Inspired by the cursive thread: Analog clocks

[Bateluer]

When I was in high school, all the analog clocks were replaced by a synchronized, centrally controlled, programmable digital system. They did the same in the elementary and Jr High facilities shortly after. The running joke at the time was that in a few years, you'd say counter-clockwise, and new students wouldn't know what you were talking about.

Today, all the clocks at work are digital. The default clocks on most cell phones and smartphones are digital, desk phones are digital. Clocks outside banks are digital. Clocks on PCs are digital.

Do schools still teach students how to read time on an analog clock? Seems like this skillset is somewhat useless in the modern age? When can retire it?

 

[HamburgerBoy]

All the clocks at my university are analog.

 

[makken]

Well, the skill is still useful because its basically the same as reading analog gauges, and those are still used in quite a few areas.

 

[BoomerD]

How can you tell which way is clockwise/counterclockwise if all you've ever owned is a digital watch? 😛

 

[Capt Caveman]

Will always have a watch with an analog face. Prefer wall clocks with analog faces. Miss my Infiniti and it's analog clock.

 

[lxskllr]

I prefer analog clocks. I always have one on my computer desktop, and in the house I use a key wound mantel clock, and have a Kit-Kat clock in the kitchen. My bedroom clock is digital, but that's mainly for the radio. If not for that, I'd use my Big Ben.

 

[qliveur]

Digital watches are so 1980s.

 

[Ruptga]

Analogs are still all over the place, it would be stupid to stop teaching it now. My guess is they will die off about the same time as the mile does.

 

[Raizinman]

I use a metric clock. It is base 10 and only goes to 10.

 

[HeXen]

Analogue for sure. especially when you can see the gears.

 

[alkemyst]

I haven't seen many digital clocks in buildings.

 

[brblx]

pretty much all wall clocks and watches are (unless you're a nerd/hillbilly) analog. that's a lotta clocks.

schools are really the only place i can recall seeing digital wall clocks because, as mentioned, it was integrated into some kind of electronic bell system (in my circa 1997 high school, at least)

 

[mmntech]

When I was growing up in the 90s, there were a lot of kids that couldn't tell time from an analogue clock. None of the schools had digital clocks. They still don't.

Digital clocks and and watches were all the rage back then. Before analogue came back into style in the early 2000s. Digital watches look tacky IMO. Only kids wear them.

 

[lxskllr]

Digital watches look tacky IMO. Only kids wear them.

They're nice for rugged use. They're practical, and nearly indestructible, but I prefer analog for a "nice" watch. I use a pocket watch for my "good" watch. It's kind of nice, and cheap at the same time. It has a plastic crystal, and isn't particularly finely finished, but it has a 17 jewel Swiss movement. My father gave it to me years ago, and it's probably equivalent to a good functional watch circa 1930. Nothing fancy, but works well, and keeps good time :^)

 

[Bateluer]

Digital watches look tacky IMO. Only kids wear them.

Who still wears watches, outside of a fashion statement? Cell phones have replaced them.

Where do you guys still see analog clocks in buildings? Every wall clock where I work is digital. The shop I worked at in the USAF had analog clocks, but they were the cheap off-the-shelf Walmart variety, no one used them and nobody bothered to maintain their accuracy, so they pretty much all had different time. We all used the time from our Windows workstations or the time stamps from our various databases.

 

[bobdole369]

I use a digital binary watch. Wear and use it everyday, and it doubles as a weak flashlight for 2am bathroom trips.

 

[lxskllr]

I'm not sure I've seen a digital wall clock. A clock should be part form, and part function. A digital clock only satisfies one of those requirements.

 

[Perknose]

Sorry, but cell phones have not replaced watches, only augmented them.

As much as you seem to wish it to be the case, digital will never fully supplant analog.

Analog is elegant, brilliantly so. Outside of the circumscribed needs of work drone precision, analog's elegant magic of hands rotating around a dial, which encompass and display the overarching relationship of minutes to hours at one inclusive glance, stomps your sad, reductive and visually impoverished digital readout like the clueless asperger-boy's ghetto fail that it is.

Or are you the guy who, when the gang says let's meet at the bar at ten, hikes up his Yerkel pants and whines, can we make that 10:01? 😉 😛

 

[Howard]

You could always use right-hand or left-hand rotation (physics students will know what I'm talking about). Would be quite cumbersome, though, since direction needs to be specified.

 

[Born2bwire]

All I know is that my analog watch has a much warmer sound.

 

[Bateluer]

Sorry, but cell phones have not replaced watches, only augmented them.

As much as you seem to wish it to be the case, digital will never fully supplant analog.

Analog is elegant, brilliantly so. Outside of the circumscribed needs of work drone precision, analog's elegant magic of hands rotating around a dial, which encompass and display the overarching relationship of minutes to hours at one inclusive glance, stomps your sad, reductive and visually impoverished digital readout like the clueless asperger-boy's ghetto fail that it is.

Or are you the guy who, when the gang says let's meet at the bar at ten, hikes up his Yerkel pants and whines, can we make that 10:01? 😉 😛

So, your entire argument stems from analog clocks being art forms? Its faster to read a digital clock, but a stylish analog clock definitely looks better. I guess I'm more of a function over form person, with my concern being 'does it work?' over 'how does it look?'.

 

[Squisher]

All I know is that my analog watch has a much warmer sound.

Depth of time seems to be increased too.

 

[lxskllr]

So, your entire argument stems from analog clocks being art forms? Its faster to read a digital clock, but a stylish analog clock definitely looks better. I guess I'm more of a function over form person, with my concern being 'does it work?' over 'how does it look?'.

Windup clocks/watches are engineering marvels, especially considering how old the tech is. Outside of my rugged use scenario above, I'll take the gentle tick of an analog every time. I also prefer manually wound time pieces. Electric analog clocks are vaguely irritating.

 

[Fritzo]

All the clocks on the wall at my work are analog. Digital wall clocks aren't practical because they can't run on batteries for very long. An analog clock can run for months on 2 AA's.

 

[Bateluer]

Depth of time seems to be increased too.

Please, explain 'depth of time' to me.

Windup clocks/watches are engineering marvels, especially considering how old the tech is.

Won't argue with that. But calligraphy is a highly developed art form, taking years to learn and longer to master, but not used in daily life because its impractical.

All the clocks on the wall at my work are analog. Digital wall clocks aren't practical because they can't run on batteries for very long. An analog clock can run for months on 2 AA's.

The digital wall clocks here are connected to facility power, because they're all centrally managed for various reasons. Same with the one's at the schools I've attended.