Calendar types in watches

Personally I find it more handy to know day (of week) than date (of month), but I don't think I've every seen a watch that does day-only, usually either date-only or day-date.

I think the idea here might be that people already know what day it is but they have to think about the date.

> I think the idea here might be that people already know what day it is but they have to think about the date.

I don't know about you, but for myself I find the days kind of blur together (especially (during-COVID, post-COVID) WFH).

I rarely need to know day-of-month.

That might even be true for many of the population, but I'm exactly in the target demographic of people who get unsure of such things.

My favourite ever gift from friends was that people bought me (last century, long before smartphones) a 24 hour radio synchronized digital alarm clock which knew the day and full date including year. Because while often I know 0600 from 1800, not always, and on a particularly bad day maybe I'm not even sure which week this is. I didn't need the year really, but it felt appropriately completionist, just in case.

That's me as well; I had to look through so many watches that show the date with so few that show the weekday. I wish my Seiko didn't show the date because I have to adjust it 5 times a year, but the day-of-week is always right.

Also, Seiko's watchfinder won't let you filter based on whether or not it has a DoW complication; very annoying.

I've gone into the office on Saturday more often than I care to admit.

not once ever have I made that mistake. I might have woken up on a Saturday and thought it was a weekday, but well before appearing at work was that confusion cleared up. How does one do that more than once?

Even work from home is immediately cleared up once I look at my computer screen.

I'm also that demographic.

In my case, a combination of having no kids, being entrepreneur (self employed) and having ADHD.

I have to ask people "is it tuesday or monday today" at least once a month. It gives strange looks. People often look at me, clearly trying to figure out if I'm bullshitting them. But I honestly forget such -for me- unnecessary details.

But I guess having children, or a regular job, or both, gives a firm anchor of weekends and weekly rhythms. I've had long periods of jobs were I too had such anchors.

Best way to explain it, is when you are on holiday (in one place), for a few weeks, you also don't know what day it is. I guess I always have holidays?

This would actually be a very nice complication, as it would never need to be reset, as long as the watch stays wound. I’m surprised it’s not something I’ve seen, or even thought of.

I ended up settling on no-date watches, as I find setting the date to be annoying, and it’s not something I need that often. When I do need it, I have my phone. I think I’d ultimately feel the same way about a day of the week complication.

This[1] 1980s Raketa has an interesting visual display of the day of the week. The red dot corresponds to the current day. It does however show the date as a number on the bottom as well.

[1]: https://mroatman.wixsite.com/watches-of-the-ussr/raketa?ligh...

Yup. I totally get (from other comments here) that there are exceptions, because everyone's different!

But most people always know exactly what day of the week it is, but rarely know the date. (The only time I'm ever unaware of the day is on vacation occasionally.)

And the date is needed basically every time I sign anything on paper, as you almost always put a date next to any signature -- whether you're writing a check, filling out forms at the doctor's office, signing consent forms for an activity, and so forth.

> My favourite ever gift from friends was that people bought me (last century, long before smartphones) a 24 hour radio synchronized digital alarm clock which knew the day and full date including year.

I know a retiree that got this as a (sort-of, sort-of-not joke) gift because she mentioned that she sometimes forgets the day:

* https://www.lacrossetechnology.com/products/513-1419v4

(Works best near a window where the radio signal from Colorado can be heard.)

>But I guess having children, or a regular job, or both, gives a firm anchor of weekends and weekly rhythms.

I think it's not having the "regular job". I have a kid whom I daily bring to day care and I regularly don't know what weekday it is.

Reminds me of the Downton Abbey joke(not really a joke) about "what is a weekend?": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=onUkNsXks54

How do you know if it's the weekend or not?