Time is called on analogue watches

It seems time may be running out for the traditional clock face.

Half of children are learning to tell the time using a digitalclock rather than reading an analogue watch face, research suggests.

A survey of 500 children aged 10 to 12 by YoungPoll found that49% were taught to tell the time looking at a digital clock or theirmobile phone.

Sales of children's traditional watches have slumped on internetauction site eBay.

Last year, one-third sold were analogue, but so far this yeardigital watches are outselling analogue by six to one.

Ruth Szyszkowski from eBay said: "We've been surprised that onein two children aren't learning how to tell the time using atraditional clock face.

"We've seen the sales of children's analogue watches decline oneBay as a result."

The research also showed that 5% of girls and 2% of boys had notlearned to tell the time at all.

Another survey of 2000 adults by OnePoll found that among peopleover 25, 81% were taught to tell the time using a traditional clockface.

However, 2% of them have never learned to tell the time.