I Still Think Digital Watches Are A Pretty Neat Idea

Samsung has been promoting its new smart watch, using cute references to old sci-fi. So there you go: radio/TV watches were only the poor cousins to jet packs and flying cars among cliches of the future, but it appears it's the only one were getting any time soon.

I'd like to buy one just to reward them for including the Babylon 5 clips, but really, I'm still not convinced. Ironically, I stopped wearing a watch when I got a mobile phone, since the phone can do the watch's job of telling the time occasionally. I don't think I'm about to go to a watch that can also be a phone.

But this brings up another watch-technology question of mine: why can't we make a good looking digital watch?  You can get digital watches that are quite expensive (even without resorting to a smart watch) and that do lots of impressive things that I'm sure some triathlon trainee somewhere makes use of. But they still have the same ancient seven-segment display that digital readouts have used since before I was born. We have high-resolution displays in other devices, so is it asking too much to put a more elegant font in there?  You could have a nice elegant watch with Times New Roman, or a arty, minimalist watch with Helvetica.  Get on it Samsung!