Do You Wear a Wristwatch When You Ride?

[PedalUma]

It has classic analog movement with precision based on the Universal Clock. It also automatically self-adjusts for latitude and season. It never needs to be reset for time zones. No batteries or winding needed. It is accurate for within sub-time zones. And it cannot be hacked.

 

[PCeBiker]

It has classic analog movement with precision based on the Universal Clock.

My spherical compass shows angle of inclination too.




Well, not really.
It's weighted.
But It would spin in circles standing on the magnetic North Pole.

In Australia, it would spin backwards on the wrong side of the road.

 

[PCeBiker]

If so, which one and what features do you use?

If it's getting dark, I go home.

 

[spokewrench]

Casio F91W, in production since 1989. I have discovered again and again and again, everything designed since then has been to appeal to a market less sophisticated than myself.

Casio F-91W - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[PCeBiker]

I wore a Casio calculator watch for more than two decades,..





I met someone with Casio Scientific Calculator Watch.

It kinda blew my Fricken mind!!
Too Damn Cool,..




It could do calculus, algebra, and functions/relations, all on your wrist.

 

[spokewrench]

I wore a Casio calculator watch for more than two decades,..


I met someone with Casio Scientific Calculator Watch.

It kinda blew my Fricken mind!!
Too Damn Cool,..

It could do calculus, algebra, and functions/relations, all on your wrist.

My first calculator had tiny fluorescent tubes to light the segments of digits. Before that, HP calculators were costly and primitive. I'd seen only one, when, far away at sea, I had to calculate a complex resistor network to troubleshoot an intermittent navigational radar that had stumped a team of electrical engineers with carts of sophisticated equipment. They'd replaced $100,000 worth of parts to no avail. ($750,000 in 2026.)

I wished I had my slipstick, but it was ashore, where prolonged humidity was warping the wood, ruining it. Fortunately, I knew all kinds of ways to cheat because with my very limited attention span, cheating was the only way I could have passed 5th-grade arithmetic. By cheating, I filled a legal sheet, 8.5 x 14", in only 20 minutes, with expected ohmmeter readings. From there, it took only a minute to find the problem, a faulty resistor whose replacement cost a penny.

If it's worth calculating, it's worth using a slipstick or 5th-grade cheating. Forget gimmicky wristwatches!

 

[PCeBiker]

My first calculator had tiny fluorescent tubes to light the segments of digits.

This was my first calculator that I bought in grade 9,..




It had an LED display that ate up a 9V battery every couple of weeks.

By grade 11, I had the newer TI-35 LCD calculator,..



It only had two regular button batteries, but they lasted half the year.

I especially liked the "EXC" button that exchanged the value on the display for what was stored in the memory.
I used that all the time as an easy inversion button for inverting fractions.

If it's worth calculating, it's worth using a slipstick or 5th-grade cheating. Forget gimmicky wristwatches!

I knew them as slide rules.
They were about 5 years before my time.

I had a calculator by grade 9 and had to do math long-hand before that.

 

[spokewrench]

This was my first calculator,..


View attachment 210227

It had an LED display that ate up a 9V battery every couple of weeks.





I knew them as slide rules.
They were about 5 years before my time.

I had a calculator by grade 9 and had to do math long-hand before that.


View attachment 210228


View attachment 210229

My first calculator had bright green digits like this one, but no functions beyond basic arithmetic. It ran on one or two coin-shaped ni-cads. It didn't run long without the wall wart because the power supply had to generate 30 volts for the fluorescent digits.
At times I needed natural logs or trig functions. With patience, I worked them out using my calculator's basic arithmetic. When I saw a calculator with these functions, and an LCD, I bought it.

 

[6zfshdb]

When I was a sophmore EE major in college, I was sick of using a slide rule and really wanted the newly released HP 35 handheld. I remember being super jealous of the few other classmates who had them.

After I paid my weekly expenses, I had around $5 left over. At $395, ($2400 in today's money) I would have graduated before I paid it off.
So... I was stuck with the slide rule, a skill that I've never needed since.

 

[McApple]

An analog automatic, just because I put on first thing in the morning, and don't take it off until I get ready for bed.

 

[PCeBiker]

"Do You Wear a Wristwatch When You Ride?"
"If so, which one and what features do you use?"


I don't wear a wrist watch anymore, but I glued one on top of my steering stem on my first ebike.
I only use to tell me the time.





My new ebike has a clock built into the display, so I don't need to use a wrist watch or a smartphone.

 

[Chargeride]

I only use to tell me the time.

As opposed to strapping it to sticks of dynamite.

 

[PCeBiker]

As opposed to strapping it to sticks of dynamite.

I could just wire it into my battery.

 

[LandoftheGiants]

Casio F91W, in production since 1989.

I have a few watches. Most are citizen ecodrives but I do have a Casio Protrek Solar. It has a pretty accurate digital compass, Barometric altimeter and a thermometer, a tool watch if you like. It'll run for months from a single full charge under sunlight. I refuse to change batteries in watches every other year now, or God forbid have to plug them into a docking station every day just so that they can alert me to the fact that the iphone I have buzzing in my right hand has a message for me
The purpose of technology is to make things simpler and easier and these do.
Even has a backlight, the big rectangle below the bezel. Love that watch.

 

[indianajo]

When I was in 2nd & 3rd grade, the teachers made us announce the answers to sums & differences on flash cards. It made us very fast, and allowed me to see the answers to addition and subtraction instead of running the answer through my cortex. I am still more accurate at long sums, like income tax calculations, with a pencil & paper than a calculator. My father the accountant said you never know what numbers you entered in a machine unless you have the printed tape.
For lightning calculators, one physics professor had memorized the 2 digit logarithm table. The sine table too. He could answer nearly any problem in seconds, without a machine. This was in the days when the only calculator on campus that didn't need programming with IBM
punch cards was in the chemistry building. It had nixie tubes for a display.
I have memorized the heartbeats in 5 seconds table so I can take my pulse with a sweep second hand watch. Easier to see while riding than a digital monitor. Unfortunately, my sweep second hand casio needs a battery, and no service in this tiny city of only 2000000 has the tool to install one. I found a guy in the barrio of Houston that changed watch batteries that weren't swiss watches (3 vendors), but he did not have the special battery for a solar powered watch.

 

[Catalyzt]

Just this. I have enough digital technology in my life as it is, probably too much! I like a bit of simplicity from time to time.

View attachment 210162

Citizen NY0040, yes? Great watch, I have one in basic black, it was my daily driver for a long time, my snorkeling watch. Tough as nails... after my father's death, we chartered a sailboat somewhere near Baltimore harbor, and I whacked it on a stainless steel braided shroud. Not a scratchy. VERY accurate, it gained maybe a second every two days, you could wear it for a week vacation and still catch a plane at the end of your trip. Does NOT hack, older movement, pull out the crown to set, but the second hand still keeps running. You start it by shaking it at just the right moment.

I have a few watches. Most are citizen ecodrives but I do have a Casio Protrek Solar. It has a pretty accurate digital compass, Barometric altimeter and a thermometer, a tool watch if you like. It'll run for months from a single full charge under sunlight. I refuse to change batteries in watches every other year now, or God forbid have to plug them into a docking station every day just so that they can alert me to the fact that the iphone I have buzzing in my right hand has a message for me
The purpose of technology is to make things simpler and easier and these do.
Even has a backlight, the big rectangle below the bezel. Love that watch.

View attachment 210260

I have one of these, too, that I use for longer rides that end after twilight. It has Auto-EL, so it lights up with the flick of a wrist, and is very easy to read, which is great!

The placement of the buttons for the stopwatch is weird, so that's a drawback if you haven't been using it a lot. However, another major benefit on mind is that the buttons are large and textured, and I can feel them with my fingers, which is ideal for my used-case scenario: I like to track the amount of time I am pedaling and not coasting. This is a problem on some digital watches that have small pushers with a spongy feeling-- I can't tell if I'm pushing the button or the crown guard. It's also hard to check the watch and make sure I stopped or started it-- but not with the ProTek. Yes, it does have an altimeter, which is what attracted me to it, but it's so inaccurate it is nearly useless. Mine is atomic, so it's always dead accurate. Make sure you leave it in the light whenever possible-- I run high-efficiency LEDs over all my solar watches. The time-synch uses a lot of battery power, so I've found it needs a bit more light than some solar watches. Not a major issue, easy to work around.

 

[spokewrench]

Big watches are supposed to be macho, but big watches are easy to damage, which didn't seem macho to me. In 1972 I bucked the trend. I spent $6 on a little Timex with a blue vinyl band. It might have been intended for a first-grader. It lasted much longer than any big watch I'd had.

In port, you could always find a shipmate on the pier, standing or sitting on his watch. I was sitting on mine after midnight when a Russian came across the pier, saw that my coffee mug was empty, and filled it to the brim with vodka. If it had been Southern Comfort, smoking my pipe would have covered the smell, but that wouldn't work with vodka. If the OD came out to check my watch and sniffed my cup, he would have smelled nothing and known it must be vodka.

To stay out of trouble, I gulped the evidence. Then I remembered something incriminating. Shipmates said that when they knew I hadn't had anything to drink, anyone would swear I was drunk, but after watching me consume six rounds, anyone would swear I was sober. If the OD caught me acting sober and found no odor in my mug, he'd know I had a Russian contact. If he remembered how nobody knew the source of the illegal Havana cigars I smoked, he'd think I must be a communist, only posing as a fascist. By putting me on trial, Nixon could divert attention from Watergate.

By acting drunk I stayed out of the brig and ended up with a good conduct medal.

 

[LandoftheGiants]

Citizen NY0040, yes? Great watch, I have one in basic black

You sound like you know your watches. Yeah it's a fugu. Watches are a form of artwork to me, Titanium, sapphire crystal, gold plating, all the beautiful designs. And good autos not used daily will last decades, 100 years and more probably? I have a couple of Blue Angels too, ecodrives, love that technology. Heavy but easy to read and very stylish, a far cry from the little girly watches we wore pre-2000. My first ecodrive is 20 years old now and still going strong.

 

[chunk]

Smart watch

 

[spokewrench]

I thought I was smart when I bought a Timex SSQ for $85 in December, 1975, equivalent to $525 now. Very accurate, easy to sync with WWV, and the stainless case protected the crystal. Six months later I was riding my motorcycle in the rain when I realized my watch was gone. The elastic wrist of my raincoat must have pushed the watch farther down my wrist so that when I rolled on the throttle, I snapped the band.

I doubled back and found it in the middle of a quiet street. In the two minutes since I'd passed, an automobilist had run over it. The case looked like it was made to be car-proof, but it wasn't. The driver must have known it. Who knows how long he'd been stalking me, hoping for a crack at my snob watch?

I resumed wearing my faithful $6 Timex child's watch, whose vinyl band had proved much tougher.