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You mean Swatch Internet Time?

Best case for duodecimal based numbering system. ;)

Also im aware that base is not the proper term in this case since the base is still 10, but I have not idea how you would call the switch to the bigger unit treshhold

Actually “base” is entirely the correct term in this case. The first group to write down a really systematic method for timekeeping were the Sumerians, and they used base-60 math. This worked really well with solar and lunar cycles, which were important for crop planting, and with astronomical studies (mapping the stars had major applications for both navigation and religion, so it was culturally significant). Empires that came after the Sumerians copied and expanded their system, so it eventually spread to everyone.

According to this article it comes from the first sundials used by the ancient Egyptians which divided the day up into 12 equal parts and then the night being divided up into 12 equal parts from the movement of 12 particular stars.

The the Babylonians were the ones who divided those 24 hours up into 60s thanks to their numbering system being base 60.

And then it just sort of stuck? The only large scale attempt to shift to a different numbering system for time and dates was in revolutionary France but it never really expanded beyond that and once the railways and telegraph required a standardised system of time internationally and things became fixed where we are now.

Tap into the button wiring in the control panel (if you’re qualified!). Maybe you’ll be able to type FF (hexadecimal) seconds, resulting in cooking time of 150+15=165 seconds!

Now seriously, a big portion of BCD (binary-counting-decimal) equipment is actually binary-to-hexadecimal but the counter is expected to reset before reaching A. Sometimes it doesn’t:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MvZgfj0_hJU&t=86

Another video, super compressed, by me, shot on a feature phone:

You also see it go to 3 st 14 lb, which should not be possible because it’s suppoded to show 4 st 0 lb at that point. (I use kilograms, I was just wondering what the switch in the battery compartment does.) I originally thought the ASIC inside would be a kind of microcontroller stripped down to what’s needed: CPU (8- or even 4-bit, likely von Neumann) with a few registers (hard to call that RAM), (EE?)PROM for the program and calibration data (there’s a pair of pins labeled “CAL” for a jumper or serial interface; I won’t mess with them), 1:4 multiplexed LCD driver, digital input (not even GPIO) pins for the unit switch and calibration interface, differential amplifier and A/D converter, plus some support circuitry like an RC oscillator for the CPU clock, charge pump for the LCD, low battery voltage detector and sleep/wake circuit for power saving. This could enable the same ASIC to be used in personal and kitchen scales, maybe even pressure gauges, thermometers or more, just with a different program, LCD and external components. However, now I see that there is likely no CPU because doing the math in software would make such errors impossible. So there’s most likely a hardwired logic system with hardware counters (just a little more complex than those cheap 3½-digit multimeters), binary-to-hex-7seg-digit converters and a flaky analog threshold system in the st:lb mode (the kg mode is a robust 1500-count decimal counter).

So you’re saying they accept up to 99 in the seconds place when typed in but go from 2:00 to 1:59? (I don’t have a digital microwave at home)

I tried 190. Its counts down 90 seconds to 1:00 before rolling over to 0:59.
190 is 2 minutes and 30 seconds.

I’ve also tried 0 and it just beeps.

I used to have an old digital 24h clock and one time I was watching close to midnight. It went from 23:58 to 23:59, then a minute later 24:00 blinked for a second before it went to 0:00.

You’re not alone there, lol!

My microwave waits to start counting down until it’s been energized