I have had my Apple Watch for a couple of months now and I have to say that I am quite satisfied with it. For me - and for my deaf ears - its most important function is to alert me - with a playful nudge - when my phone rings, but it also has a full repertoire of songs, dances, jokes and other associated apps as you would expect from any Apple product. But there is one shortcoming which I hope will be corrected when the new WatchOS2 operating system is released later this year: it can't tell decimal time!
I have been a ardent believer in decimal (or metric) time for many years and I wrote a blogpost about it back in December 2008 ("It's 4.3170 In The Morning"). Since then I have changed my desktop computer to a Mac and had no difficulty in getting a metric clock app for it, fallen in love with the iPhone, and had no difficulty in getting a metric clock app for it, but getting such an app for the most obvious platforms of the all - the Apple Watch - appears impossible (I did find one which half promised it but merely told my the date based on the French Revolutionary calendar.
Now I can hear you all asking (even though it is only 45.26 centidays), what possible use is a clock that 99.999999% of humanity doesn't recognise (nay, haven't even heard of)? Surely being a follower of a time system that divides a day into 100 equal parts (centidays) each of which is composed of ten decimal minutes, each of which is made up of 100 decimal seconds, will result in you being out of step (indeed, out of time) with everyone else? Indeed it will, I answer, but so what! For years now I have increasingly come to the conclusion that I am a little different (OK, I will accept a little strange) so why not make a virtue of it and inhabit my own little time zone where I go to bed at 05.452 and crawl out of bed at 36.742. But in order to meet that latter target I need to be able to count on my Apple Watch to wake me up at the right time; and to do that it needs to be able to think decimally. Surely for a piece of kit which can tell me the temperature in Vancouver and the fact that I have just lost The Lad's inheritance on the Chinese Stock Exchange, it is not asking for too much. So, come on Apple, get up to date.
Well you learn something every day. I also learnt today that Ethiopia have an unusual time system. When the sun rises is 1:00
ReplyDeleteUnusual time systems make life much more interesting. (this comment written at 55.836)
DeleteThere actually is such a thing, and you have a clock to prove it. It must be like learning a foreign language.
ReplyDeleteIt becomes quite addictive after a time (this comment written at 55.903)
DeleteFascinating. But I liked the Wikipedia description of the "Swatch Internet Time" which divides the the day into 1000 "beats". time = 373
ReplyDeletehttp://www.wikiwand.com/en/Swatch_Internet_Time
It is fairly easy therefore to convert from my decimal time to your swatch time : I decimal minute = 1 beat (this comment written at 586 beats on 3 August 2015)
DeleteNow many other things have been decimalized, Why not time? I like your idea. It's time has come.
ReplyDeleteWell, Alan. Whatever next? completely flummoxed, I was moved to read a Wiki article about decimal time and came away not much the wiser. Interesting to learn that China used decimal time until it changed to old-fashioned 60 minutes etc introduced by the Jesuits.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure it would help me to change systems as I have enough trouble telling the time as it is. Left-handed you see; I frequently set my watch back to front.
I don’t know if you’re still in this blog, Alan;
ReplyDeleteBut I wanted to show you a dial I made for a more precise decimal time keeping with a normal 12h clock mechanism: https://imgur.com/gallery/1Mcr0oo
That way anyone can have decimal time with normal 12h clocks.