A timepiece to watch out for is a Casio touch screen calculator watch. These 1980's watches came in two styles. One had a virtual keyboard on its display which somehow had quite good fat finger rejection so it was decently easy to poke the numbers. I bought one at a thrift store for 50 cents, popped a new battery in and sold it for $50.
The other style was rather innovative in its method of operation. You drew the numbers and operators on the watch face with a fingertip.
I've only ever seen the one in person. How I recognized it was from an article in a 1980's issue of Popular Science or Popular Mechanics. The 70's and 80's for both of those magazines were their prime years, when they were all about science and technology for the sake of it, no political bolshoi.
I haven't worn a watch since I last had a job working for someone else, which was over 20 years ago. I was on my second Timex Indiglo. After coming home from my last day on the job I took it off and let it sit. No idea where it is now.
The reason it was the second watch was the first one the chrome peeled off the crown and it'd cut my wrist, and the switch mechanism for the backlight broke. The only way it would work was pulling the crown out to the setting position, then pushing it in. It would click and light, but release and press again, no light. I didn't even want the backlight, but the shop didn't have any other watch that did nothing but tell the time.
The first battery lasted 10 years in the first watch. I stopped wearing the second one while its original battery was still licking, er, ticking.
www.citizenwatch.com
