[Symbiote]

In Britain the end credits for BBC programmes would finish with the final line:

    © BBC MCMXCVI

I can generally figure them out before the line has hit the top of the screen. Of course, it was much easier a few years later:

    © BBC MM

or now

    © BBC MMXXIV

[crq-yml]

Hollywood used to use a Roman copyright year as well. The rumor I heard was that it was intended to obfuscate the time of production so that audiences would think they are seeing new work.

[JdeBP]

Having been amused by the headlined tiny factlet about clock faces when I was a child, I observe that the pseudish BBC copyright declaration system is, apart from the odd regnal number in law citations and apart from 19th century hymnals, pretty much my only significant exposure to Roman numerals through my entire life.

The last time I even saw a clock face with Roman numerals, it was when clearing the house of a person who had died.

The HHGTTG in the 1980s was sarcastic about digital watches being thought a pretty neat idea by humans, but they have definitely caught on. I have three clocks within view right now as I type this, one on an answer 'phone, and they are all digital readouts. None of them has an analogue option.

Fun fact: The pseudish BBC copyright declaration system did not begin until the middle 1970s. Before then, copyright years were in Indian numerals. In contrast to all of the earlier discussion on this page about the age and length of the Roman Empire, this particular practice post-dates the U.K.'s accession into the EEC and the U.K.'s conversion to decimal coinage.

Another fun fact: It isn't solely the BBC, in fairness. ITV companies did this back then, too. Granada's Crown Court has Roman numerals in the copyright year in its end credits, for just one example.

   GRANADA
   Colour Production
   © Granada UK MCMLXXVIII

[stevekemp]

I collect watches, and I have examples of various types (diver, pilot, etc, etc). The only thing I don't have is any watch with Roman Numerals, I don't like the way they look.

That said I have a bunch of analog clocks around my flat, and zero digital ones. It's actually been kinda fun watching our child learn to tell the time:

With an analog clock he pretty quickly understood the idea that one rotation of the seconds-hand meant a minute moved, and when the minute hand went all the way round the clock it was another hour.

But digital time? He didn't understand how something went from 19:59 to 20:00, for example. So he'd always say "Daddy what the clock is?"

(Finnish is is native tongue, he speaks to me in English, but some of the phrasing is obviously "I translated this in my head".)

[gerikson]

I sometimes use a digital wristwatch just to mix things up and I have a tough time sometimes translating how long to wait for pasta to cook - on an analog face, 11 minutes is easy to represent visually, but with a digital I have to do math in my head.

[stevekemp]

I have one digital watch, the Casio F-91W, along with a mechanical "jump hand" watch, which shows the time using a pair of rotating wheels which have digits written on them. Kinda cute, but also a little hard to read in low-light.

I admit I've used the rotating bezel of a diving-watch to time cooking more often than for timing dives. They're very practical for that!

[JdeBP]

You need a microwave oven like mine, with the apparently-by-design feature (mentioned as an aside in a Technology Connections video some years ago, as I recall) that one can program the seconds up to 99. 11 minutes is 10:60 . (-:

[swores]

> I have three clocks within view right now as I type this, one on an answer 'phone, and they are all digital readouts. None of them has an analogue option.

It is at least simple to have an analogue clock face on iPhones, albeit with a digital one too - can't resist sharing screenshot considering what my next calendar appointment happens to be... https://i.ibb.co/0JgJL0p/IMG-3479.jpg (no it doesn't take 15 minutes, but is needed once a week - it's a very old clock.)

[JdeBP]

None of the three clocks were iPhones. (-:

[roygbiv2]

This is the only reason I still know Roman numerals. Still do try and work out what they are if I get that far into the credits.

[vram22]

1996, 2000 and 2024.