On Oct 18, 8:22 pm, Tom B tom. wrote:

Perhaps I didn't make myself clear enough. My existing programmer is
a Towerchron which has given me good service for over twenty years but
is now definitely on the way out. e.g. one digit is stuck on due to a
fault within the (unnamed) driver chip. I've repaired it a few times
over the years, and yes, I do have a set of programming instructions
and my family do know how to do it. It is however a pain in the
backside and I was hoping for state of the art replacement. In 2007 it
shouldn't be necessary to reprogram the clock after a mains failure
and settings could be saved in a chip costing less than a battery.
My TV and PVR cope without resorting to a battery (and before the
pedants jump in, I know some still do).

It's down to cost and requirement. But ****, talk about a futile
conversation.

Just go with a battery-powered model and be done with it - much more
likely to preserve settings (even the clock bar a few seconds at
worst) given the expected power disruption every few years.

On the more philosophical point, I'm sure most of you younger posters
are convinced you are going to live forever (as I used to be) but
sorry to enlighten you, it isn't so. I bet most of you haven't made a
Will either. I do have a terminal prognosis.

That's very sad to hear, sincerely.

Mathew