![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
serynI need a new watch. I'm torn between wanting awesomely cool features and wanting it to be cheap.
I like digital watches. I'm finally old enough that I can tell time at a glance off an analog clock, but analog watches often don't have all the numbers on the face and the whole thing is usually so tiny that the difference between the hour hand and the minute hand is negligible. I did find a watch with a narrow strap and a super giant analog face that had all the numbers on, but you know, that's going to look pretty idiotic.
I rather liked the silicone plastic watch band on my current (and completely dead) watch. If the watch hadn't had such annoying design flaws like being easier to turn on the alarm than to see the date and having buttons that were pressed just by moving my hand around, I would consider just buying another one. I was leery of the plastic band, but unlike the cloth bands, it didn't mold even though I got it wet a lot (handwashing). I'm uninterested in a metal band.
I have two criteria that I use for evaluating the satisfaction I will have with the watch. Firstly I look at the display's number size relative to the overall size of the watch. There's no reason it can't be of a maximal size. Second I look at how well contrasted the numbers are against the background and how cluttered the display is.
Strangely this makes me really loathe the two main brands, Casio and Timex. Timex has low contrast displays that are hard to see even under fluorescent lights at the store, so they'd be worthless while driving or sitting on the couch in the evening. But both brands spend so much real estate telling you their branding and adding "decorative" framing that there's really only a quarter of the space that's used for displaying the time. That might be okay if the rest was a solar panel or was actually attractive, but usually the stuff is just junky looking and distracting.
My $10 watch from Target had really dark really large numbers and almost no dreck. Most of the Timex watches are 4 times as expensive without adding any features and much more difficult to read.
I'd kind of like a watch with an altimeter, that knows what the time is and sets itself, that will display my pulse rate when I'm at the gym, that has an actual timer (not a stopwatch that counts UP, one that counts DOWN), and preferably one where the display can be set to JUST show the current time.
Oh, and I want a watch that's not made in China.
Yes, I do actually need a watch. I've spent a shockingly large amount of time in hospitals in the past year and they get really irked when you take out your phone, even if you're just checking the time.
I can't figure out where to buy a watch from either. I wasn't happy with the selection at Target, fancy stores only have analog watches, so I started looking on Amazon. Of course I've had problems with shipped watches, they arrive with dead batteries, always. It's like the post office does something to them.
I like digital watches. I'm finally old enough that I can tell time at a glance off an analog clock, but analog watches often don't have all the numbers on the face and the whole thing is usually so tiny that the difference between the hour hand and the minute hand is negligible. I did find a watch with a narrow strap and a super giant analog face that had all the numbers on, but you know, that's going to look pretty idiotic.
I rather liked the silicone plastic watch band on my current (and completely dead) watch. If the watch hadn't had such annoying design flaws like being easier to turn on the alarm than to see the date and having buttons that were pressed just by moving my hand around, I would consider just buying another one. I was leery of the plastic band, but unlike the cloth bands, it didn't mold even though I got it wet a lot (handwashing). I'm uninterested in a metal band.
I have two criteria that I use for evaluating the satisfaction I will have with the watch. Firstly I look at the display's number size relative to the overall size of the watch. There's no reason it can't be of a maximal size. Second I look at how well contrasted the numbers are against the background and how cluttered the display is.
Strangely this makes me really loathe the two main brands, Casio and Timex. Timex has low contrast displays that are hard to see even under fluorescent lights at the store, so they'd be worthless while driving or sitting on the couch in the evening. But both brands spend so much real estate telling you their branding and adding "decorative" framing that there's really only a quarter of the space that's used for displaying the time. That might be okay if the rest was a solar panel or was actually attractive, but usually the stuff is just junky looking and distracting.
My $10 watch from Target had really dark really large numbers and almost no dreck. Most of the Timex watches are 4 times as expensive without adding any features and much more difficult to read.
I'd kind of like a watch with an altimeter, that knows what the time is and sets itself, that will display my pulse rate when I'm at the gym, that has an actual timer (not a stopwatch that counts UP, one that counts DOWN), and preferably one where the display can be set to JUST show the current time.
Oh, and I want a watch that's not made in China.
Yes, I do actually need a watch. I've spent a shockingly large amount of time in hospitals in the past year and they get really irked when you take out your phone, even if you're just checking the time.
I can't figure out where to buy a watch from either. I wasn't happy with the selection at Target, fancy stores only have analog watches, so I started looking on Amazon. Of course I've had problems with shipped watches, they arrive with dead batteries, always. It's like the post office does something to them.
