Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end if the Western Spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun.
Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant litle blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a good idea.
–The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy
SanibelMan - My Homepage
Always remember to pillage BEFORE you burn.
I like having both in a watch. Just last month I had to go out and buy a new one after I cracked the face on my Timex that had kept on ticking for the last 8 years or so. That’s what happens when you slam it against a table saw (not running of course) that you forgot was there. The old one was analog with a digital window for alarm etc. The new one is the same basic layout, analog with a digital window on the bottom side of the face. Of course it was another Timex, their ‘Expedition’ model.
Digital displays are good for some things, analog for others. It’s not really a technology issue. It’d be cheaper to put digital speedometers in cars instead of analog, but digital displays are lousy for showing things like rate of change, or a ratio. As someone else mentioned, when you look at a digital watch, you often have to do an extra step in your head to figure out exactly how much time is left before something else happens. With analog, you get a ‘snapshot’ which shows all the required information at once.
Digital is good for accuracy, and for things like timing intervals. So in true geek fashion, I have a digital/analog combo, with a small digital display hooked up to all the chronometer functions, and which also displays day and date. Perfect solution.
But if anyone wants to trade their Breitling or Omega Seamaster for it, you could probably twist my arm…
I own four watches, which I rotate wearing.
They all have rock faces, so when anyone asks me what time it is, I point to it and show that that I always take time for granite. 
I have a SEIKO railroad watch that has been going strong since 1981.
Consumer Reports did a little watch-testing about a year ago. Their conclusion: If it’s quartz it’s as accurate as it currently gets.
The more money you spend the better protection the innards get.
But after $500 you’re no longer talking about a watch…you’re talking about a piece of jewelry that happens to tell you the time.
And BTW, I mentioned this to a jeweler and he told me that the Rolex can be off by several minutes a month.
He said you don’t buy 'em for accuracy. They’re bought to be seen on your wrist.
My favorite watch was a LCD watch but it was in the form of analog. In other words it had the clock face but the second hand, hour and minute hand were all LCD. It was pretty cool. I got in in '86 and have never seen another since.
BTW there are lots of watches that have both digital and analog displays together.
Geez, the numbers only go up to twelve! How tough can it be to add or subtract a couple numbers. Certainly not worth the several grand a Rolex costs. For the same price you could hire a midget to walk around with you and calculate the time whenever you want.
Yeah I liked those too. Fast food places would sell them for like $2 with purchase of a value meal or something like that. I was pissed when I got lysol on mine and fogged up the display forever.
There is a middle ground of real mechanical analog watches that cost a fraction of what what a Rolex or Omega costs. I have a nice Seiko diver with an automatic movement that cost less than $100 and only loses about a minute a month. Yes, I can have more accuracy with any cheap quartz watch but it’s nice to have one thing that isn’t electronic.
A quick way to tell a mechanical watch from a quartz analog is that quartz watches nearly always have second hands that move in one second inrements. Mechanical watches generally have six or more inrements per second.
I will admit I once thought digital watches were cool I had one of the LED Pulsars back in the late seventies and in '79 I spent $165 for a digital Seiko. It was a durable watch but that was nearly two weeks salary (net) when I was a poor little E-3 in the navy.
puffington, Actually you’re adding or subtracting 8 for GMT.
Doug Bowe hits it on the head. An expensive watch is jewelry. I just dig the way the Rolex looks. I’m usually very utilitarian, but I also like things to look a certain way someitmes. I’ve looked around and The Roxex just “looks” right. shrug
Padeye covered it well:
What most people consider to be analog are anymore actually digital (quartz). If the second hand isn’t making a smooth sweep, it’s digital.
As for me I like both digital and analog.
I have a Seiko I bought in '80 after my Witnauer was stolen, and it still keeps great time. my current daily wear watch is an Armitron triple dial waterproof, which I bought because it reminds me of the witnauer.
I can’t wear a real analog wind-up, because they quit working after awhile; my body seems to reject them, and no, I don’t overwind.
VB
Tempus is fugiting all over the place! Carpe that diem!
I got on the digital bandwagon back in high school (early 80s), but since then I stick with analog. I do like the preciseness of digital watches, but I find that I have a better “feel” for the time if I use analog.
I do own a watch that has both, but I usually only use it if I have need of its stopwatch feature.
Mr. K’s Link of the Month:
Favorite digital: my first Seiko, which ran for 13 years(!) on the battery that it came with. By the time the battery was dying ( could no longer light the face), the little springs in the buttons you push in to change the function to stop watch or set the time or turn the alarm off/on, etc, had worn out and I had to pull the buttons back out with my fingernails. The face was all scratched up by then. I didn’t give it up until I was in a car accident which mangled the wrist band, and took it in for repair and was told that no one replaces the button springs or plexiglass face, and a button plus a watchband would cost more than a new watch.
Current favorite is a real analog pocketwatch. Gears, springs and things. No battery. Wind it once in the morning and once in the evening. Accurate to within 2 minutes per day.
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I have got a great watch, which beautifully combines the elegance of analogue with the technology of the microchip age.
Its solar powered - the glass face is actually a solar cell.
Its got an alarm
Its got a stopwatch
It keeps perfect time
It only cost 100 bucks
Its the Citizen ECO-DRIVE
(Will the management of Citizen please recocnise me with large royalty payments for this promotion)
I like analog watches.
If I had money to burn, it’d be a Movado Museum watch.
I prefer the Digi-Analog watches. Presently I have a Casio Forester. It’s got hour and minute hands, and in the bottom there’s a LCD window. For default, I leave it on day/date. I like having an alarm on my watch, and the all Digitial watches just look cheesey to me.
Ranger Jeff
*The Idol of American Youth *
Riders In The Sky