The power thing is a red herring. "Analog" clocks are almost always electric and digital under the hood. And battery technology has been good enough for them to stay powered for longer than actual analog clocks for decades. If you really wanted to, you can create an entirely mechanical digital clock.

The main benefit of the analog style output is in the ability to quickly read the output. You can get an approximate sense of the time with a much quicker glance, even if determining the time to the minute takes longer than with a digital display.

I'm going to counter that the "you can get a quicker approximate sense with a much quicker glance" is a red herring.

Equal if not worse than your argument for analog clocks all being digital under the hood. :)

Probably just auto-correct ... but it's "red herring".

My kids are spending hours of class time in school learning Roman numerals. The correct amount of education about Roman numerals is a short form video of math trivia when you're 23. Zero classroom time should be wasted on an inferior system of numerals.

How would one possibly hope to keep the Final Fantasy series straight without knowing Roman numerals?? It's already challenging knowing them

And how would they participate in America's annual roman numeral challenge, The Super Bowl!

When the count hit 50, it was felt by the NFL branding people that "Super Bowl L" would be too confusing. So it was just called "Super Bowl 50".

I wonder if that's the modern equivalent to the Simpsons' "Rocky V plus Rocky II" joke.

Just refer to this handy guide: https://youtu.be/8o1ieehttdA Oh wait that's Kingdom Hearts. Same difference.

This is why God created ChatGPT.

\s

Learning to read Roman numerals is secretly an exercise in mental arithmetic. You're summing numbers in your head as you go, and occasionally you'll need to keep that sum off to the side while you subtract a second number from a third. So rather than viewing it as time wasted on learning an obsolete numeral system, instead consider it as a different way to frame a math exercise.

This is great!

I already look at the roman numeral count of the Olympics and I'm like...I have no idea anymore.

Luxury watches are analog. Maybe people 50 years from now won't even know if the clock is telling the time correctly and will just wear the watch to show off...

50 years from now? this is already absolutely a thing.

Maybe you're right. Even if the clock is off, I always assumed the wearer was at least able to read an analog clock.

The future is now. I personally know someone who does that. It's a fancy watch that only gets worn sometimes. And it's an automatic so it needs to be moved for it to keep running. So when they wear it every few days it is completely out of sync and they can't be bothered to adjust the time.

It is purely an accessory and completely useless for telling the time.

No judgment, but it just seems silly.

Apparently the correct way to solve it is to store the watch in a cradle that keeps it moving perpetually.

I inherited a mechanical watch from my grandmother and I can't stand it when it's even 1 minute off, haha

I'm quite young so I didn't really live with analog clocks but I got used to it because the watch is cool and I might as make it useful...

It's not about forcing anything onto anyone, it's about teaching useful skills (at school or at home). Analog clocks are sufficiently common to make how to read them an useful skill.

> This makes me wonder what methods of transferring information we may have lost historically that we don't even recognize?

- Gregg shorthand.

- Labanotation (like music scores, but for dance)

- Morse code

- Punched tickets (not for machines, but for train tickets and bus transfers)

- Railroad car chalk markings (where does this car go?)

- Hand signals for railroad yards, cranes, etc.

Just gonna jump in here with three more:

- Telegraph brevity codes (e.g. Bentley, Marconi)

- Telex codes and various predecessors to ASCII (plus even what Telex hardware looks like in a lot of cases)

- Heraldry

> - Morse code

I would argue that Morse code is not only alive and well in the amateur radio hobby but actively being adopted by younger people both in and out of the hobby. I just got a holiday card from a college friend whose 6 year old has taken an interest in Morse code despite knowing nothing about the existence of amateur radio.

ham radio license holders in japan:

1994 ~1.3M

2025 340k (lots of old people)

and they dropped morse code from the exam requirements in 2011.

Ok? Just because there has been a drop in the number of licensees and the exam no longer requires Morse code wouldn't necessarily put Morse on a list of "methods of transferring information we may have lost historically that we don't even recognize".

At least in the US, ham radio is far from a dying hobby and Morse code is actively being learned by people of all ages.

> Will there be analog clocks in 30 years? It seems somewhat doubtful, particularly if this generation can't read them.

I wish there was an analog clock face available for iOS on the lock screen.

Same. I looked for one a few months ago and was amazed to find that the only way to do it is with a widget, and the UX is not great.

Cursive writing first that comes to my mind.

I'm a millennial and would struggle to write anything past my own name in cursive anymore. I can confirm this.

I'm a millenial and I can only write in cursive. I technically can use block letters but it's so slow and awkward...

It'd be a shame if they went away; what better analogy than an analog clock for teaching how finite field mathematics works?

>What benefit is there to keep this antiquated method around, aside from just as an historical reference?

Analogue clocks are, by design, also visual progress bars. Digital clocks just give you the time. There's a little video talking about this by Technology Connections: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeopkvAP-ag