Do you wear a watch? If so, do you prefer a digital watch or one with hands?

No. I’ve never worn a watch. I do, however, have an iPhone (with an interval timer app on it). That’s really all I need.

All my life I collected wrist watches manically but nowadays the only thing I wear on my wrist is an activity band, which has no face and rely solely on my iPhone for the time. I was heavy into digital watches when they first came out in the ‘70s (who wasn’t?) but soon returned to the analog type because I hated seeing the seconds of my life tick away so graphically on my wrist.

Only in situations where I know I’ll need to be time conscious (mercifully few).

I prefer analog. A friend once made a good point: Analog watches are more intuitive because our experience of time itself is analog. There’s nothing numerical about how we experience time; it’s experienced in terms of movement and change. This is more directly expressed by the movements of the hands of an analog watch.

Analog becomes awkward only when you have to communicate the time to someone else. For my own consumption, though, I can just glance at the watch face and “see” the time rather than “read” the time.

My fiancé and one of my closest friends both love watches, and wear them nearly every day. In the days before cell phones, I wore them daily, as well; and I always preferred the analog watches. I really like the kind where you can see the inner workings. I don’t wear them or bracelets anymore because they get in the way when I’m typing.

Yes, and yes. Why choose when you can have both?

Yes. Used to wear a digital watch, but now have changed to the old-fashioned analog watch. I still keep the digital watch though, when I need a count-down timer.

I like both kinds of watches. Each has its own strength. It’s just that digital watch is too big, and it’s too masculine compared to the analog one that I don’t wear it often.

I go through periods of wearing a watch; when I do I prefer analog.

I wear an analog watch now but I wish it were a digital one. I had a digital one but it broke.

@thorninmud Excellent points.

@jerv In my case, I was just given the analog and later bought a cheap digital just for exercise. If I needed to buy a new everyday watch, I would still choose an analog one because I prefer how they look (over a digital or a combination watch).

I’ve tried wearing watches at various times in my life. Somehow they all suffer premature death. It doesn’t matter, purple mechanical, purely electronic, purely analogue, purely digital, or any hybrid of any or all the above…I just can’t wear a watch.

I use to love watches and had quite a nice collection. Over time, a few broke down and I never had them repaired. Then smart phones came sling and they just became one less thing I need to carry around.

Now, I only wear one if I’m getting all dressy — which is maybe twice a year.

I don’t wear one. My phone tells the time.

I don’t wear anything on my wrists because they’re obnoxiously skinny and nothing I could buy commercially would fit them. I’ve tried watches but they just flop up and down my arm all day.

But I still have a preference for analogue watches/clocks. They’re just pretty.

When I am indoors I take it off as it feels like a burden on me. The moment I step out I MUST have a watch otherwise I feel naked without it. Weird uh? A watch with hands and big numbers is what I prefer. I love roman numerals, but regular numbers will do too.

Nope, no watches. I don’t even look at the time on the phone too very often. I really don’t bother myself much about time. I know when I am hungry and when I am sleepy without the aid of a watch.

I only wear a watch for work and always an analog one with a second hand. Outside of work, I just use my cell phone or the clocks in the house.

I wear a digital watch when I’m active – biking, hiking, camping, fishing, swimming. I figure it’s not going to mind getting knocked about.

I wear an analog watch otherwise, they’re better looking than digital.

I used to wear a watch but then I realized I would look at my phone more often than my wrist so when my watch finally died I decided not to get another. When I did wear a watch I used to wear a binary watch somewhat similar to this though mine didn’t have any numbers on it.

When I go out I wear a French watch (Baume & Mercier) that was my s/o’s mothers watch. He gave it to me. He also bought me an expensive watch but I can’t read the time. I don’t know what to do about it. The hands and background are both gold so I can’t see the time. lol

I take my watch off only when I sleep. I have an analogue watch and when I glance at it I absorb the time almost subconsciously. With a digital watch I have to think and translate the numbers into a sense of time.

I have always preferred analog watches.

I used to wear digital watches all the time when I was younger. Never left home without one. Then I got a cell phone and don’t even wear a watch anymore.

I wear an analogue watch. I wear one my husband bought me that I love. Simple and stylish. I don’t want to have to fish out my phone to check the time. I can just flick my wrist and see what the time is.

While I prefer analog watches for simple time-telling, I do have needs that go beyond that. I used to wear Databank™ watches, though my smartphone has taken over the main functions that made be go pure-digital (number storage and calculator), allowing me to go with something more stylish.

For those who prefer analog just for looks, I have to wonder how simple your lives are that functionality doesn’t matter. Or do you all just use your phones for everything, even telling time without having to dig around in your pockets? That seems alien to me….

@jerv I do think analogue watches look better and I don’t need my watch to do more than provide the time. I also want to just be able to glance at my wrist and as @thorninmud said, ‘see’ the time. I use my Smartphone for a whole range of things, but I don’t think using it as a timepiece is terribly efficient. I use it for tasks related to time such as alarms/reminders/keeping me on task/monitoring time spent on tasks. I use my phone for many, many things that I’d never have imagined even a year or two ago.

@jerv: Consider that watches are sold in jewelry stores… to most people they are style accessories that have the function of telling time. Prior to 2007, I wore analog watches and they served the function I needed. What other functions are you talking about? Most of the math I need, I can do in my head.

Nowadays at work, the clock on my computer’s desktop, and one on the wall in the reception area are all I need – my phone is in ‘do not disturb’ mode and I rarely touch it. When I’m out and about on my own time, I have little need to check the time. Since I’m usually with my fiancé and he consistently wears a watch, I could ask him, but I usually just check the phone. I don’t “dig around” for my pocket watch phone when I need it, I just reach in and pull it out – it’s the only thing in that pocket.

@hearkat I am not (nor do I really understand) “most people” though, so it still doesn’t make sense to me. I’m not saying you’re wrong, just that I’m not understanding a world I’ve never been a part of. One where limited function is okay so long as it looks fabulous_and even when you can have both. I don’t think sacrificing function for style, especially when you don’t have to, will _ever make sense to me.

To illustrate one difference between us though, you work a desk job. Take away your desk (including the PC), the wall clock, and the wall. How would you tell time at work? Would you reach into your pocket and grab your phone when your hand is covered in oil and aluminum dust? No, I think you’d wear a watch. Probably one that is either a bit on the tough side, or utterly disposable. But it’d have to have a countdown timer too.

As for the math, tell me the RPM and feed rate for a ¾” 3-flute end mill that will have a surface speed of 4200 ft/minute and a chip load of 0.006”/tooth. The formulas are easy, but I find multi-variable equations like that a bit much for doing in my head; it’s a bit more complex than calculating the tip on a restaurant bill. If you can do and IPM = RPM * 0.006 * 3 where RPM = (3.82 * 4200) / 0.375 in your head, you’re smarter than I am.

No, I think our different opinions here are due to us coming from vastly different environments, having different needs, and otherwise generally you not being me and me not being you.

@jerv – I suspect we are agreeing a whole lot more than you realize. My only disagreement was with the “digging around” component of your comment, because I can pull my phone out fairly efficiently.

I, too, will not choose form over function. I used the jewelry store reference to help illustrate the place of watches for most of society – into which neither of us fit. We are also in agreement that ‘function’ varies based on the individuals needs — which is why I said that when I didn’t have a computer or wall clock handy, I did wear a wristwatch and all I needed it to do was to tell time. I guessed that you need to handle more complex calculations, but for those of us who aren’t in mathematical/engineering fields, we aren’t performing those complex calculations. Since I have other devices to perform the function of telling me the time, I no longer need the form of a wristwatch so they sit in my jewelry box.

@hearkat My wife constantly complains that her women’s jeans have tiny pockets compared to men’s jeans. Even with only one item in my front pockets, they’re deep enough that I stand by the term “digging”.

I’ve never been into wearing watches but if I did it would definitely be of the analog variety.