Name: LCD-2019 1970s Blade Runner
Rating: 5 (2 reviews)
Author: oleg-koval

A digital watch from before digital watches got clever.

Positive liquid crystal: dark segments on a pale panel, the way a real module
reads in daylight, and the inverse of almost every other face on this store.
The brass frame is most of the watch and the window is smaller than you
remember, because that is the proportion that makes it look like the object
rather than like a screen.

DRAWN, NOT TYPED
No system font is a segment display, so every digit here is built from real
seven-segment geometry with mitred bar ends. The unlit segments stay faintly
visible behind the lit ones, so a 1 sits inside a ghosted 8. That single
detail is what makes it read as liquid crystal instead of as a font.

FOUR READINGS, YOURS TO CHOOSE
Switch on Pro mode and four readings appear on the case around the crystal,
two above and two below. Each one takes any of sixteen values: heart rate,
steps, stairs climbed, Body Battery, stress, resting heart rate, battery
percent, battery days, calories, distance, active minutes, notifications,
altitude, sleep score, the date, or nothing at all.

Out of the box they are heart rate, Body Battery, battery days and steps.

They sit on the case as engraved markings rather than as a second panel,
small and grey and clearly secondary. The reference watch had one display and
a blank black case; bolting a second crystal onto it would invent a watch
that never existed.

Sleep score needs a watch with Garmin's newer software. It simply will not
appear in the list on a watch that cannot supply it.

SETTINGS, ON THE WATCH
Hold the menu button on the watch face. Pro mode, ghost segments, the bezel
finish and all four readings are there, and the face changes as you choose.

You can also use your phone if you prefer: Garmin Connect app, then your
device, Connect IQ Apps, Watch Faces, LCD-2019, settings. Both routes write
the same setting.

BUILT FOR TWO KINDS OF SCREEN
On a reflective watch there is no backlight, and a colour's brightness is
simply the light it gives back. The panel is the brightest thing on the face
for that reason, and every colour lands exactly on the display's own palette
so nothing is approximated.

On a bright emissive watch the face cannot stay lit between glances without
burning the panel, so the always-on view is not a dimmed copy of it. It is
the same module with the power off: black glass, the frame as a fine outline,
and the time as faint segments. What the watch on your bedside table looks
like at three in the morning.

Free, with no ads and no tracking.

SUPPORT

This watch face is free, with no account, no subscription and no ads, and it stays that way. If you are enjoying it, you can buy me a coffee at https://ko-fi.com/olkokoval