Are clocks now dead?

dogooder

dogooder

Well-known member
I don't wear a watch, or carry a phone, or have a clock in my truck. Where did all the clocks go? When I point it out people begin to realize they are gone. Banks and businesses no longer display the time anymore on their digital signs. Clocks are gone from business establishments. They used to hang on every wall in every store and restaurant. If I need to know the time now, I have to ask someone or go by the sun and stars. If I wait to find a clock it is already too late. If I owned a phone I might not have noticed?
 
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The ubiquitousness of cell phones has changed a lot of things.
Alarm clocks, dayrunners, calculators, etc... have all been all-but-replaced by phones.

Airplanes used to have the screen that folded down from the ceiling so everyone on the plane could watch the same movie. Then it turned to individual screens on the seat backs. Newer planes don't have any screens because everyone on the flight brought their own.
 
I always wore a watch. For years, I had a cheapo Sharp digital watch. It had a stopwatch which I often used for timing things are work and an alarm for when I traveled. They ran about $15 or $20, and seemed to last forever on a battery. I still have two. When my first one was lost after about 10 years or more, I bought two replacements. They're still going, but with retirement I don't need to wear them all that often. I also don't like wearing a watch when I golf, so they stay on dresser in the bedroom.

I have a bunch of clocks, including a wind up anniversary clock that I got from my aunt's estate and several Fenton clocks that my parents gave me. My Ansonia wall clock no longer works. I really should take it over to a clock repair fellow some miles away. It's a nice clock that I bought when I was first married.
 
People abandoned the idea of clocks during the VCR era. Nobody could figure out how to program them and just gave up and the world was left with blinking 12:00 and time just stopped.

Thanks for attending my TED talk.
 
I don't like any sort of jewelry on me so as soon as I got a cell phone I ditched the wrist watch. I have a digital clock and thermometer in my car so I don't miss those items on public buildings. That said I recently asked a grade school teacher if they still teach kids to read analog clocks and she said yes.
 
dogooder said:
I don't wear a watch, or carry a phone, or have a clock in my truck. Where did all the clocks go? When I point it out people begin to realize they are gone. Banks and businesses no longer display the time anymore on their digital signs. Clocks are gone from business establishments. They used to hang on every wall in every store and restaurant. If I need to know the time now, I have to ask someone or go by the sun and stars. If I wait to find a clock it is already too late. If I owned a phone I might not have noticed?
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A lot of things changed in the Cell Phone era - clocks in business establishments went out for a different reason - the made more cash when people don’t know what time it is.
 
markmann said:
I don't like any sort of jewelry on me so as soon as I got a cell phone I ditched the wrist watch. I have a digital clock and thermometer in my car so I don't miss those items on public buildings. That said I recently asked a grade school teacher if they still teach kids to read analog clocks and she said yes.
Click to expand...
I only found out they quit teaching cursive about six years ago. The secretary told me I had good handwriting. I told he I didn't write it. She asked who did. I said I did but I printed it. That was when I got schooled.
 
I like having a Seiko self winding watch. I take it off when playing drums.
All my devices tell me a different date/time. I don't believe them.
I have a clock on the wall, right next to me, which was a gift. It only has a 2AA battery movement inside,
but I just couldn't stick all the ticking, especially when playing guitars. So it hasn't had batteries in it for
a good 20 years.
My dentist's waiting room has a big digital clock on the wall.
I looked around my doctor's waiting room recently, and they have no clock.
 
I have an out of commission smart watch when I used Android and an Apple one as well when I converted phone platforms (still Windows PC for my work though…AutoCAD, PDF Pro, Office suite).

However when I wear a watch it is this one (or her SS sister)
 

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Hamilton offshoot division when the digital watch tech was developed. First featured (not the LED calc models, they were a coupla yrs later circa ‘75 or 6) in James Bond Live and Let Die (first with Roger Moore as Bond)
 
TalismanRich said:
I have a bunch of clocks
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There is a clock in every room in our house. And two in the toilet. When I'm asked why there are 2 in the loo on opposite walls, I say "One is for males, one is for females !"
I find them really useful.
markmann said:
I don't like any sort of jewelry
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I don't regard watches as jewellery. They can be, but for me, they're a necessity. I only ever discover how much I look at one on those rare occasions when I've forgotten it at home and I find out multiple times each day what the back of my left wrist looks like !
markmann said:
I have a digital clock and thermometer in my car
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The car itself doesn't have a clock but the CD/radio permanently affixed does and I think the SatNav does too although I very rarely use it.
All my iPods have a clock but I rarely look at them. And the computer has the time unless you don't want it.
markmann said:
I don't miss those items on public buildings
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It's always been such a rarity that I ever used a public building clock to actively find out the time that I haven't noticed that many don't have them.
markmann said:
I recently asked a grade school teacher if they still teach kids to read analog clocks and she said yes
Click to expand...
Interestingly, I was teaching some kids telling the time on an analog clock last Thursday. I'm torn between surprise and despair at the difficulty they have with it although because I chase various kids up outside of lessons with "What time is it ?" when we're near a clock, some of them keep sharp. But in reality, phone culture has jettisoned the actual need for either a watch or analog reading memory. Notably, every classroom has an analog clock in them.
Papanate said:
clocks in business establishments went out for a different reason - they made more cash when people don’t know what time it is
Click to expand...
Can you explain the connection ? I don't understand this and I'm intrigued.
Serendipity Records said:
I wear an analog watch and probably always will
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My sister who was 6 at the time taught me to tell the time at 4. I had 3 watches between the ages of 7 and 10 and destroyed them all, the same way I destroyed the guitar my Dad bought me when I was 4. Then with my own money at age 12, I bought a watch on a whim and I've worn one ever since {this was December '75}. I have had a few digital watches, mainly in the 80s, but I went back to analog so many years ago, I can't actually remember.
 
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