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TIME HONORED Today���s ���ne digital watches o���er a host of functions. 96 Citizen���s ana-digi display is teamed with a 1/1000 second chronometer. PRESIDENTIAL PREROGATIVE Digital watches in the ���70s received the great seal. The leader of the free world can wear any timepiece he chooses, and President Gerald Ford chose the latest in technology from an American company that changed the way we look at time. The Hamilton Pulsar LED watch was a favorite of Ford, who owned one of the first generation. It was first seen on his wrist in December 1974 when he chaired a meeting of his Domestic Council in the Cabinet Room, but he was most famously seen wearing the timepiece while testifying at the 1974 Congressional hearings on his pardon of Richard Nixon. When Ford was photographed sporting the watch, jewelers nationwide cut the photos out of their local papers and framed them in hopes of increasing sales. Later that year, Ford asked his wife, Betty, for the newer Hamilton Pulsar LED calculator watch, which retailed for $4,000 at the time (almost President Gerald Ford asked his wife, $20,000 today), as a Christmas Betty, for the new gift���but she balked, saying it was Hamilton Pulsar LED too expensive. watch in 1974. PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY OF THE GERALD R. FORD PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY (FORD) continued from page 94 watches offer numerous functions like timers, alarms, and multi-timezone settings that make them true instruments and the ultimate accessory, especially for the sports enthusiast in the Chicago market, or for Chicagoans who are world travelers,��� says Derrick Broadway, watch specialist at Razny Jewelers. Generally these digital watches are able to offer a host of additional functions such as compass directions, temperature indications, calendars, calculators, tachometers, altimeters, dive depths, countdowns, and even slide-rule calculations. Technically speaking, ���digital��� refers only to the numeric readout, not to the mechanism that powers the watch. (In fact, even high-end mechanical watches can have ���digital��� indications of time���but it is usually done with digits marked on mechanical disks that rotate or turn.) The electronic digital and ana-digi watches currently making a resurgence in the luxury market are those that feature LCD displays and are powered by quartz. While electronic digital clocks have been on the market for more than half a century, their digital wrist counterparts are younger. In fact, the world���s first-ever electronic digital wristwatch, announced in 1970, was mass-produced and unveiled to the world in 1972���at a whopping cost of approximately $2,100 (equivalent to approximately $11,500 today). That original digital watch, the Hamilton Pulsar LED timepiece, was startlingly alluring, displaying time in bright red numbers via a light-generating system called light-emitting diodes (LED). To see the time indication, the wearer had to press a button on the watch. The then-new technology was years in the development stages, thereby making it naturally expensive to market the watch at retail. The unusual technology of a watch lighting up to tell the time caught the attention of consumers quickly, and watch suppliers set their sights on perfecting the technology to lower the price point. In fact, by late 1975 digital watches retailed for less than $100, and not too long thereafter for less than $50. As the price declined, consumers became disenchanted with the novelty of LED watches and with the fact that one needed a free hand to push the button to see the time. Sales dropped drastically and watch brands sought other alternatives. The next generation of digital watch product arrived on the scene in the late 1970s and was more user-friendly: LCD (liquid crystal display). Whereas the LED watch was light-generating, the LCD version was lightreflective. The display of time was constant and the wearer did not have to push buttons. By 1980, LCD digital watches were enjoying their heyday, and many were being equipped with additional features such as alarms and timers. The introduction of the first quartz watch in 1982 led to the quartz revolution, with both consumers and watchmakers fast forgetting about LCD timepieces. The category later became a catchall for extremely inexpensive watches. Today, however, fine LCD digital watches have found a niche market around the world as instruments of precision for timekeeping and added functions. Companies such as Breitling, Citizen, Omega, and Gucci have developed new technology that offers multifunction LCD digital indications or that combines analog hands for the time with LCD digital readouts of other information. MA MICHIGANAVEMAG.COM 094-096_MA_SS_TimeHonored_Spring13.indd 96 2/11/13 4:52 PM