

To be honest, I feel digital watches are inferior, for the same reasons digital gauges in a vehicle are inferior. Numbers are more accurate, but less intuitive than hands. When driving along, it is much easier to catch the speed from the corner of my eye on an analogue dial than on a digital one.

Of course, lots of digital ones emulate analogue clocks and dials these days, but that pretty much proves the point. It is also worth to point out that the most accurate and reliable watches out there are quartz hybrids, which are neither purely mechanical, nor full on digital.

[Dman979]

I have the solution to BOTH your problems!

It can do analog and digital, and it's also the watch I'm wearing now. I do have an analog watch I use for fancy occasions, though.

[tater]

I had firmly moved into the pocket watch category (i.e.: my smartphone), then my dad got me an iWatch for my birthday this spring. It's certainly not worth a few hundred bucks---but it's totally worth having for free I suppose it's worth more than a fitbit, which my wife has, though I don't know what those cost, certainly less than an iwatch (though mine is not an expensive one).

I have a bunch of analog watches, but I don't wear them much now. If I were to shop for a new one, it would actually be shopping for a vintage ww2 A-11 watch, I think.

[Robotengineer]

Watches are like hats to me. I just don't like wearing them.

[tater]

Watches are like hats to me. I just don't like wearing them.

Yeah, that's why most of my watches are "field" watches, they are smaller, and less annoying. I like the new smartwatch for hiking, though (my house is right against a mountain), I have altitude, the usual health stuff, as well as a map, etc. No need to pull phone out, just a glance. Plus alarms are trivial to set, so I know when to head back.

My dad gave me his rolex which he didn't like to wear, so now I have it and don't like to wear it as well, lol.

[cantab]

Thinking about it I WOULD wear an analog watch, but I'm too much of an outdoorsman to have a delicate mechanism survive. Just yesterday I chopped down a pine tree and with the heaving that I was doing with my axe and the lifting that I was doing hauling it out I think that I would've damaged a watch mechanism. And every time I go out on the water I always manage to get wet.

A good watch will be designed to withstand that.

But yeah, I stopped wearing a watch several years back, when mobiles were clearly universal. Having a watch on my wrist now feels weird.

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I have a digital watch which has the day of the week, the month, and the day of the month. It also has world time, a stopwatch with split start, a timer, and a alarm. It's backlit, water resistant to 200m, and has a compass and thermometer.

All completely unnecessary features almost completely unnecessary features, I felt like this when I bought it:

Edited September 12, 2015 by Mad Rocket Scientist

[Red Iron Crown]

Been watchless for about five years now, was almost all digital before that. Considering a smartwatch for silent alerts and fitness tracking features.

[lajoswinkler]

I stopped wearing my digital watch when I turned 8.

Now I carry the spinny, pointy, sticky, dialy thing that doesn't beep at me in the middle of the night. It's solar powered, so it's supposed to not need battery changes, just an occasional sunbathing.

http://www.yorkshire-watches.co.uk/seiko/SNE241P1/close.jpg

It looks very nice, but solar powered watch is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard of.

[tater]

It looks very nice, but solar powered watch is one of the dumbest ideas I've ever heard of.

I'm curious, what part of the world do you live in? Here in NM, with 300+ sunny days a year, I could totally see the value in a solar watch

[lajoswinkler]

Adriatic coast. Pretty sunny compared to inland areas, but it doesn't matter. If I want a device which sole purpose is to tell the passage of time, I want something which work won't be affected by something blatantly simple as lack of sunlight which happens overnight, during rainy days or simply when you wear long sleeves.

I'd compare such watch to a gas powered flashlight.

[Red Iron Crown]

I would imagine it still has a battery, the solar panel just charges it when possible.

[tater]

I would imagine it still has a battery, the solar panel just charges it when possible.

This. It uses a battery that like others lasts a few years with NO sun, but the solar merely extends that duration.

[Shpaget]

After being exposed to the direct Sun for just 9 hours it gets enough juice to go tic-tac for 10 months.

I've been wearing it for about two years now, I'm not particularly outdoorsy and the watch hasn't even entered the low power indication mode (second hand pausing for two seconds, then advancing two seconds at once).

It gets more power from my daily 15 minute bike ride to work and back home than it needs for steady operation. Night, rainy days and long sleeves are no problem.

One good aspect behind the solar power is that it doesn't need to be opened every few years, messing up the gaskets and introducing moisture to the insides.