An Evaluation of Digital Liquid Crystal Display Quartz Movement Watches for Military/Government Use

The PRAM Program Office conducted an evaluation to determine the feasibility of replacing mechanical analog watches with a commercially marketed quartz crystal digital display watch for those military and civilian personnel who normally use a government issues watch. It was believed that this type of watch would be less costly and inherently, more reliable, rugged and accurate than the currently used analog watches. An initial quantity of 500 digital display watches were procured for test and evaluation 50 were used in laboratory hardware performance testing and the remaining 450 were distributed to personnel of the Air Force, Army, Navy and non-DoD government agencies. The majority of these were tested by USAF pilots, navigators and other aircrew personnel. At the end of the evaluation period, each subject completed a detailed questionnaire. These were then analyzed.