I missed the bus tonight, and as a consequence sat for nearly half an hour on a chilly metal seat in a chilly wind, reading by dim sodium light and wondering if I needed to reset my watch. In fact, I wasn't the only person waiting that long, so it may not have been entirely my or my watch's fault. I reset it anway; somehow, between imprecise time-zone settings and its own not quite perfect accuracy, it was about a minute slow. I miss the BBC time signal!
I've had that watch since the beginning of 1984, and worn it nearly every day in all that time. It's a mid-range ladies' digital -- not one of the ultra-cheap throwaway digital jobs that were so popular back then, but a slightly more solidly built model that cost me ten pounds fifty -- a palpable if not enormous sum to me as an undergraduate. I've spent many times that on batteries and straps/bands over the years, but the watch still works, and keeps pretty good time, and isn't hideous even though the crystal is scratched and the fake gold plating is rubbing off at the corners. It has a clear seconds display that in my student days I used to time experiments, and a date function, and nothing else except hours and minutes. I get funny looks when I take it in for batteries, these days; the last time was about three years ago, and I can only hope that they'll even be able to do it next time. Digital watches went out of favour somewhere along the line, probably by 1990; these days the quartz oscillators drive hands instead of LCDs. I have one of those, but though it keeps perfectly good time it's pretty rather than practical; I wouldn't trust it for catching buses and it won't tell me the date or the seconds.
I've had that watch since the beginning of 1984, and worn it nearly every day in all that time. It's a mid-range ladies' digital -- not one of the ultra-cheap throwaway digital jobs that were so popular back then, but a slightly more solidly built model that cost me ten pounds fifty -- a palpable if not enormous sum to me as an undergraduate. I've spent many times that on batteries and straps/bands over the years, but the watch still works, and keeps pretty good time, and isn't hideous even though the crystal is scratched and the fake gold plating is rubbing off at the corners. It has a clear seconds display that in my student days I used to time experiments, and a date function, and nothing else except hours and minutes. I get funny looks when I take it in for batteries, these days; the last time was about three years ago, and I can only hope that they'll even be able to do it next time. Digital watches went out of favour somewhere along the line, probably by 1990; these days the quartz oscillators drive hands instead of LCDs. I have one of those, but though it keeps perfectly good time it's pretty rather than practical; I wouldn't trust it for catching buses and it won't tell me the date or the seconds.
