New wrist watch

[dsteele]

This isn't a weighty topic, but I thought we could have some fun with it. Let's talk about your wrist watch (if you use one.)

 

I woke up this morning and decided that I no longer liked the watch I bought when I moved into my last town. It was too thick, had features I never learned to use, and looked nerdy. Actually, I was bored this morning and ventured (interesting word) to the mall to buy a new watch.

 

I was hoping there was a kiosk with several interesting watches, but there wasn't. So I ended up at Sears, of all places, looking at watches. I like a leather band, so it was easy to ignore the ones with metal bands. If I want a bracelet, I'll buy a bracelet. That's my theory.

 

Anyhow, I settled on a 30.00 dollar armitron with a clean face and a cheap leather band. Then went downstairs and bought a good leather band and had it adjusted, etc.

 

My only problem with the new watch is that it tells you what day it is and what the date is.

 

My theory on that is if I don't know what the date is, that's not abnormal, and I'm glad the watch can clarify it for me.

 

My problem is that the watch tells me what day of the week it is. I figure if I can't tell what day of the week it is I should cash in my chips and start talking to the flower pot.

 

I really don't understand the watches that tell you what month it is.

 

Comments?

 

Unc.

[Fat Old Guy]

Call me strange but I often lose track of what day of the week it is. Thank God that I have a cell phone that tells me day of week, date and time.

 

I only wear analog watches so I have no spiffy features.

[dsteele]

Thanks, Mr. Old Guy.

 

Actually, I only wear analog watches, too. but there's a date thing in there somehow.

 

Unc.

[VentureScoutNY]

 

My watch tells the the date as well. I also only wear analog, but its a neat one. It has an alarm on it and is great at night, its an Indiglo. Only problem is, it's not water proof, it is water resistant though... Does not help when I jump into a pool and forget I have it on... I'm on my second watch of this kind due to water.

[SR540Beaver]

My watch is constantly telling me I'm late.

[Eamonn]

I don't very often wear a watch. Not sure why not.

I remember my first Timex. It was the first thing that I really saved up for.Nothing special about it.

I now own two watches.A Timex which I take to Camp.I found it about 25 years ago at Gilwell Park, handed in as lost property and no one claimed it. I have a very plain watch that I bought duty free on a plane, I think it's an Omega.

I don't like those new digital things that do everything. I can never set them to tell the time.

One strange thing is that in 3 days I will have lived here for 20 years. I have become Americanized in most things other then the date. I still want to put the day first. In fact when I write the date I now write the month. I don't know but I think the USA is the only place where it's month, day, year.

How does the US military do it?

Eamonn

[dsteele]

The military does it the same way you do. Day, month, year. Makes sense to me.

 

Unc.

 

[hops_scout]

I dont wear a watch very often. Reason being that every time I do, I break the band somehow and then it gets lost for however long. The one I have is a digital clock with a metal casing. It has a leather band I think. Says "Field Ranger" on the casing around the screen. $10 at Wally World.

 

I want to get a cell phone or a watch with GPS in it:)

[Fat Old Guy]

"The military does it the same way you do. Day, month, year. Makes sense to me."

 

Only if you speak backwards. In my civilian guise, I say, "May 25th, 1994" not "the 24th of May, 1995."

 

Actually, the most common sense way of writing the date is yyyymmdd (that's year, month and day) so that it is easy to sort by date.

[Eamonn]

There in lies the problem I say 25Th of May 2004.

The 25 th day of May in the year of our Lord 2004.

Eamonn

[NeilLup]

Hello Uncleguinea,

 

It's not that the watch tells you what the month is. Rather, you tell the watch what the month is. If the watch doesn't know what the month is, how can it know how many days there are in that month and when to go back to 1 for the date. Not to mention tricky situations like leap year. That's why you also likely need to enter the year.

[Be_Prepared]

Man, y'all got some fancy watches. Mine doesn't tell me anything. I have to look at it.

[hskydg]

I have a cheap indiglo timex of my father-in -law (who's passed away) actually puts out just enough lite in the tent to look thru the pack during the nite...or to see what time it is..

[mikeb]

I recently received a very nice looking Citizen watch for my 10th anniversary with my employer. What I have discovered about this $150 watch is that while it looks very business appropriate, it isn't very "Scouting worthy." My biggest gripe is that it has no back-light. How am I supposed to check what time it is in my dark tent? Please don't suggest I fumble with a flashlight. Also, every time a month isn't 31 days I have to adjust the date. I'm going back to my $25 Timex Ironman, it never let me down on a dark and stormy camping trip.

[SMT376Richmond KY]

Uncleguinea

I'll relate a good reason for the date and day on the watch. Prior to moving to a management position I was an ER nurse. Working in a level 1 trauma center we took care of very seriously injured patients and many near death or dying ones. One night about 2:30 AM (as usual) we had a UFO (unidentified falling Ohioan seems they like to come to Red River Gorge famous for 60-100 foot drop offs from the trail)flown in with sever head trauma. Normal procedure is to assess some ones mental status by asking them simple questions and to see if they are oriented to person, place and time. Now we the nursing staff do this every 15 minutes and of course a neuro surgon wants to do their own assessment and not trust the judgement of a lowly nurse that has been treating the patient for two hours during the truama work up.

When the neurosurgon asked the patient what day it was, without missing a beat the fellow held up his arm looked on his watch and answered "according to my watch it's 5:30AM on Saturday morning." We all broke out laughing.