digital watch

The digital watch is perhaps the classic example of what is possible when you shift from an analogue or mechanical mode to an electronic and digital mode.
The traditional watch has arms that physically move around the watch face and may include a date function. In contrast digital watches have a numeric display, have no moving parts and can have a stopwatch, timer, calendar, etc almost as easily as they tell the time to the hundredth of a second.
Dramatically, as the Swiss watch industry discovered in the 1970’s, digital watches were cheaper to mass produce and significantly altered the entire watch industry. Shifts in conceptual design rather than merely design appearance can have this effect.