Negative LCD display contrast

[jeff]

I have several LCD watches now with negative displays -- black background with "white" numbers.

Of course, the "white" is really gray, and unfortunately the watches I have are barely legible indoors unless using the backlight. Outdoors in bright sunlight they look marvelous though!

I'm curious if any of the more expensive LCD watches out there with negative displays have a higher display contrast and are therefore more legible in normal indoor lighting situations.

I'm curious about watches such as the Tag Heuer Microtimer, all Ventura models, and Junghans Mega 1000.

Three of the watches that I currently have with negative LCD displays are:

Hamilton "Men In Black" Pulsar "reissue"

DKNY repro of the 1970s Heuer Microtimers (what a cool watch! too bad it doesn't have the LED)

Diesel (not sure of the model number - they make so many)

All are great watches with neat case design and are well built - but are very hard to read. More often than not I find myself grabbing my old 70's Seikos for their legibility.

Any recommendations are much appreciated.

[rewolf]

Hi Jeff,
welcome to the forum, and you started with a good question :)

Generally, negative LCDs of "reflective/transflective" type have less contrast simply because less light falls on the reflector. So the background of a negative LCD will always be darker than that of a positive LCD under the same conditions. The theoretical contrast is the same, but not in real life :(.

One important factor is the distance of the reflector from the LC: the nearer it is, the better. If it's too far away, you can see the digit's shadows on the reflector. If lighting and viewing angle are different, it happens that this shadow is exactly where you see onto the reflector through the active segment. Unfortunately, with a negative LCD, by far the biggest part of the reflector is 'shadowed'. The thinner the segments, the more they are prone to this effect.

The MIB-II's LCD is one of the worst I have. The digits are small (little light on the reflector), and the the reflector isn't well positioned. But besides that it's a very nice watch 8)

DKNY repro - you made me curious, do you have a model number or a link?

Diesel: I have the DZ7027. The same watch with positive LCD is the DZ7028 - it has much better contrast. The DZ7028's segments are made of small stripes, letting even less light through to the reflector.

The negative Mega 1000 is a lot better than the Diesel, but still the positive Mega 1000 has better contrast under bad lighting conditions.

The Ventura d-sparc (wearing it at this very moment :wink:) is a bit better in contrast than the negative Junghans, plus it has a wider viewing angle (probably due to the fact that the Junghans uses a multiplexed LCD whereas the Ventura's is static or has smaller multiplex ratio - easy, because it has only 29 segments vs. about 140). Never had any problems reading it, only in total darkness of course :wink: (it has no backlight)

The Ventura v-tec is simply the best negative LCD I know.

[jeff]

Hi rewolf,

Thanks for the wonderful and detailed response - gives me lots to ponder - and it sounds like I should check out the Ventura v-tec.

Hi Jeff,
DKNY repro - you made me curious, do you have a model number or a link?

There are three repros that I know of, two Heuer's, and a Zenith (the Zenith case design isn't quite a dead ringer, unlike the Heuers).

All are available at watchzone.com. Here's a comparison image I just now made.

I have the first DKNY at the top, and the case is superbly made.

[rewolf]

Nice comparison chart :)
Now that I see them, I rememer the repros. I was after them, but fortunately forgot about them after some time. Now you remembered me again :wink:
The Chronosplit is really nice, if only it had larger digits! Does it have 24h time display?
The Manhattan is very close to the original, I like the buttons!
The original Zenith is unbeatable! It's on my top-five list. The repro is - well, forget it :wink:.

[jeff]

The Chronosplit is really nice, if only it had larger digits! Does it have 24h time display?

I just checekd, it does :)

It's also a wonderful size - I have a smaller wrist, and often bracelet watches don't quite fit.

You are right though, the digits are small, and of course there's that dark display.

Cheers,

jeff

[redled]

Hi Jeff, and welcome to the forum. Do you know if that DKNY Chronosplit is still available? Also, are you aware of the Marc Ecko Zenith remake? It has a true LED display, although not wirebond. I've seen it in person, it's pretty nice. I may even pick one up.



BTW, speaking of contrast on negative LCD's, I have a $10 Armitron that has better contrast than many $100+ 'name brand' watches, I think it's mostly a matter of carelessness or stupidity that these watches don't have better contrast, I think the lack of contrast ruins many of these watches, which would otherwise be very nice.

[jeff]

Looks like WatchZone is out of them now.

I just looked on froogle, and see one here:

http://altivo.com/DKNY-Mens-watch-Digit ... FLXW40.htm