26 Jul 2010, 08:54
I have posted this question on Wikipedia, since I didn't know where else to go, and they said go to a forum such as this one. So:
I have seen many digital watches with very different physical appearance but seemingly identical behavior. To me, this constitutes strong evidence that the electronics in one were simply copied to make the others. Why such a variety (and I have seen a wide variety) of case and display designs for what is inside really the same watch is beyond me.
Let me tell you what I can remember offhand:
Does this chip design have a name? Why is it so common? (It is really not a good design: too easy to go into time set mode by mistake.) Who invented it and when? (I think it's at least 20 years old now.)
I have seen many digital watches with very different physical appearance but seemingly identical behavior. To me, this constitutes strong evidence that the electronics in one were simply copied to make the others. Why such a variety (and I have seen a wide variety) of case and display designs for what is inside really the same watch is beyond me.
Let me tell you what I can remember offhand:
- The watch has stopwatch and alarm. From the time, pressing the "mode" button once gives you the stopwatch, twice gives you alarm set mode, three times gives you time set mode. If you go into stopwatch mode and use the stopwatch, though, pressing "mode" again will give you the time rather than going into alarm set mode. Similarly with alarm set mode: if you use this mode, then pressing "mode" will give you the time again (normal time display, that is) rather than putting you in time set mode.
- The watch can be set to 12- or 24- hour mode, but only in this funny way: in time set mode, set the hours. They will cycle thus:
- Code: Select all
12 A, 1 A, 2 A, ..., 11 A, 12 P, 1 P, ..., 11 P, 0 H, 1 H, ..., 12 H, 13 H, ..., 23 H, and back to 12 A
^--- AM hours ----------^ ^--- PM hours -----^ ^--- 24-hour clock ----------------^
- The above is, I think, more than anything else, is the defining characteristic of this chip design.
- The watch has date and day of the week, but no year. The calendar correctly allows for the lengths of the different months, except (I believe) for February of a leap year. (This is not really a defining characteristic, as other watches are often like this.) Besides the alarm, it also has, I believe, hourly chime.
Does this chip design have a name? Why is it so common? (It is really not a good design: too easy to go into time set mode by mistake.) Who invented it and when? (I think it's at least 20 years old now.)
