Wordlock

This allows the combination to be a four-letter or five-letter word or name, similar to a password, and therefore potentially easier to remember than a series of digits.

[1] The idea never caught on in the West, however, until Todd Basche, former Vice President of Software Applications at Apple Inc., invented the modern word lock in 2004.

He and Rahn Basche founded WordLock, Inc. in 2007 in Santa Clara, California, USA.

One such example follows: Each ring rotates independently of the others, yielding a possible 104 (or 10,000) different combinations.

WordLock contains one blank space on the fifth dial to make four letter words.