No Apple today keeps the bill collector away

Some time ago I bought a Timex from a local jeweler, but I soon became annoyed with it.  I found it hard to reset the time, especially when the day of the month had to be reset on non-31 day months.  I had had a previous Timex that was a bit easier to use, but it wore out.

I started lusting after an Apple watch because I thought, like my other devices, the calendar would be reset automagically at the end of the month and that it would always be synched with some time standard.

But $250 for just that feature seemed a bit steep.  I wouldn’t use the exercise features, and I have an iPhone for listening to podcasts as I exercise.  It would be nice to say, “Hey Siri, when is the bus coming.”  The big drawback for me was that the Apple Watch had to be recharged every 18 hours in a special stand.  Best Buy did have an ad for the Misfit Vapor that was about $200, and Misfit’s website had smart watches for less.  But still…

I decided that I would visit our local Target store to look for some of the less “exciting” watches I bought years ago.  I remember them having a watch counter with dozens and dozens of styles.

Well, the watch counter with its helpful, knowledgeable clerk is gone and has been replaced by a set of shelves in a narrow aisle.  I saw some of the Seiko models that I had years ago.  I think these were in the range of $50.  But then I saw a familiar Casio among the Seiko watches.  It was only $19.99.  It had all the easy to use buttons to change the time, day, and month.  As I stepped away from the shelf, I saw the next shelf to the right was filled with Casios.  Many thanks of the person who left the Casio with the Seikos.

Once I got the Casio home, I found its most serious drawback: instructions that are very hard for seniors to read.  I remedied this by visiting the Casio site and downloading the direction to a PDF file.  I expanded the file to a comfortable viewing size and started in on the electronic playground.  The only foreseeable problem is the band wearing out and a replacement being hard to find.

I also found out that it has a replaceable battery with a seven-year life.  Also I can change the over-the-counter battery myself with a jeweler’s screwdriver, which I have.  That certainly beats charging every night.

Another time line

Tempus fugit!
Children fidget!
Adults fudge it!

The simple done with difficulty

Years ago I bought a Timex Ironman from a jewelry store: a $50 watch from a store that would rather sell me a $500 watch.  It is one of those multi-function watches, and I think I used every one of them.  Also it is very accurate.  I think that it would gain about three seconds a month.  I was very annoying in telling people that whatever clock they were using was off.

Twice the battery wore down and I went to the same store to get a new battery.  The second time the clerk was not too happy about replacing it.

The watch is starting to get old and most of its functions are on my iPhone.  The best feature is that I don't need to dig in my pocket to check the time, I just hold up my wrist and pull my sleeve back.

Then suddenly, on my way to our cabin, the screen went blank.  At some point when I didn't want to be outside, I decided to pull the battery out myself and later buy a new one at Walgreen's.  I did have a set of small screwdrivers and set to.

I got all the screws out but the back wouldn't come off.  I had to repeatedly slide a pen knife under the back to loosen it.  Once I got it off I was confronted with a mechanism I didn't understand.  There were two tabs with arrows closely that indicated that they should be pushed towards the center.  It never budged.

I gave up and put it back together.  I think I only dropped one of the tiny screws once.

Yesterday I took it to Walgreen's and two friendly clerks worked on opening it up.  The first deferred to another who more experienced.  The second easily exposed the battery, went to the rack to get a replacement, put it in, and closed everything up, without dropping a thing.  She proceeded to reset the time, but I said I could do that later.

My cost, $6.25 for the battery!

When I got home, I tried resetting the time, but I couldn't get the next button to work.  Hoo boy!  Shall I just give up on the watch and purchase a cheap, time only watch?

Today, I thought if I took the mechanism out, then I could push on the next button directly rather than the button on the case.

I successfully took the watch apart again.  I don't have any small screwdriver at home, but I was able to use the blade of my pen knife as a screwdriver.  I was right that pushing the next button directly did work.  I reset the watch to the current time and proceeded to put it back together.

I got three screws in, losing them only twice on the floor.  The fourth screw just wouldn't stay upright in the hole.  I don't know how many times it fell to the floor, a floor with a rug whose nap is bigger than the screw!

I asked my wife to try with her smaller and more dextrous fingers.  She too dropped the screw a few times.  I went to the cold, cold garage to get a magnetic wand from my tool box.  I made a swipe over the floor and heard a tiny click.  There was the screw.

After a few more tries I was able to get the last screw started in the last hole.  Of course, it didn't seem to set right.  I loosened the other screws, tightened the last screw, and then tightened them all.

Well, I hadn't set the time as exact as I wanted.  But guess what, the outside next button worked!

I reset the time as close as I could to the time displayed on my laptop, a time that is synced with a standard clock somewhere.  I can't quite look at both times easily, but I would say that my watch is two seconds or less behind the actual time.

I'll see how much it diverges in a month or two.

Once again I can be a time pain; "that wall clock is off by…"

Mel, what are those funny numbers you use?

As I write this, it is 2009-05-15 14:31, the international standard (ISO 8601) for writing date and time. It is considered big-endian in that one starts with the largest unit on the left and adds the smaller units to the left. It is certainly less confusing for sorting than writing 2:31 p.m. on May 15, 2009.

I started using this when I was working for Univac in Sweden. ISO 2014 was introduced then as the standard way for writing the date. The Swedish government and most citizens adopted it. In fact, my personnummer was 380330-9217. The 9217 is both a sequence number and the coding that I was a male foreigner. Do you see the problem that was not considered in the 1970s? Do you see what other information I gave about myself?

Anyhow, I use this date and time format unless I'm forced by a form to do otherwise. Whenever I can, all my clocks are set for 24-hour time rather than 12-hour time. I've missed an alarm too often when I forgot to set it for a.m. rather than p.m.

The world agrees on one thing!

The world agrees that there are 24 hours in a day. If there is a modern culture that divides the day into more or less periods, I'm not aware of it.

While researching this entry I found out why there are duodecimal systems - based on 12. In addition to the 12 lunar cycles in a year, we have 12 digits on the long fingers of each hand. We can use our thumb to count on them. See Why is a minute divided into 60 seconds, an hour into 60 minutes, yet there are only 24 hours in a day?.

Many cultures do most official timekeeping on 24 hours. That is shop hours may be 0900 to 2000 (9 in the morning to 8 in the evening) and train and plane schedules are on this 24-hour period. As expected, the U.S. is one of the few holdouts, dividing the day into two 12-hour periods; the 1710 flight leaves a U.S. airport at 5:10 p.m.

What do you expect from a society that resists the metric system and forming true coalitions to tackle world problems?

We need some leaders that can agree on a few more things, like the futility of nuclear weapons.