Show HN: Analog Watch

17 points | by ezekg an hour ago

17 comments

  • ventana 30 minutes ago

    This fun game just made me realize that actually using analog watch does not require converting the time to HH:MM.

    I've been using analog watch for years, my Apple Watch face is set to analog and, apparently, I read the time as "it's almost 11", but never as "it's 10:58".

      mikestew 25 minutes ago

      The same “kids across the street” I reference in another comment needed translation from “quarter to eleven” when they’d ask the time. Makes sense given they couldn’t read an analog face at the time.

        aidenn0 19 minutes ago

        My 18 year old daughter is the same (and also can't read an analog clock). Despite me using "quarter to," "quarter past," and "half past" regularly throughout her life. And we having analog clocks in most communal spaces in our house. And we drilled her on analog clocks for two summers in a row...

        jammaloo 19 minutes ago

        Similarly, when I moved from the UK to Canada, people often didn't understand what I meant when I said it was "half ten", which is the common way of saying ten thirty, at least where I grew up.

          SanjayMehta 8 minutes ago

          I never heard that when I lived in the UK in the 70s, but only in Ireland in the late 90s.

      woodrowbarlow 13 minutes ago

      yeah, i've been using cheap mechanical analog watches and wouldn't trust it to be accurate to-the-minute by the end of the day anyway. i kind of enjoy knowing only the approximate time.

      SanjayMehta 9 minutes ago

      That's because one doesn't usually look at their watch to find out what the time is: most of the time (pun unintended) we want to how much time is left for an activity, or for an activity to start.

      As in, how many more minutes before my flight takes off, or how much time left for this exam?

  • great_psy 10 minutes ago

    Could this be extended to lean into teaching quantum physics ?

    Include seconds/ sub seconds hand in the watch, and people will realize the watch face time + time it takes to read will never equal the watch face time.

    You can know the exact time, by looking at the analog watch face, or you can measure it (convert it) but it will not be the same anymore.

  • al_borland an hour ago

    This could be good for kids to learn how to read analog clocks. I remember this being something we did in school as kids... racing to read a clock faster than the other kid, to move on to the next section of an obstacle course. From what I understand that is becoming a lost skill.

      mikestew 28 minutes ago

      Ten years ago the kids across the street from us (who were 9-10 at the time) would ask the time, and I’d show them my watch. They’d still ask what time it was because they couldn’t read the analog face on my watch.

      The oldest is in college now. Next time I see her, I’ll ask if she ever learned to read an analog face.

  • cjfeda 20 minutes ago

    This was fun! Good call on directing to the free play before jumping into the daily challenge. I was disappointed when I realized there was no leader board for the daily challenge.

      ezekg 9 minutes ago

      Thanks for playing. It's been a fun little game I play to make sure I don't embarrass myself when somebody asks me what time it is, since I wear a lot of watches. I'd love to add a global leaderboard, but right now it's all client-side! A server-authoritative leaderboard seemed a bit too complex, especially i.r.t. preventing cheating, but I might tackle it at some point.

  • austinthetaco 30 minutes ago

    my only issue is that it cares if you are off by 1 minute, meanwhile in the real world a lot of analog clocks have continuously moving minutes and a lot of others have ticking minutes (they only move right at the minute mark).

      ezekg 4 minutes ago

      Appreciate the feedback! It cares, yeah, but being off-by-a-minute doesn't really dock your overall score very much. I figured without that, a "perfect" would be much less meaningful.

  • piosin 6 minutes ago

    love it

  • dwa3592 37 minutes ago

    would be nice if the results also showed the analog watch positions.

      ezekg 8 minutes ago

      Good idea! I'll see if I can add into the next release.