chrkau

> If you have a problem with the hands due to your eyes needing to search... the solution is digital watches.

Yes digital watches do exactly what I want. But why can't there be something like an "analog digital" watch? A watch that is stylish and has the "I could make one of those" thing going for it while still being as effectively readable as a digital one.

The idea I tried to describe in the post (though poorly it seems) is this: Don't make the hands of the watch move but move the dial below. This way your eyes won't have to do searching because they always know where to look for the hand. Now if you have separate dials for hour and minute you will have exactly two places to look at - and those will never change position - like with a digital watch.

My point exactly. You'll use a digital one for accuracy/effectiveness but an analog one for style. Why can't there be watch that combines both advantages? Just because the stuff we use works doesn't mean we should stop thinking about improving things.

Oh, and I mentioned why I don't like the multi-dial approach: your eye still has to search for the hand. There simply is more eye movement involved in reading an analog watch, which is exactly the thing I tried to present a solution for.

To be honest I don't think you really understood what I wanted to say with in that post. I don't believe the analog watch has that long because it's that great usability wise but because it's (relatively speaking) simple to make.

This simpleness is what appeals to most in analog watches - there are no chips involved (at least in mechanical analog watches). You can "get" an analog watch, understand it. There is nothing to get about computer chips. Those things are black boxes of electronic magic to most.

Furthermore just because you are fast at using something doesn't say anything about the quality of the thing you are using. You can learn to live with pretty much any level of pain. And that's why you don't have to actively think about reading a watch. It's a learned thing - just like catching a ball. And still people invented the baseball glove.