1975 GE Clock With A Display Twist

Another addition to the series of unusual digital displays, this General Electric bedside clock has its feet set in two different worlds. Lets take a closer look... and Enjoy!
Telechron rotor date codes - telechronclock.com/page20.html
Dialight Neon Conversion Display - • The Nixie That Almost ...
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- Music by Fran Blanche -

[@theelmonk]

It's like someone made it look like 7-segment without ever seeing a real one

[@ironhell813]

It was rare but they seen them at the time.

[@DonovanCYoung]

I had this exact clock on my bedside as a kid! I was constantly hitting the "snooze" button on the top, so I actually hardwired a toggle switch in the back to disable that button. On school days, I would leave it disabled, but would enable it for weekends. 😀

[@consolehacker54]

I have this exact clock sitting next to the computer I'm watching this on now! lol Bought it at a thrift store years ago for maybe $10. It's been plugged in pretty much constantly and it works perfect, including the backlight

[@jimbotron70]

​@@consolehacker54Impressive, considering it's mechanical.

[@siliconinsect]

Neon lamp in the COPAL sitting in front of me has been going for 350,000 hours. She's been flipping longer than I've been alive with periodic motor lubrication. Great vid as usual!

[@FranLab]

Yes, those vintage neon lamps will run forever on AC if they don't spring a leak.

[@MichelleBradley]

I had this GE clock at one time with the flipover panels, but the version that I had used a more normal font for the numbers instead of the LED-look alike font. It was really interesting decades ago when I opened mine up to see how they did the wheels. The curiosity started because I had noticed when I looked at the clock in the dark, while it was changing, I could see numbers through the gap between the tiles and I wondered why (remember, I was in my larval years at the time.. but it was an interesting discovery at the time to see how it works. This video brings back a bunch of memories).

[@mikebarushok5361]

The serrations on the top of the light pipe looks like a fresnel lens cross section to avoid hot spots in the resulting illumination.

[@FranLab]

Honestly it does not work for that, there is a good hot spot - but in other flip clocks there are multiple lamps above and behind the numbers, and this is likely a feature for that kind of illumination.

[@teardowndan5364]

Not necessarily fresnel, just odd angles to help with diffusion. Yes, definitely there to help with hot spot mitigation.

[@ScottRise]

This was kind of my thought. Not necessarily like a Fresnel, though, as the edges would reflect the light instead of refracting it. The light coming out the sides of the neon lamp would reflect off of each edge and down onto the numbers, spreading some of the light that would be wasted onto the outside numbers.

[@lindacangelosi3245]

At about the same time as that GE radio that you’re working on, I had a Philco-Ford R-788 clock radio. I also thought that it has a digital display, but the numbers were more stylized and when they changed, they sort of melted into the next digit. It was wild. Only after the backlight bulbs failed and I took it apart did I realize that it was just a mechanical clock with an amazing display. I still kick myself for not keeping it. While there are a few pictures of the radio online, none of them mention or show the display. If you could find one I bet it would make for a great video.

[@WelcomeToMarkintosh]

Wow-those "digits" were more complex than I expected-the hours serving double duty was awesome!

[@Mrdibzahab]

I have a clock with this mechanism (but different style numbers). I find it much more pleasing to watch the time change than with a flipclock. You can change the exact timing between the gears to make it even more pleasing to watch.

[@Loki2154]

LED design drawn by someone who never saw one! 😀 Amazing to remember the world where doing all that mechanical design and manufacture was cheaper than just using real 7-segment displays. For a very short time, red LED displays were a sign of modern high tech. Now, of course, it's more of a nostalgic throwback.

[@Thegonagle]

I really like the VFD clock-radios that were also pretty common for a while.

[@MrDuncl]

They should have done a Nixie Tube look version 🙂 Regarding digital clocks, in 1977 my Christmas present was the Maplin Digital clock kit. More exciting than a Pong Game. About a year later I persuaded my Mother to buy a kit which proudly proclaimed "Now you can have a Microprocessor in your house.". The kit was for the Chromachine 24 tune door bell using a mask programmed TMS1000.

[@brooknet]

I like its mix of modern and retro: it's as if it's slightly making fun of LED clocks.

[@dperreno]

Someone had fun designing that! The construction quality looks really good too.

[@noblsht]

Someone had fun designing that >>???? it was probably equivalent to a full year salary are you kidding not any monkey could do that

[@hiram1923]

I suspect those dividers in the numbers are there because they simply spray-painted them using stencils. That's also why you have that paint bleeding. Of course for some numbers you wouldn't need dividers in the stencil, but they just put them in all of them to give it a uniform look.

[@scottthomas3792]

I have a similar GE clock on my entertainment center...a couple years newer. Neon dial light. I got it in '77 or '78. It's been running non stop ( non counting moves and power failures) since then. The neon light still works. Years ago, I had a mechanical digital clock radio with a small argon bulb dial light ...the numbers painted with fluorescent paint. I have several ac clocks from the '70s...those telechron motors seem to last forever...

[@2degucitas]

These clocks were everywhere. Every house had one.

[@chrisnowacki5663]

I have the non illuminated version, in a white case! Mine is possibly bakelite? Still working great, saved it from the landfill about 15 years ago while helping my aunt move. Absolutely love it!

[@solarbirdyz]

This looks like one of those things someone would've reimplemented as a 3D printable project. Which I think would be kind of great. It'd be fun to make something where you could swap in different display tiles.

[@rich1051414]

It's like someone explained what a 7 segment display looked like over the phone to someone who never seen one.

[@cathedral94]

I remember my mom had a similar one she bought in the 70’s. That thing lasted for years and years.

[@xaenon9849]

The serrations at the top of the clear piece are basically a variation on a fresnel lens, meant to direct the light in such a way to get maximum illumination.

[@VisDeux]

I had to refrain myself from holding my breath when you were opening it without unplugging it first : watch out Fran it's live the digits are still on !

[@charleshettrick2408]

My grandmother gave me a very similar model in 1972 or 73. Same numbers, alarm rotating motor indicator. But an illuminator bar to see the numbers in the dark. The bar dimly illuminated 2 grain in turn dimly illuminating the tiles. Illumination was variable. A friend had the exact same clock. Their numbers would light up even when room lights were turned on. My clock numbers barely showed in very blackened room. Around 1978 i gave the clock back to my grandmother. She needed a bedside clock. By that time, the humming motor was too noisy for me. But my grandmother was almost deaf. The clock lasted to the mid 80s. On clock autopsy, the motor bearings wore too large and the gear teeth could not remain engaged. One grain of wheat bulb was burned out and both were misaligned with the light pipe. I do not remember if there was or was not a reflector. But i remember the surprise and disappointment how significantly more light reached the tiles when the one good bulb was properly aligned. I was disappointed i never got to see the display with both bulbs properly aligned.

[@paulstubbs7678]

A nice design, arguably better than the conventional flip digit clocks that seem to suffer lots of mechanical failure. For fun you could make up a pile of Nixie digit photo's and stick them onto the tiles, to create a mechanical Nixie clock.

[@DanielleWhite]

I had a different version of this. Mine was a clock radio and the digits were unbroken lines rather than faux 7 segment style. Mine lacked the running wheel on the right of the time display. The mechanical alarm eventually wore out at 7 from having been set to that for years; what set for 7 it would go off at 7:10 instead. The alarm control was a slider switch on the top of the cabinet which had four positions for Off, On, Alarm and Radio, one of which was to use the radio as the alarm rather than a buzzer and the position indicated by four oval holes adjacent through which an orange painted part of the slider would show.

[@-fuk57]

I like how the rolling wheel rolls to let you know that it's rolling.

[@davepowder4020]

Time traveler to 1975 factory worker for GE: "50 years from now, someone is going to examine this clock that you made today." GE worker: "For archaeology?"

[@jasondavis7761]

I use this EXACT clock as my daily driver by my bed. I have been using since everyday since 2019. My wife and I love the sound the clock makes when it’s rolls to the next digit.

[@jantonkens9820]

All your videos showing those 1970+1980s clocks bring back loads of good memories. Remember my own "digital" flip clocks or later the green display alarm -clock-radio systems and again later red LEDs.. . But in the end I managed to sleep through all of them 😂😢😮

[@KeritechElectronics]

It's surgery time again! With forceps and a scalpel, and anaesthetic too (if that's how you could call unplugging). What a lovely clock - that's a curious display twist indeed.

[@maxmuster3297]

It looks cool and friendly how the numbers change!

[@LoftechUK]

I had one as a kid. Loved it. Cost a fortune to get one these days that works on time. Aghhhh now mine was an actual flip which drove me nuts. lol.

[@Thegonagle]

It’s really quite incredible how many different alarm clocks and clock-radios GE has made over the years. There must be hundreds if not 1,000 or more.

[@chegeny]

I believe this possibly harkens back to a time when people mail-ordered from catalogs. A picture would've been quite convincing that you're getting a digital display. Fascinating. Thanks for delving into the 1970s.

[@hotlavatube]

It's nice they wrote "lighted dial" on the front, otherwise you'd never have known!

[@johneygd]

Wow now that’s pretty interesting clever forward thinking stuff from the 70’s,instead of using a seven sigmented display or a led display,they just use wheel gear system wich is a cheaper but not less effective alternative to also get people with a lower budget access to a clock. This is just simply amezing😁👍

[@hydrolisk1792]

I love building custom projects with these movements!! Good video Fran and awesome find!

[@jimbo5728]

I had this exact clock for many years!

[@GentlemensWatchServices]

Big fan of digital(ish) clocks and watches. There’s a surprising amount going on in this fella. Great video, thanks.

[@supralapsarian]

4:40 I was wondering how they were going to fit 12 “sides” in that enclosure for the hour section. That’s really quite ingenious!

[@capolaya]

That clock has my age! Look how far we've gone. Now the digital clocks are the dirt cheap ones.

[@lorensims4846]

I had a clock very similar to this in '75 except it used flip cards for the standard, roughly Helvetica, white numbers on a black background. But I never saw anything like this fake LED display. Only that plastic overlay they had in the stores to suggest what the display would look like once it was actually plugged in that you pulled off as soon as you got it. A real puzzle! I think the slightly blurry print of the red digits may have been meant to suggest a glow.

[@eldoradoboy]

foil HVAC tape works good for reflective.. I repaired a radio diual lightr that had a small incandescant bulb in it as each end.. they used the same tape (GE singapore also).. I cut all the old tape out and used the HVAC tape to encase the new bulb... never an issue.. I had this clkock as a kid and you could see it in the dark... the neon bulb gave off a soft warm light.. perfect to sleep to

[@RonaldJS]

I had a ‘digital’ knockoff clock in the early seventies. It had three wheels with flat faces and numerals on the facet. It would click on the single digit turning, clank on the double digit and clunk on the hour digits. You could look at the clock as you went to bed and wake up in the night wondering what time it was, you just think about it for a second or so and your brain would say to you 3:47 or whatever, and Holy Crap it would be right. Somehow your brain was keeping track of the clicks, clacks and clunks!

[@robinsattahip2376]

I like things that are different. Now all brands and models tend to look or at least work the same. Thank you

[@Dag_Nabbit_]

The lil sawtooth bits in there are to reflect the light better, so it spreads more evenly, looks better.

[@hakes187]

Had 1 or 2 of them back in the day, probably still do in the attic at the parents house

[@randybutcher5713]

Got one like this but older with normal looking numbers. Its like new. i use it in my upstairs bathroom. Keeps great time and i love watching the numbers slowly turn. Still illuminated too!

[@Peterjames3535]

I do like these old type clocks if I see one at a garage sale I have to buy it.

[@Miata822]

Cool mechanism. More to it than I would have expected.

[@MrDuncl]

In a 1980s oven I had there was a 24 hour digital drum clock. The interesting bit was that the 0 to 23 was done using two interleaved drums. The left hand drum displayed something like blank-gap, 1-gap, 2 gap, 21, 22, 23 so it could change from 23:59 back to 0:00 with minimum rotation of the drums. I made the mistake of taking the top of because the motor was getting noisy and spent hours getting it back together because if everything wasn't perfectly aligned it would do things like get to 19:59 then jam.

[@MrPage62]

LED and other true digital clocks were crazy expensive in the mid-70s. This was an affordable alternative, probably an older design updated with "digital" numbers...

[@InssiAjaton]

My bedside alarm clock is something i built of a kit way back when. You might not have ever met an IC that was built in P-channel technology, like this one. I did not know of that, and was thinking something was wrong with it, when the transformer output was something like 35 V after rectification. The display is built with 7-segment LED blocks, except the 1-second flashing is made of two individual LEDs. They are mounted between the hour and 10-minute LED blocks. I disobeyed the instruction to leave them high. The result was a sturdier structure, but the second blinking is not visible except from straight front. The plastic clamp lock housing was after several years drying out and twisting, popping open. My fix was (and still is) transparent packing tape. But only after I had beefed up the main bus filter capacitors for a longer hold time during any power glich. I then realized the likely benefit of the hig supply voltage, as the clock works down to below 10 V power. Moreover, the clock chip apparently has constant current outputs for the multiplexed segments, as the brightness does not change with changing bus voltage. It has also a crystal time base, which was originally trimmed a little too fast. When I adjusted its trimming capacitor (already before the packing tape fix), the time count since then lags a little, wich is more to my liking - it is easier to bump the minute forward - two or three times per year - than to roll it all the way around. In any case, it works beautifully still after the years, or actually decades! The packing tape is also holding so perfectly, that I have not wanted to cut it open, although now I would have a GPS synchronizable frequency counter to adjust the crystal frequency much closer to the nominal value.

[@truckmann1762]

I have that clock! But mine has standard white numbers & the neon bulb is on the bottom of the display. It's a bigger bulb too. But it works just like this one. Thanks for showing how it flips the tiles. I have a Seth Thomas flip clock that uses hexagon drums instead of tiles.

[@Donna230]

Highly enjoyable. I always enjoy watching you fix gadgets.

[@joeteejoetee]

I love the seconds dial at the right side!

[@wdavem]

I thought those wheels looked too small to fit in there. That's a good design!

[@StellaFoxxie]

oh yeah, i (and basically everyone i know) have one of those tucked away somewhere, although i have the version with the slightly more dignified typeface. they seem to be the only type of "flip clock" you can find in a goodwill anymore

[@jamesstout3430]

Fran, I myself like the odd clocks as well. Everything you do one of these, I get "triggered" lol. Keep up the fantastic content!!

[@codebeat4192]

Cool clock. It reminds me to the working of tape counters.

[@CalculatorObsessed]

Lovely clock, neat display. I’m hoping for more videos like this one.

[@Derpy1969]

Pretty cool, Fran.

[@VictoryHighway]

That’s really cool!

[@sn1000k]

I love yr videos fran. You and them bring me comfort. Big fan

[@canuckfixit7722]

This is like a Techmoan YT video. Liquid electrical "tape" might have been a better option in lieu of real tape. This would actually insulate the space between the leads.

[@Alaska_Engineer]

Oh my!! I had one like this as a kid!

[@Clayton_WoodHelm]

its a neat little take, when I saw the thumbnail I didn't immediately think of a digital displace, rather thought it was what it is, but had lights inside the little drums making a backlit digit

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

06:44 that kind of jagged transparent screen-lens, looks like a kind of Fresnel lens perhaps to distribute the light across the whole display's surface? Perhaps just too advanced and it's just a design point ...

[@FranLab]

Good guess, but I think no. The angles are all too off for anything refractive like that.

[@Not-Only-Reaper-Tutorials]

@@FranLab you’re right, indeed I saw at the end of the video that the display is barely illuminated. It could be that the intention was a kind of Fresnel but certainly it went bad 😂. However it is a fascinating mechanical stuff.

[@MontegaB]

It's kinda funny that this was a cheap alternative to contemporary electric displays, but today it would be far more expensive than an LCD or LED display.

[@bhambhole]

Very cool design

[@12...]

i bet if this clock appeared in a movie or tv show or video game, people would assume it was a modern recreation and make fun of it for being historically inaccurate

[@marcdaigle1163]

Great job replacing the bulb. When you were reconnecting it back together, you were holding it upside down. The clock had a reading. It read "DIE" on the panel. Hehe...Please look it up at 17.28 seconds, in your video...

[@ramosel]

It wasn't this particular clock, but something very similar when I went off to school in 78... The digits were day-glow as well but the small illumination bulb was UV. So it was unnoticeable in day time, but was quite vivid at night... without illuminating the room. I wonder if this was the reason for the paint selection on yours but they opted to keep costs down and only use neon.

[@FranLab]

Perhaps. This clock display is basically faded red, not florescent pigment so far as I can tell.

[@coondogtheman]

I had an old alarm clock that was similar to this one but without the digital segmented numbers. I found it in a barn and it did work it was prone to stopping and it made me late for school a bunch of times even if I set it ahead a few hours. Wasn't the Mr. Fix it back then like I am now but it probably just needed some oil. Ended up getting a real digital clock a cheap sony dream machine clock which I still have the guts and bottom of it and it still plays FM radio. No AM because it's missing the ferrite core antenna. Was late a few times because the snooze button would stick down and stop the alarm.

[@PedreschiMess]

until minute 5 i was wondering how they managed to put 10 digits in a wheel like that, seen the fact that it obviously wouldn't fit inside the case... the plot "twist" I was not expecting. very cool 1

[@coltongoff456]

I have a few of these clocks, mine are the fake wood grain version. One of them is next to my bed, the neon bulb glows a nice orange glow, just good enough to see in the dark.

[@BluesSky]

That clock would look very cool in a translucent enclosure.

[@dominicperez3207]

I love neon bulbs.

[@Coolshows101]

I have this same clock minus the funky numbers. I think the case on mine is a little different too, but the mechanism is the same. I also have a truly digital clock with the same case design as my version of this. Unboxing on that on my channel. Thanks for doing this video! Now I know what kind of bulb to put in mine!

[@dominicperez3207]

I instantly wanted to see it with the backlight in the dark.

[@frenchmarky]

The Gottlieb pinball machine company did the same thing in 1978 when they were a little slower than the other pinball companies in switching over from electromechanical to solid state. Before they did, they made a few electromechanical machines with black score reels that had simulated red LED digits printed on them.

[@chrisa2735-h3z]

I have one of these without segmented numbers or dial light! I love it!❤❤ (though I did have to break the motor free and lubricate it when I first got it)

[@GreyRockOne]

Not a flip clock as we know them, I'd call it a rotating drum type display? yeah, that sounds good!

[@paulstubbs7678]

A 'Tile clock' ??

[@kote315]

Wow. Many people write about LEDs, but the color reminded me neon indicators, also known as nixies. When I saw the preview the first thing I thought was that these are 7-segment neon indicators. But no, they are neither neon nor 7-segment!

[@bobair2]

I like the fact in the end you have a still usable clock and it might give another 48 years of service.

[@FranLab]

Probably!

[@douglasjohnson4382]

They probably wanted it to look like a 7-segment display, but didn't quite know what one looked like. And most customers wouldn't have noticed.

[@sjw4207]

Very interesting.

[@eyamane]

I had one of those as a kid. The alarm was a super loud buzzer that I still remember would absolutely scare me awake each morning. I hated that thing.

[@hardrocklobsterroll395]

This is a really honed design from a manufacturing perspective

[@barryfleischer6553]

.....I do like it!

[@stevenverhaegen8729]

Split-personality clock in more than one sense... 😂 Nice! 😀👍

[@JohnReasons]

The light pipe looks like a cross section of a Fresnel lens. Probably a way to help distribute the light evenly.

[@andygozzo72]

nice beast!

[@samuelsnyder5169]

We had one of those in the 90’s my brother had a clock/radio/phone

[@jasonthewiczman5442]

Mechanical clocks I love - Panasonic made a flip number clocks

[@emilyadams3228]

It's strange that the motor date code would be 1975, but the label wouldn't have a zip code. Zip codes were phased in from roughly 1963-65, so a handy rule of thumb in the wild is that anything without one is from before 1965. Maybe GE figured it didn't matter, cos they didn't expect anyone to write to them.

[@gzenno]

i would love having a clock like that ina nice clear shell box to see it doing its stuff.

[@adamwishneusky]

🎶 in the lab 😊

[@MartysRandomStuff]

Nice space saving design there, When I first saw it I wondered how the case could be that size with wheels holding numbers that large, flipping the tiles so wheels of 6, 5, and 5 could do all the numbers is such a cool mechanism. I would love to have seen how they connect the wheels together, these wheels have to turn 2 times before kicking the next wheel to the next number.

[@MrDuncl]

I think on the right hand digit 5 is on the rear of 0, 6 on the rear of 1 etc so the first time around they show 0 to 4 and the second time 5 to 9.

[@snaplash]

Simple wheels with the numbers on the outside would be too big to fit in the case. The flip tiles let them reduce the diameter by half. A time lapse detail of the flip action would have been interesting.

[@harrypitts7389]

Ne-2 lamps last over 100,000hrs using 270k ballast resister

[@texastyrannyresponseteam794]

I had that clock when i was a kid..