Editing Watch (section)

=== Digital ===
A digital display shows the time as a number, e.g., 12:08 instead of a short hand pointing towards the number 12 and a long hand 8/60 of the way around the dial. The digits are usually shown as a [[seven-segment display]].

The first digital {{em|mechanical}} pocket watches appeared in the late 19th century. In the 1920s, the first digital mechanical wristwatches appeared.

The first digital ''electronic'' watch, a [[Pulsar (watch)|Pulsar]] LED prototype in 1970, was developed jointly by [[Hamilton Watch Company]] and Electro-Data, founded by George H. Thiess.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.texascooppower.com/texas-stories/people/all-in-good-time|title=All in Good Time: HILCO EC director donates prototype of world's first working digital watch to Smithsonian|work=Texas Co-op Power|date=February 2012|access-date=21 July 2012|archive-date=9 February 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130209021425/http://www.texascooppower.com/texas-stories/people/all-in-good-time|url-status=live}}</ref> John Bergey, the head of Hamilton's Pulsar division, said that he was inspired to make a digital timepiece by the then-futuristic digital clock that Hamilton themselves made for the 1968 science fiction film ''[[2001: A Space Odyssey]]''. On 4 April 1972, the Pulsar was finally ready, made in an 18-carat gold case and sold for $2,100. It had a red [[light-emitting diode]] (LED) display.

Digital LED watches were very expensive and out of reach to the common consumer until 1975, when [[Texas Instruments]] started to mass-produce LED watches inside a plastic case. These watches, which first retailed for only $20,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quartz/coolwatches/20watch.html|title="TI $20 Watch", The Jerome and Dorothy Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation, [Smithsonian Institution]|website=Invention.smithsonian.org|access-date=28 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110818043131/http://invention.smithsonian.org/centerpieces/quartz/coolwatches/20watch.html|archive-date=18 August 2011|url-status=dead|df=dmy-all}}</ref> reduced to $10 in 1976, saw Pulsar lose $6&nbsp;million and the Pulsar brand sold to [[Seiko]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/nerdwatch/|title=Nerd Watch - Vintage Electronics Have Soul – The Pocket Calculator Show Website|website=Pocketcalculatorshow.com|access-date=28 October 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171029012925/http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/nerdwatch/|archive-date=29 October 2017|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:DBA-800.jpg|thumb|A Casio DBA-800 databank watch with phone dialling capabilities, c. 1987]]

An early LED watch that was rather problematic was [[Black Watch (wristwatch)|The Black Watch]] made and sold by British company [[Sinclair Radionics]] in 1975. This was only sold for a few years, as production problems and returned (faulty) product forced the company to cease production.

Most watches with LED displays required that the user press a button to see the time displayed for a few seconds because LEDs used so much power that they could not be kept operating continuously. Usually, the LED display color would be red. Watches with LED displays were popular for a few years, but soon the LED displays were superseded by [[liquid crystal display]]s (LCDs), which used less battery power and were much more convenient in use, with the display always visible and eliminating the need to push a button before seeing the time. Only in darkness would a button needed to be pressed to illuminate the display with a tiny light bulb, later illuminating LEDs and electroluminescent backlights.<ref>{{US Patent|4096550}}: Walter Boller, Marco Donati, Juerg Fingerle, Peter Wild, ''Illuminating Arrangement for a Field-Effect Liquid-Crystal Display as well as Fabrication and Application of the Illuminating Arrangement'', filed 15 October 1976.</ref>

The first LCD watch with a six-digit LCD was the 1973 [[Seiko]] 06LC, although various forms of early LCD watches with a four-digit display were marketed as early as 1972 including the 1972 [[Gruen Watch Co.|Gruen]] Teletime LCD Watch, and the Cox Electronic Systems Quarza. The Quarza, introduced in 1972 had the first Field Effect LCD readable in direct sunlight and produced by the International Liquid Crystal Corporation of [[Cleveland|Cleveland, Ohio]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/magicalgadget/index3.html#teletime|title=Casio TA-1000 Electronic Clock & Calculator|work=Magical Gadgets, Sightings & Brags|publisher=Pocket Calculator Show|access-date=17 January 2007|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120415005859/http://pocketcalculatorshow.com/magicalgadget/index3.html |archive-date=15 April 2012}}</ref> In Switzerland, Ebauches Electronic SA presented a prototype eight-digit LCD wristwatch showing time and date at the MUBA Fair, [[Basel]], in March 1973, using a [[twisted nematic]] LCD manufactured by [[Brown, Boveri & Cie]], Switzerland, which became the supplier of LCDs to [[Casio]] for the ''CASIOTRON'' watch in 1974.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://ethw.org/First-Hand:Liquid_Crystal_Display_Evolution_-_Swiss_Contributions |title=First-Hand:Liquid Crystal Display Evolution - Swiss Contributions |author=Peter J. Wild |publisher=ETHW |access-date=23 October 2011 |archive-date=3 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170703123209/http://ethw.org/First-Hand:Liquid_Crystal_Display_Evolution_-_Swiss_Contributions |url-status=live }}</ref>

A problem with LCDs is that they use [[polarized light]]. If, for example, the user is wearing polarized sunglasses, the watch may be difficult to read because the plane of polarization of the display is roughly perpendicular to that of the glasses.<ref>{{cite book |title=Inquiry into Physics |first1=Vern |last1=Ostdiek |first2=Donald |last2=Bord |publisher=Cengage Learning |year=2012 |isbn=978-1-133-71150-6 |page=343 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YeYJAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA343}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=YeYJAAAAQBAJ&pg=PA343 Extract of page 343]</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Physics |edition=illustrated |first1=Jim |last1=Breithaupt |publisher=Nelson Thornes |year=2001 |isbn=0-7487-6243-4 |page=151 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uSPzV9R08nsC}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=uSPzV9R08nsC&pg=PT151 Extract of page 151]</ref> If the light that illuminates the display is polarized, for example if it comes from a blue sky, the display may be difficult or impossible to read.<ref>{{cite book |title=Transflective Liquid Crystal Displays |first1=Zhibing |last1=Ge |first2=Shin-Tson |last2=Wu |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-470-68906-6 |pages=39–40 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1Sp1avgTedMC}} [https://books.google.com/books?id=1Sp1avgTedMC&pg=PA39 Extract of page 39-40]</ref>

From the 1980s onward, digital watch technology vastly improved. In 1982, Seiko produced the Seiko TV Watch<ref>{{cite web |url=http://hightechies.com/gadgets/the-seiko-tv-watch.html |title=The Seiko TV Watch |publisher=HighTechies.com |access-date=23 July 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006090525/http://hightechies.com/gadgets/the-seiko-tv-watch.html |archive-date=6 October 2014 |url-status=usurped }}</ref> that had a television screen built-in,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.taschenfernseher.de/doku/doku-seikotvwatch.pdf |title=T001 Instruction Manual |access-date=27 May 2012 |archive-date=30 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121030070456/http://www.taschenfernseher.de/doku/doku-seikotvwatch.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> and Casio produced a digital watch with a [[thermometer]] (the TS-1000) as well as another that could translate 1,500 Japanese words into English. In 1985, Casio produced the [[Casio CFX-400|CFX-400]] scientific calculator watch. In 1987, Casio produced a watch that could dial telephone numbers (the DBA-800) and Citizen introduced one that would react to voice. In 1995, Timex released a watch that allowed the wearer to download and store data from a computer to their wrist. Some watches, such as the [[Timex Datalink#Timex Datalink USB|Timex Datalink USB]], feature [[dot matrix]] displays. Since their apex during the late 1980s to mid-1990s high technology fad, digital watches have mostly become simpler, less expensive timepieces with little variety between models.

<gallery widths="270px" heights="270px">
File:Jumphour.jpg|[[Cortébert (watch manufacturer)|''Cortébert'']] digital mechanical pocket watch (1890s)
File:Cortjump1.jpg|''Cortébert'' digital mechanical wristwatch (1920s)
File:PulsarLED.jpg|A silver [[Pulsar (watch)|Pulsar]] [[Light-emitting diode|LED]] watch from 1976
File:Timex T5E901 Ironman Triathlon 30 Lap FLIX.jpg|A [[Timex Group|Timex]] digital watch with an always-on display of the time and date
File:Casio W-86 digital watch electroluminescent backlight (i).jpg|A digital LCD watch with electroluminescent backlight
File:Galaxy Watch.jpg|[[Samsung Galaxy Watch series]] smartwatches with [[OLED]] displays
</gallery>