Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site cbosgd.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!cbosgd!mark From: mark@cbosgd.UUCP (Mark Horton) Newsgroups: net.consumers Subject: Re: Customer Release Battery Replacement (watch comments) Message-ID: <564@cbosgd.UUCP> Date: Sun, 9-Dec-84 16:01:36 EST Article-I.D.: cbosgd.564 Posted: Sun Dec 9 16:01:36 1984 Date-Received: Mon, 10-Dec-84 03:19:48 EST References: <328@wnuxb.UUCP> <469@cyb-eng.UUCP> <6437@brl-tgr.ARPA> Organization: Bell Labs, Columbus Lines: 30 While we're on the subject of calculator watches, let me tell you some unexpected things about mine. I shopped around a little and wound up getting the Armitron Wrist-Comp 101 for $25 at Service Merchandise. (The service there was terrible - after half an hour I got the attention of a man behind the counter who didn't know anything about the watch and didn't have a manual. But he did go back and swipe a manual from the warehouse, which I looked at and kept as I bought it, hoping the one I got would be the one with the missing manual. It was.) It turns out this watch is pretty impressive for $25. It has the usual calculator (4 function, 8 places, floating decimal but no E-notation, no memory or auto-constant) plus an alarm and optional 24 hour time. It also will remember up to 42 phone numbers, keyed by alphabetic name. It's kind of a pain to store the numbers, but the interface for looking up a phone number is very easy to use. Just type the first letter (a 2 key operation on its 16 key pad) and if it doesn't put up the one you want (because it's not the first number indexed under a name beginning with that letter) hit the 2nd key repeatedly until you see the one you want. The 8 character alphanumeric display is fairly easy to read (although the eights look like zeros due to a two segment horizontal bar in the center.) Here's what to look out for, however. The watch has no stopwatch. (No big deal to me.) It also has no backlight (what? I thought all LCD watches had backlights. Not this one!) And after wearing it 23.5 hours/day for a few weeks, I discovered that the buttons in the lower right corner were getting mashed down. The =+ key in the corner has to be hit just right to register. I guess sleeping in the watch tends to mash it in ways it doesn't like. I wonder if other calculator watches have the same problem?