TOUCH-SCREEN INFO MACHINE:
If science can figure out how to move electrons across silicon, it can teach watchmakers how to tell us the temperature, the weather, the altitude, the day of the week, the direction of magnetic north, and, yes, even the time—all on the face of a single wristwatch.
BRAIN (click here to enlarge)
Quartz watches have an integrated circuit (black square at top center of chip) to mete out electricity from the battery in pulses to keep the crystal humming with just the right amplitude. The chip also converts the crystal’s electric pulses to the slower frequencies needed to drive the hands of the watch.
WEATHER STATION (click here to enlarge)
The T-Touch contains a thermometer (you first have to remove the watch from your hot wrist) and an air pressure sensor, or barometer, which provides a crude weather forecast. One of the watch’s five chips keeps track ...
