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Show HN: Analog Watch

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Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#91

Post by inverted666 »

trescenzi wrote: post #25
ventana wrote: post #5

This fun game just made me realize that actually using analog watch does not require converting the time to HH:MM. I've been using analog watch for years, my Apple Watch face is set to analog and, apparently, I read the time as "it's almost 11", but never as "it's 10:58".

Yep this is why I prefer analog watches. They are much faster to internalize the time but slower to convert to numbers. Because it’s an abstraction I innately know as someone who learned to read them as a child they are very familiar and easy to read. You really only need the actual numbers when someone asks you for the time.

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Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#93

Post by gf000 »

dsubburam wrote: post #76
trescenzi wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep this is why I prefer analog watches. They are much faster to internalize the time but slower to convert to numbers. Because it’s an abstraction I innately know as someone who learned to read them as a child they are very familiar and easy to read. You really only need the actual numbers when someone asks you for the time.

How about speed and speedometers in cars? For some reason I prefer digital readouts of speed while I prefer analog faces for watches/clocks.

Well, maybe because digital is better at showing small differences in this case? Like on a 50kmh road, dropping below 50 is quite noticeable in digital, less so with a line above or below another line.

But for the revs, I think it's quite clear that the analog is better.

Maybe one way to put it would be how important an exact value is? For the speed, it is. For revs, the relative value and its change is much more important and humans track movement much better.

Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#94

Post by port11 »

ventana wrote: post #5

This fun game just made me realize that actually using analog watch does not require converting the time to HH:MM. I've been using analog watch for years, my Apple Watch face is set to analog and, apparently, I read the time as "it's almost 11", but never as "it's 10:58".

I like your take, but specifically to the Apple Watch: I’ve been using it for 10 years, and still find it annoying that Apple ships so few high-quality digital faces.

It’s either cutesy stuff with one complication or overwhelming complex ones.

Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#95

Post by trescenzi »

dsubburam wrote: post #76
trescenzi wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep this is why I prefer analog watches. They are much faster to internalize the time but slower to convert to numbers. Because it’s an abstraction I innately know as someone who learned to read them as a child they are very familiar and easy to read. You really only need the actual numbers when someone asks you for the time.

How about speed and speedometers in cars? For some reason I prefer digital readouts of speed while I prefer analog faces for watches/clocks.

It’s because speedometers aren’t showing a fraction of a whole. Analog clocks work by showing how far through the minute/hour/12 hour period you are. Speedometers are just sticks pointing at numbers. Analog speedometers do however do a better of representing your acceleration than digital ones because the speed of the dial does show acceleration.

Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#96

Post by jacknews »

ezekg wrote: post #86
jacknews wrote: post #85

lol, this completely misses the point of analogue watches or clocks. It should be called 'keypad data entry game' instead. The point of an analogue clock is that it gives you an instant sense of the rough time at a glance. I can immediately see it's 'about half past' or 'only a few minutes left until the meeting at 11' or whatever.

That works great until somebody sees your watch and asks you for the exact time!

Then just show them the watch, or look at your phone or whatever.

How often do you need the exact time, and don't have a means to get it, like in tv broadcasting etc?

Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#97

Post by ChoGGi »

jammaloo wrote: post #10
mikestew wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The same “kids across the street” I reference in another comment needed translation from “quarter to eleven” when they’d ask the time. Makes sense given they couldn’t read an analog face at the time.

Similarly, when I moved from the UK to Canada, people often didn't understand what I meant when I said it was "half ten", which is the common way of saying ten thirty, at least where I grew up.

As a Canadian, I've never heard anyone say half ten. I do hear half past ten regularly, so you'd figure it'd click :)

Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#98

Post by ezekg »

jacknews wrote: post #96
ezekg wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That works great until somebody sees your watch and asks you for the exact time!

Then just show them the watch, or look at your phone or whatever. How often do you need the exact time, and don't have a means to get it, like in tv broadcasting etc?

> or look at your phone or whatever

> have a means to get it ... in tv broadcasting etc

I think you're missing the point of wearing an analog watch, which is fine, but still missing the point nonetheless. :)

As an avid watch wearer, all analog, I built the game so I could improve my skills, because under pressure when somebody asks "what time is it?", I want to be able to tell them exactly, because I should be able to read it! I think it's good to want to improve your skills, whatever that may be. You shouldn't bar people from that because you disagree.

Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#99

Post by jacknews »

ezekg wrote: post #98
jacknews wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then just show them the watch, or look at your phone or whatever. How often do you need the exact time, and don't have a means to get it, like in tv broadcasting etc?

> or look at your phone or whatever > have a means to get it ... in tv broadcasting etc I think you're missing the point of wearing an analog watch, which is fine, but still missing the point nonetheless. :) As an avid watch wearer, all analog, I built the game so I could improve my skills, because under pressure when somebody asks "what time is it?", I want to be able to tell them exactly, because I should be able t…

I don't disagree you should improve your skills. but I don't think your app is optimized for that.

But, ok you're the gamemaker, then well done building something, and I hope people enjoy it.

For me, an analogue watch is good for giving you an extremely glance-able approximate time. And potentially as exquisite mechanical jewellery. If you need to know the really exact time to the second and want to be able to tell it quickly, you might be better with a digital watch, especially vs a mechanical watch where a mickey-mouse digital is more accurate than even a COSC mechanical.

But my initial point is that your game is not so much about recognizing the time, even the exact time, but about entering it into the keypad.

Maybe add a multiple-choice mode - show the analogue clocks, pick the digital match.

Re: Show HN: Analog Watch

#100

Post by Clamchop »

forlorn_mammoth wrote: post #63
craftkiller wrote: post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The technology I was thinking of was digital screens. Analog clocks made sense when the best you could do was attach some arrows to some gears on a rotating shaft. Now we can individually toggle lights in a grid containing millions of lights. > Digital. 1 on microwave less than 99. Where else in world 1 Everywhere? 1 is always less than 99 everywhere.

I press 1 on my microware. It starts to run for 1 minute. I press 99 on my microwave. It starts to run for 99 seconds. 1 minute < 99 seconds.

This isn't anything to do with digital time, it's just a convenience of recent microwaves. The digital microwaves of the 1990s did not have this feature, but they were still digital. If you input 1, you just got 1 second.

On microwaves that do have this feature, set the power first to bypass it.

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