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fredag 1 januari 2010

What Is A Digital Watch?

By John P Stevens

For almost everyone, a watch is a necessity item. Irrespective of age and gender, it is a requirement for everyone. The main function that a watch performs is to tell the time, but it has been widely used as a luxury accessory.

There have been many changes and advancements in the technologies of watches. In the beginning, the watches were only in the analogue format. The analogue watches are made with the numbered dial and two hands to tell the hour, and the minute. A new type of watch was introduced in the 1970s, which was known as a digital watch. The benefit of a digital watch is that it shows the time in the form of digits displayed on a screen like 06:30 pm. No hands are there to tell the time, neither there is any numbered dial; the time is readily available on the screen.

Although the working of the digital watch is the same as a mechanical watch, but the power in it comes form the electricity. This electricity is provided by a small cell that is placed in the watches. As the digital watches have an electronic time base, therefore they tell the correct time.

The display screen can be of two types, it may either be a light emitting diodes (LED) or a liquid crystal display (LCD). As compared to the mechanical watch, a digital watch has a counter that has the same function as that of a gearing mechanism in a mechanical watch. The counters functions in a way, that it produces numbers from zero to nine in a sequence, which enables it to keep track of the time.

The Pulsar division of Hamilton Watch Company made the first digital watch in the year 1970. As it was a new technology, therefore it was very expensive, and was not affordable by all and sundry. When the production of watches started in bulk in the year 1975, only then it became affordable for everyone. In the beginning, the display screen used to be red, and they were made form the use of light emitting diodes (LED). For viewing the time, you were needed to press down a button.

It was in the 1980s that the digital watch industry saw many new developments. One of the most popular brands, Seiko introduced a new digital watch in the market, which had a television screen built in the display. Another famous brand Casio launched a digital watch, which could translate Japanese words into English, and had a thermometer in it.

The digital watches have gone through many changes over the time. The digital watches now come with built in memory, so that you can store information in them. Some of the digital watches have calculators in them for performing both arithmetic, and scientific functions. The technology is so advanced in the digital watches that in the 1990s, such watches were introduced that allowed to download, and to store data from external sources.

Despite this, digital watches are only used for time keeping, and not as luxury items. Most expensive brands produce analogue watches, and almost all timepieces named categorically as collectors are analogue. Still, digital watches are a good option, as they are inexpensive and easier to read, and can perform many other functions apart from telling time.

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