Retro Thing

I Hear We're All Supposed To Wear Watches Now

Have you heard? Watches are suddenly cool again. After years of encouraging us to tell time using phones, the major smartphone companies are now insisting that we need watches. Fancy electronic watches that talk and flash and vibrate and know when we go to the bathroom or decide to spontaneously climb a flight of stairs. They can even call 911 when we collapse unceremoniously on the 18th floor landing. 

While some highly impressionable people will opt for mysteriously complex Dick Tracy wrist computers that require you to carry a matching $1000 telephone in your pocket, millions of others might respond to the not-so-gentle urgings of smartphone companies by purchasing a somewhat more traditional timepiece; a clever Casio, or maybe even an inexpensive Seiko 5 mechanical watch. 

If you're a tad more adventurous, you might consider the Click DIP-Switch timepiece. It's even more distinctive than most smartphone accessories, but not nearly as expensive (or capable). This clunky rectangular timepiece is capable of displaying 12 or 24 hour time, can tell you what day it is, has an almost incomprehensible "bar graph" mode, along with prehistoric backlighting for reading the time in dark caves or while buried 6 feet under. It doesn't have bluetooth, wi-fi, haptic feedback, a touch screen, heart rate monitor or even a fancy "digital crown." Heck, it doesn't even have an analog crown. 

Available from Watchismo for just over $100, in gloriously hideous silver and circuit board green/blue/red. 

The Cold War Nixie Tube Clock That Never Was

Hank writes, "I recently completed an all-tube, zero solid state, dekatron and nixie tube clock that is built only with components that were available in 1959. It's not a reproduction, because it was never a product in the first place!

You don't see them much anymore, but in this clock Dekatron tubes are probably the most important components because they are the register elements that store and count the current time. Dekatron tubes were introduced the early 1950s and were often seen in particle counters for atomic research. They were also used in some lower speed base-10 computers, but faded out in around 1960 when solid state binary-based computing took over. 

It's fully documented on my website with schematics (hand-drafted of course), operation/service manual, a video, and hi-res photos."

It took him a year and a half to build this brilliant one-of-a-kind chronometer. That's time well spent, if you ask us. 

See Hank's Cold War Clock page for more photos and details.

The Watchmaker

Dustin Cohen is a Brooklyn-based photographer and filmmaker. The Watchmaker is the second short film in his Made In Brooklyn series. It introduces us to David Sokosh, the proprietor of Brooklyn Watches.

Each of David's mechanical creations features a vintage Swiss Unitas pocket watch movement, painstakingly restored and paired with an appropriately tasteful case, dial and hands. The resulting timepieces are timeless, unique and average between $500 and $1000 -- a fair price for handcrafted beauty. 

Learn more about watchmaker David Sokosh

Build An Insanely Complicated Transistor Clock

Brandon Schader writes, "As an electronics hobbyist, I gravitate toward endlessly cool yet hopelessly commercially impractical projects. This company's offerings definitely qualify.

Stumbled upon this site about a year ago based upon a 'Nuts and Volts' write-up. The coolest project at that time was the Transistor Clock. This is simply a digital clock built entirely with discrete transistors and diodes-no ICs anywhere! Display consists of six 7-segment LED displays. I've built one, and although it's not cheap, it's simply transcendentally awesome.

Now I see he has outdone himself. He now features a "Transistor Clock" kit as described above which uses Nixies rather than LEDs as the displays. This meets the definition of retro in every possible way because it genuinely could have been built as is with no mods in the 60s."

I like soldering electronics, sometimes for an hour or two at a stretch. It's a great way to clear the mind and focus on creating a physical thing. However, the $239 KABtronics Nixie Transistor Clock Kit might be taking things a bit too far. Instead of using logic ICs or microcontrollers, it features 215 discrete transistors, 518 diodes, 472 resistors and 101 capacitors on a massive 10" x 14" printed circuit board. 

KABtronics also offers a $199 version with a 7-segment LED display, along with smaller and less expensive models that incorporate newfangled integrated circuits. And if the idea of solid state electronics is too much for you, there's apparently a mechanical relay clock in the works, too.

KABtronics Timepiece Kits

Win A Solder:Time LED Watch

Want to win the Spikenzie Labs LED watch we reviewed several months ago? All you have to do is submit a Retro Thing story idea on our submission page before midnight GMT this Sunday (Sept 25, 2011).

We'll randomly select a single winner. You can send more than one submission, but duplicates will be deleted. The contest is open worldwide (you'll be asked to pay actual postage costs).

[Update: The watch was won by John Kittelsrud, who suggested a post about homemade mechanical computers. Thanks to everyone who entered -- we received dozens of great story ideas.]

Good luck!

Build Your Own LED Watch

There was a time in the early 1970s when an LED watch would set you back about $2000. These days, they're considered geeky anachronisms. And what could be geekier than building your own?

Spikenzie Labs recently sent us one of their Solder : Time LED watch kits [$29.95]. It comes as an easy-to-assemble circuit board kit with a case made from four sheets of laser-cut acrylic. You'll need basic soldering skills to assemble the kit. If you're comfortable soldering a couple of ICs, you won't have any trouble putting everything together in about 20 minutes. A fully assembled version is available for $39.95 if you're not the DIY type.

All of the resistors and capacitors are identical values, so it's hard to go wrong. Just make sure you install the ICs correctly -- they're mounted with the markings upside-down. The only tricky part of the board assembly is attaching the battery holder. It's a surface-mount part, which means you'll have to come up with a clever way to hold it in place while soldering it (Spikenzie recommends tape, which is what I used).

Once the board is built, you'll have to assemble a multi-layer acrylic sandwich to form the case. There's nothing particularly difficult here. It's just a matter of making sure that each layer is aligned properly and the control switch doesn't bind. When everything is where it should be, hand-tighten the screws into the pre-tapped holes and attach the "one size fits all" velcro strap.

Tap the button on the right to display the time. It shuts off after a few seconds to conserve the CR2032 battery, and the company estimates it'll last up to five years with moderate use. There's a jumper on the bottom of the board to set the Solder : Time into "always on" mode for use as a desk clock, although you'll need an external power source.

Programming the watch is utterly simple, too. Tap the control button twice and hold it down to advance the time. My only gripe is that the watch only displays 12 hour time. It would be nice to have a jumper that forces it into 24 hour mode, just in case the wearer is unsure whether it's morning or evening. But that's a minor complaint.

Spikenzie Labs has a hit on their hands with this quirky timepiece. It's affordable, fun to build and a guaranteed conversation starter. My rating? Five out of five retrorockets.

Visit the official Solder : Time page for full details and a peek at the online assembly guide.

Insanely Good Deals on Seiko 5 Automatic Watches

I just discovered that summer is a great time to go watch shopping -- there are a few dozen Seiko 5 models on Amazon selling for around $60, shipping included. That's an absolute bargain for a brand name watch with automatic 21 jewel movement and day/date display.

Keep in mind that a mechanical watch won't be as accurate as an electronic quartz model and you'll find yourself resetting the time every now and then to stay in sync with the rest of the world. However, the precision movement will provide years of battery-free timekeeping and can be surprisingly accurate if you're willing to take the time (hah!) to properly adjust the regulation.

Affordable Seiko 5 watches on Amazon

Telling Time With The Prometheus Recon 5

The Prometheus Watch Company is a boutique manufacturer based in Portugal. They offer a small but interesting range of swiss-made timepieces. My favorite is the strikingly simple 17 jewel Recon 5 aviator's watch.

The 44 mm diameter Recon 5 includes a manual wound ETA (Unitas) 6497-1 movement with a Côtes de Genève finish. The case features sapphire crystal over the face and case back, so you can gaze admiringly at the mechanism whenever the urge hits. The luminous face and hands are easy to read in low light.

The only thing I'm not wild about is the strap, which features stitching that would look more at home on a Chevrolet SUV seat than a precision-made watch. That said, it can be easily replaced with a 22 mm strap of your choice.

 

The price is a quite reasonable €303 (approximately $450), which includes worldwide shipping and a rather attractive leather presentation case. I'm fully aware you can get a decent Timex for a fraction of that, but it's fun to dream.

Prometheus Watch Company Recon 5

Tissot Visodate: The Perfect Dress Watch?

As far as I am concerned, the Tissot Visodate is just about the perfect dress watch — and not just because it looks like something Don Draper would wear. The restrained silver-on-white face is elegant. Because I am incapable of remembering the day of the week, I need a day display, which I have discovered is a rarity in the world of automatic dress watches. And keeping things ticking along is a 25-jewel ETA movement. All for a street price of less than $500, which is certainly more than a Seiko 5 but decent for a Swiss-made automatic.

Released last year, the Visodate gets "inspiration" from watches of the 1950s. It was around that time that Tissot started including a day window on some of its watches. The designers of the new watch did a great service by selecting a slick old-style Tissot script logo, which is certainly a lot more inspiring than the blocky sans serif the Swatch-cousin uses now.

Of course, thinking about 1950s men's fashion made me wonder what watch Draper wears on Mad Men. (It should come as no surprise that his every fashion choice has been dissected online.) Turns out he's a Jaeger-LeCoultre Reverso kind of guy. Nice, but well out of my price range.

Casio Still Sells Telememo Watches?!

Casio is a weird company. Not only do they have a vast product line, they sometimes keep products alive for decades. A case in point is this Telememo & Schedule calculator watch. It's basically unchanged since the late 80s (well, except for a switch from orange to green sidelight).

One has to wonder if someone at Casio catastrophically miscalculated demand, resulting in a warehouse filled to the brim with mid-80s microchips and watch cases. Still, this offers a brilliant buying opportunity for those of us who are unnerved by the pace of technological change.

In exchange for under $50, they'll give you a data bank watch that holds up to 50 name/phone number combinations (as long as none of your friends have more than 8 letters in their name). There's an 8-digit calculator that can do currency conversion (I wonder how many French Francs there were to the Ruble in 1988...). It even tells time and includes a stopwatch. Yes, your phone can do all of these things, but it doesn't wrap around your wrist. So there.

Mercifully, the auto calendar is correct until the year 2099. That means Casio still has a few decades to unload these antiques on future generations who might regard calculator watches as mysterious and very cool devices from the distant past.

Casio Telememo Calculator Watch

Watchable Watch Videos, New and Old

I was recently introduced to the videos posted by Bill "Engineer Guy" Hammack, a University of Illinois professor. They are informative, charmingly inane and ooze a passion for explaining engineering to the masses. (I could watch his explanation of how the IBM Selectric typewriter works five times a day.)

He recently posted one on quartz watches, which reminded me of an old Hamilton Watch Co. video I had seen, which likewise illuminates the innards of a mechanical watch.

So, here you go. This is how a watch works, new school vs. old school.

Hamilton: The Once American Watch Company

The Hamilton Watch Company was founded in 1892, "to build only watches of the highest quality." Their pocket watches became known across America for reliability, but it was the 1917 introduction of a military wristwatch that truly established them. Those early wristwatches used tiny 0-sized 17-jewel movements originally designed for women's pendent watches.

The company went on to produce the world's first electric watch in 1957, but they faced increasing competition from Japanese watchmakers. In an attempt to compete, they teamed up with Ricoh to produce electric mechanisms in their Lancaster, Pennsylvania factory which were then sent to Japan for final assembly. The venture failed, and Hamilton acquired Swiss watchmaker Bueren in an attempt to fight the Japanese onslaught with quality. It didn't work, forcing the American factory to close in 1969.

The brand eventually ended up in the hands of Swatch, who revitalized the lineup with a series of respectable timepieces featuring automatic ETA movements. Prices start at around $300 (street), which is downright reasonable for a Swiss watch.

My favorite Hamiltons are the understated Hamilton Khaki series, which includes this $495 model that houses a 25-jewel ETA movement in a 40mm stainless steel case.

The series is available with leather or steel bands and features a brilliant luminescent dial for those panicked moments when you need the exact time in pitch darkness.

The Official Hamilton Watch Site

Don't Call It a Hum-back: Accutron Spaceview 214 Anniversary Edition

Can you hear the hum? Watch-maker Bulova is celebrating the 50th anniversary of its famed Accutron by selling a Spaceview 214 remake. The company says only 1,000 will be made and each will be individually numbered. With a stainless steel caseback, sapphire crystal, luminous hands and markers and an alligator strap, the new Spaceview 214 will set you back 5,000 Swiss francs (about $5,200), complete with glass display case and a plaque.

Since the model's debut in October 1960, Bulova has applied the Accutron name to a bunch of other watches — both quartzes and automatics — but it initially stood for a unique timekeeping mechanism: a tuning fork that vibrates 360 times a second. Put your ear to an Accutron and you hear not a tick, but a hum. The mechanism had fewer moving parts than manual-wind watches, and the company touted it as the world's most accurate watch.

You can still find old tuning-fork Accutrons for much less than $5,000. The Spaceview models have always been popular, because they show off the innards so nicely. Some of the old Spaceviews sold today are actually "Spaceviews" — other Accutron models that have been stripped of their faces.

The new version is not a part-for-part remake. You can plainly see a few small differences between the new version and the old ones. The original model also was powered by a 1.35-volt mercury battery. Back in the day, those cells were prized for their consistent voltage output from birth to death. With mercury cells long gone — they do have mercury in them for goodness sake — the anniversary model is instead powered by a 1.55-volt silver-oxide watch battery.

The company still bills the Accutron as the world's first all-electronic watch, a claim I am not sure I buy. After all, it needs pawls and wheels to turn the tuning fork's predictable oscillations into a readable time display. (I would think LEDs would have a better claim.) But the tuning fork seems to me to slot in nicely between some of the other early electronic watches, which used motors or simple circuits to drive the balance wheels of mechanical watches, and the now-ubiquitous quartz movement.

Bulova Spaceview 214 Remake

Never Too Late To Wear Watch Cuff Links

This weekend I did some work for MTV, so I was hanging out with the hip and happenin' set. One interesting delineation of age was to see who was and who wasn't wearing a wristwatch. Unless they were blinged out, few of those folks encumbered their wrists with timekeeping devices. Instead they'd dip into their pocket to fish out their mobile phone, tap a few digits to turn off the keyguard, then finally see what time it is.Seems to take a bit longer that way than if they just had a darned watch. However I did find interesting that this was a sort of return to the same set of gestures you might use if you carried an old fob pocket watch.

I'm probably not classy enough to wear a pocket watch, nor do I have an especially snazzy wristwatch. So what about those times when you want to dress a little more formally and still know what time happy hour starts? I've got something here to kill two birds with one shirt cuff.

 

Men's fashion changes at a glacial pace. The sort of news that makes waves is whether french cuffs are coming back or not every forty years. Cuff links come and go a little more often. I tend to like them as they let you personalize what might be just a very ordinary shirt. Usually they're just decorative (at best perhaps serving as a reminder of your own initials since they're so frequently monogrammed) but occasionally someone gets clever offering some practical advantage. One of this pair of cuff links is quite ordinary, while the other is outfitted with a working watch. These were made by Swank (the menswear manufacturer, not the "gentleman's magazine" publisher...), and are admittedly quite swanky. My guess is that they took a mechanism for a smaller woman's watch to find something that would fit a nickel-sized cuff link.

Scoff if you will, but let's face it... you're never going to catch the eye of the ladies flashing them the clock in your cell phone.

Help out Retro Thing when you buy some watch cuff links on Ebay

USSR Marks Time With Digital Style

If you were going to measure out the steady beat of living under Soviet rule, you're probably going to need a watch. Back then, Elektronika was responsible for consumer electronics (frequently reverse engineered from other existing products), but these LCD watches were more homegrown. Thanks to the micro electronics revolution, no longer did you have to save your rubles for months to get a mechanical watch. LCD & digital technology made for cheap & plentiful timepieces, so just about anyone could finally have a quality watch on their wrist. Denizens of the USSR could finally know just how long they'd been in line waiting for toilet paper.

As you can see from the collection of Sergei Frolov, Elektronika did manage some variety to their offerings. Some are surprisingly stylish too. I don't know whether my favorite is cheap LCD display mounted inside a pocket watch style case, or the Buran space shuttle (which never left the ground on a manned mission) emblazoned plastic model that might have inspired young cosmonauts.

See more of Sergei Frolov's collection

related:

Affordable Russian Watches
Russian submarine clock