Image for article titled This $4,700 Retro Digital Watch Only Displays the Time for a Few Seconds

There aren't a lot of stylish options if you want a digital watch that doesn't look like a mini phone on your wrist. The Girard-Perregaux is reviving a classic digital design from the 70s, which makes it an alternative to Timex and Casio.

The Hamilton Pulsar P2 2900 LED was the first true digital watch to use an electronic display and a crystal to keep accurate time. It helped kick off a new era of watches that was not like the pre-iPhone days when companies would experiment with unique designs in an attempt to find something consumers would embrace. Hamilton released an updated version of the Pulsar P2 2900 with an updated display that recreated the appearance of the original display. Continuing with that trend, Girard-Perregaux is making another digital watch.

Image for article titled This $4,700 Retro Digital Watch Only Displays the Time for a Few Seconds

The Hamilton Pulsar P2 2900LED looked more or less like a traditional watch with the moving hands replaced by a digital screen. The electronic innovations of the time allowed for the creation of the Casquette with the time displayed on the bottom edge of the watch's main body.

The Casquette 2.0 is a retro lo-fi display with glowing red digits, and is being re-released by Girard-Perregaux 44 years after it was first released. The company claims that the Casquette 2.0 will provide two years of battery life with average daily use, if you press one of the buttons. The new version doesn't just tell the time and date. A secret date function that displays a specific date once a day for 20 seconds at a specified time is one of the new features of the Casquette 2.0.

The case and bracelet made of ceramics are scratch resistant and have a grade 5 titanium used for the buttons, case back and the Girard-Perregaux logo on top. The original Casquette was limited to 8,200 pieces over two years, but the new 2.0 version is only going to cost $4,700. The new edition is already sold out online.