My Vintage Digital Watch Collection - 1970s-80 Nostalgia Fest !

[@MyRetroWatches]

Also add here that I suspect I need watches to be at wrist temperature and possibly on the machine longer to get a much more reliable accurate reading ! I know many of you will comment!!! All Watches (not for sale) can be found on my website with more details and photos of repairs etc myretrowatches.co.uk/category/digital/

[@MyRetroWatches]

Also add here that I suspect I need watches to be at wrist temperature and possibly on the machine longer to get a much more reliable accurate reading ! I know many of you will comment!!!

[@neriozulberti1492]

Great collection I’ve only one Casio AA-85 from 83 the blue thunder movie 😊

[@francispalmer9737]

I remember back in the mid seventies when digital watches came out and I thought they were mind blowing, back then I was about 15 years old, now I collect Seiko digital watches myself and wish I did not sell some of them but I am building them back up and may start collecting some lesser branded ones too after watching your collection. I find them easier to work on than mechanical watches believe it or not. Cheers Mike.

[@TS-1267]

... THE RED DIGITAL NUMBERS... One had to Press a Button for the Time Display... 1 Lad In My Middle School had One (Twat) ... Jealous Moi... Non Nein & Neither... 😂🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿🌄🌄🌄 2:50

[@davidmulligan42]

That first Seiko you showed (world's first chronograph) is one I used to own. I went to a local Jeweler's shop that was going out of business, and they had two of them, both NOS, just sitting in a drawer for many years. I bought the best one, which looked brand new, for $35. I put it on ebay in 2010 and two people got into a bidding war over it. It sold for around $580 to someone in Italy.

[@MyRetroWatches]

The 0634-5019 is just a superb watch. You can’t regret the past, they are still available if you have the funds to pay for them now.

[@ziting5756]

Makes me appreciate my f91w more. Thank you for posting this!

[@MyRetroWatches]

My pleasure!

[@excdracmagyarszarnyak2398]

Fantastic collection! I felt kid again for an hour. If we had seen these watches in the school as here in one video we had gone crazy for them for sure. :) Thank you to show us what a lovely thing the retro digital watch world is.

[@MyRetroWatches]

Thank you.

[@dariodzimbeg]

I still love and use old school digital watches. To this day. Love your channel!

[@mrdripling4192]

I've got a Casio G510D I've had since it launched, one of the seals eventually failed in the caseback (way before I knew anything about repairing watches) there ended up being a bit of corrosion inside which as far as I can see, has rendered it dead. I have two of them after buying what I thought was a working donor from fleabay, you're welcome to them if you wanna have a crack at getting either/both going.

[@RandallSlick]

Incidentally, I had that Timex at 58:00 as a teenager. I seem to recall you could press two buttons together to sound the melody alarm, to much classroom hilarity. Good to see one again, since I've searched for a nostalgic replacement for years.

[@kevinbaker4907]

Awesome mate. I've a early neg display by 'Geotime', powered by 2 2032s....it looks like it fell from space! The film watch and that big lump of cheese thing just rock! People should stop pretending they spend half their time underwater and have a bit of fun....

[@tropenband]

Beautiful collection. Citizen wind surfing D060 and D120 definitely need to be added 😊

[@Ge0rGi.]

The Casio Casiotron QW02 was equipped with the world’s first watch calendar that automatically adjusted for longer and shorter months. With a conventional watch, it was necessary to reset the calendar date on the first of each month, but the QW02 eliminated this hassle.

[@MyRetroWatches]

I didnt know this and now want one!

[@masterwatch]

oh wow that is a watch collection. I really like these old digitals. Amazing to see the Casiotron & Tissot share the same engines.

[@user-pv9ts8vk7d]

Fantastic collection, i love vintage digital watches.

[@endy_fx]

My first watch was a Casio f84w bought for me by my parents on holiday. I keep looking at the reissued version and I think you might have tipped me over the edge to pick it up :D

[@hwarrior_ryder3624]

Hi dude, I am seeing you from Mexico and I love your videos those are simply amazing, I had one of the Citizens that you show in the minute 22:39 DIGITAL-ANALOG, and a year ago I lost it in a car accident, but it was lost working at 100%, that watch was a birth gift from my father when I was young (about 1984) and so far it was a tremendous lost for me, anyway thank you so much for your amazing videos, thank you. 😉

[@wirdy1]

Thanks Mike, your selection brought back some great memories. My first digital was Commodore LED from mums catalogue, hugely expensive for an 10 yr-old in 1978, £20 payable at 50p per week for 40 weeks from pocket money. Took 2 big LR44 batteries that only lasted a couple of months as I remember. Then my first LCD was a Casio 60QS in '81 (as a 13 yr-old) that my dad.' acquired' during a maintenance job at a Casio warehouse somewhere near London. I remember impressing my schoolmates with the 1/100th second stopwatch!I still have it proudly in my collection. I have an old Witshi quartz tester and have found that many quartz crystals do stabilise over a number of weeks/months after being inactive, so let the watch run for a while before touching the trimmer. I'm sure I don't have to say be really careful with the trimmers; most haven't moved in decades, so hold with tweezers to oppose any turning force, or they can break or lift the pcb tracks. If you can't adjust enough, a tiny gimmick capacitor can be made with some fine transformer enameled wire, twisted & soldered onto the trimmer contacts. Twist & untwist until the value is about right to get the rate down on your tester.

[@P_Ezi]

Good advice about the trimmer caps

[@MyRetroWatches]

Thanks for your advise on trimmers. I dont think i would go to the extreme of making a tiny capacitor, I like to repair mechanical watches so electronics and soldering irons are not a skill set I posses. The commodore, was it the red LED version? I have that model. One of my favorites.

[@dunderhay9169]

Fascinating, thank you 👍 . That film watch was brilliant, I wish they would re-release that one!

[@sdcoinshooter]

I have a chronosport digital-Analogue from 1980. It is a UDT diving model, actually a rare off-shoot by the company Scubapro. Took me years to find someone (in Australia) that could replace the movement. It works perfectly and is one of my favorite watches. Awesome video, keep them coming!

[@ravindranarvekar5286]

I had Casio 12 melody alarm watch ,which I used for almost 15 years,till it's display was blank. One more watch from casio was Blue Thunder 1980 ,which was amazing. Thanks for the video.

[@TheGeezzer]

You have a very nice collection of collectables there young man! I love the fact that old digital watches are now vintage antiques lol. I remember when my mate at school had the first LED (push button to display the time) Casio, about 1977-8, we all gathered around and marvelled at this space-age Hi-Tech!

[@micaljimenez7381]

Very nice collection,when casio,seiko and citizen were making steel watch with big quality...i would lime to see in youre collection a casio blue thunder who desrve to be between your perfect collection

[@RomanSchatzphoto]

Excellent collection, impossible to pick a favourite. Do love the robot watches and that Casio film watch is just bonkers good.

[@iancastleton9052]

At 18:29 the modern casio g shock will likely use digital compensation in order to give accurate time even though the quartz crystal is running fast. Basically the watch will know that the crystall runs 3s fast, and will internally drop the oscillation pulse count every now and then in order to keep the time accurate. This digital compensation is cheaper than using a trimmer capacitor.

[@darrencheshire8546]

What a fantastic collection, I have a few that I’ve inherited, so will never go anywhere! Great content and information as always, keep safe buddy 😊

[@Gary-in5gi]

Great video ,I had a few Seiko digital watches from the 80s , I still have the memory bank calendar model that I have discovered when cleaning out an old wardrobe,it has been there over 30 years ,it is unmarked and as new condition ,still keeps perfect time, Keep up the great work.

[@savetommyrobinsonfreespeec7660]

Wow! At 54, I remember so, so many digital watches from the 70s/80s. My first was a basic Trafalgar, then a twin faced, red and black Timex, and even a radio watch with headphones… takes me back! When at the first school a mate of mine had a red faced LED watch as big as a house brick, I was so jealous! Then to top it all off, the following year he got the James Bond themed watch! The bastard! 😂 you could tell the kids from the middle to upper classes! Cool video.

[@SkyrayModels]

Great collection, I had a black Sinclair watch in my school days, and remember the first LCD watches coming to the market, love the look of the Film watch.

[@MyRetroWatches]

I have one here but I need to see if I can repair it. They are notorious for being faulty though.

[@rossjackson3670]

Thank you for the view of your collection. Impressive. It made me look at my 4 Casio calculator watches that are in my collection. All in good to excellent condition. But, I never wear them. Perhaps I will now.

[@babelman1]

Fab video, love digital watches, that film watch was something else.Not seen a working one before.

[@MyRetroWatches]

It’s probably one of the most modern ones I have too but it’s a fascinating thing

[@LeShark75]

Cracking collection, brilliant video. In fact, I'm about to grab a coffee and watch it again.

[@WristwatchMedic1953]

Thanks Mike. Loved the walk down memory lane. Great watches. Cheers

[@kermitefrog64]

Thank you for sharing the watches. I recently got a Citizen with a black face and silver hour marks with silver hour, minute and second hands. It also has the day and date on the 3 hour mark. I like the style. It is very sharp looking.

[@iancadwallender9779]

Great video.Nice to see a good watch video that's not just some crazy guy with more money than sense.

[@chrisbircham221]

Love my Seiko 0634. Had several led watches prior but they only ever lasted a couple of weeks. I paid £165.00 for it new in 1976 when I was 18...Still works absolutely fine. wore it every day for years as my main timepiece. It's a bit scratched but i'm not bothered about that. Bought several Seiko's since. all fine...currently using the 7T34-6A90.

[@christophermarshall5765]

One seiko watch you might want to look at is the M421-5010. It’s a digital watch. It has dual time zone, stop watch, two alarms, and countdown timer. It will also operate in 24 hours mode, and has a light. Water resistance of 100m.

[@WrightsW5]

Something I had been trying to remember, I tracked it down, 10 years ago I had an LCD watch branded National Semiconductor, early 70s, had a tritium gas backlight, a thin wide flat tube. I also had an analogue quartz by them with promethium lume.

[@AnonAnonAnon]

Great video! I got my first digital watch for Christmas 1978. It had a small solar panel above the display, very advanced I thought for the time. Wish I had kept it, wore it day and night and loved checking the time at night using the backlight!

[@samsheikh3464]

Absolutely Fandabidozi Michael… Beltime my first digital watch Mum bought it me on my birthday from Dixons £14.99 a lot of money in 1978 -79 a choice between Alba and Beltime Swiss Made…. I thought Alba… didn’t they make cheap TV’s with Bush… didn’t know at the time it was a Seiko brand…. Anyhow some bugger nicked it during the PE lesson when all valuables were put into a tin box for safe keeping by the teacher… never got it back… cried all the way home… I was so proud of that watch still clear in my mind to this day… I hope who ever nicked it got his comeuppance..

[@munnsie100]

Great video! Something struck me - the Casiotron 76CS-41 shown at 10:15 has an almost (or potentially) identical bracelet (and clasp) to my late 1970s Omega digital (1616). How fascinating!

[@res00xua]

Better than I expected. Excellent!

[@voytikof]

You have inspired me to buy a battery after a few years and revive again the Seiko 0634-5009 inherited from my dad, who got it in the 1970s during a business trip to Japan, and it was a very expensive thing for a man from the eastern side of the Iron Curtain.

[@ednammansfield8553]

I really enjoyed watching this video about these fantastic retro watches. I have quite a few Casio watches and have bought a couple of Armitron digital watches from America which is the 'Rubik' and a analogue/digital watch. I purchased them mainly because both are fully stainless steel compared with Casio which today are resin with chrome plating on them. The G-Shock you have in your collection with the stainless steel case and strap is probably the 5610 with it having both multiband 6 and radio controlled. I have two of those in my collection. Thanks for sharing your collection.

[@andyblake1849]

Cool collection, especially the Seikos obvs 👏👏

[@markikn3183]

That was a cracking edition, Mike. The Trafalgar reminded me of a watch i have in the dusty back drawer, a Seiko JDM watch for the blind, speaks the time in Japanese.

[@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands]

Got me a Casio too, Casio W217HM-7BVEF, the one with the dark screan, which looks great but a bit hard to read in the evening... It runs on time, same as my computer even. Got the Skmei, the Casio and a mystery brand Chinese copy of the Skmei, all set one one beep on the hour, the cheap one, runs fast more than a second a day.. So I reset them all three now and than.. :) In 30 years they all will be rare :)

[@MrGrentch]

My dad bought the big calculator watch back in the 70's. I still have it and the stylus too. :) The screen is very faded, though the watch itself is like new and the calc buttons are still responsive. I remember it being expensive, but don't know how much he paid. In 82 I got the 'baby' one for a Christmas present. It still works too, though the case wears my teenage years. :)

[@mountainclawoutdoors]

Thanks for this video Very informative Some killer pieces, there's a couple I'll keep an eye out for

[@simonharding1572]

nice collection I would like a few of them

[@jamessmith6402]

Thanks Mike that was an excellent video super interesting 😊

[@MyRetroWatches]

Glad you enjoyed it. Thanks

[@HossEehoss]

15:17 The Casio Data Bank with the speaker tone dialer!! I had one years ago. That was a cool little watch! Was nice to have in the days of public pay phones for sure. 👍👍👍👍👍

[@WrightsW5]

A great collection of digital watches there! I've got various, one of them is very similar to your first Seiko from the £58 joblot, mine is branded Le Gant, eventually a Seiko brand, with a Hamazawa (Seiko) module, i've got one well worn one i've had years, and a NOS one in the box that I got a few months ago, you might like this bit, it was from Coventry, Rhode Island ☺

[@chrischarlton422]

I remember early digitals around '77, '78 in primary school, they were round cased LCDs with central letterbox screens. I didn't rate them as i had more exciting looking and less common LED type. Fast forward to secondary school and it was a sea of commodores, casio databanks, calcuators, melody's, and games. (Oh and the cool kids with new-fangled Swatch watches) I am now trying to collect every model i had as a kid in order. Led, databank, calculator, calculator flip, etc. The best memory was sitting in an exam and hearing about 150 hourly chimes together! BEE-beeepBEEEEEPYbeep-beepBEEPeep!

[@BlueyChandler]

A lovely collection. I'm glad you showed some Citizens. The robot face white Seiko is georgeous.

[@Mat-345]

Thank you very much for the video. The ugly duckling from Citizen is my absolut favourite Digi-Ana. I got it brand new in 1979 as christmas gift from my parents (but with the more conservative crystal colour scheme black and dark gray) using it as my daily watch until 1996. Actually the watch is still working with all functions and very good timekeeping. I am trying to restore it carefully step by step (case etc.) and collected a new crystal, a new original bracelet and original seals as spare parts until now. For me it is still a dream of my childhood. My current daily LCD-Watch is a nice modern Casiotron TRN 50 which I got as a gift from my wife one month ago but I still prefer the design of the ugly ducking vintage Citizen Digi Ana.😅

[@Team-fabulous]

My first ever digital watch was a Shivas. Cost me £18 which was alot of cash 45 years ago for a young lad..

[@MyRetroWatches]

Occasionally see that brand on eBay !

[@simonmellor781]

I really enjoyed seeing your collection (or at least some of it), thanks Mike. The quartz tester looks like a great bit of kit….

[@MyRetroWatches]

Thank you Simon . Pleased you enjoyed this one

[@seederi]

That Data Bank Phone Dialer reminded me that i found an old phone dialer at work, it was inside a table that was going to the trash, popped a new batteries and it was still working. Wild times.

[@nabeelawan9428]

11:32 the Casio on the right side with round dial, i still have that one 10/10 condition (my Grandad's watch) love it.

[@time_keep]

That's a very cool collection. Thank you for the video 😎

[@Frank-om4fc]

Love the Casio Film Watch...great graphics..

[@P_Ezi]

Fun memories. Another oddity of that time was that just a few years after the LCD digital watches were introduced, modules were showing up in pens, and digital watches quickly became very inexpensive.

[@richardtomlinson2063]

Love you and your manckey fingers. Please don't feel the need to shelter from those offended by people who've done a few hard days yakka in their lives. Seriously, what is the world coming to where someone spends hundreds of hours putting footage together detailing their hobby that consumes thousands of hours of their lives, only to be criticised about their finger hygiene (under a x25 microscope!). X x x

[@ernestb.2377]

Extensive and interesting presentation 🙂 I was waiting on you start to tweak the time-base, but I probably misunderstood in the beginning. One possible reason for the deviation, beside temperature you mentioned, could be the battery voltage.

[@Ravikumar1962]

Nice collection. I lost some of old digital watches

[@neilwilliams4684]

59:37 - It's called Number Invaders probably. I had a very similar model to yours. After much practice I managed to cope with its maximum speed when I was a kid. I only stopped the game as my mum needed me 🙂. I still have it but sadly it succumbed to total LCD bleed many years ago 😞.

[@FMFGUF]

I have that watch also (Casio CA-851). I used to own a resin version (CA-85), which I once managed to play for hours until the score counter maxed out and reset back to the start!

[@alexandregb566]

I am very excited to see your watches. I don't have a lot o interest in digital wattches, but I'm curious to see them.

[@mike-yn3mn]

The quartz tester is an intriguing bit of kit. And a very nice look at a under appreciated genre of watches. Digital Seiko's were good enough for James Bond in the 70's and 80's!

[@AliexpressWatch]

Enjoy watching your videos, Mike.

[@MyRetroWatches]

Thank you

[@akvammen]

To me "The ugly duckling" is aesthetically pleasing! It's giving me techno vibes! Very cool collection :)

[@misterkim6426]

Very cool collection. My family are very into watches and I have a modest collection. Lately my favorite watches are old digital watches. Im glad I found this channel! I may even attempt to fix up some old ones I have.

[@mohammadreza5668]

Great collection ,I had the hexagonal Citizen ,actually it was the first watch my father bought for me when I was only ten years old 😍

[@yanholland315]

Lovely review of your amazing collection. Spotted a Tomlov TM4K on your bench there - I can recommend using the additional provided lighting ring - it's made a huge difference to the image quality for me.

[@MyRetroWatches]

That’s in for review actually. Personally so far it’s not a patch on the LinkMicro I reviewed and use all the time. The Tomlov has some good features but on normal watches it can’t capture the image as clear as the LinkMicro

[@jpaulc441]

I like your work desk. Makes me want one of my own (though in black).

[@thedude8046]

Absolutely beautiful collection man!👌

[@MyRetroWatches]

Thank you kindly

[@PaoYong]

1:01:00 is absolutely gorgeous

[@blueovaltrucker]

The film watch was so animated, so cool. If someone made a more modern looking version of that one today I bet it would sell like crazy.

[@roadgent7921]

2 things, (1) Storing in 13 degrees will have a BIG impact (2) The QT99 might be out and needs recalibration. Near impossible unless someone at Seiko Hq takes pity on you. You should do a manual video check (vid with MB6 at 2 day interval) on say 3 watches and the check against QT99 to see if it's out. Very interesting video thanks. 😊

[@MyRetroWatches]

The temperature it’s stored at does not matter as when in it has an oven to heat up the testing quartz . The manual suggests to run it for at least 20 minutes before testing anything. The watches should really be at wrist temperature rather than room too but reviewing 40+ watches makes that part impossible

[@furq8417]

Excellent old skool digital watch collection.

[@X-Gen-001]

An enthralling and nostalgic showcase.

[@hydorah]

Oh my God! That T-shirt! I dropped a cap jewel once in my kitchen... I was trying a bit of home hackery on a cheap movement. It was at that time I decided horology was not my bag!

[@hydorah]

Is it my eyes, or a trick of the folds... Or is that shirt missing an apostrophe for a passional "watchmaker's life"?

[@MyRetroWatches]

@@hydorah it’s a shirt I designed myself . Didn’t bother with apostrophe

[@d33b33]

Stylus? The Seiko C359 you operate with the tip of a mechanical pencil, with the graphite retracted. Conspicuously missing in your calcuwatch collection is the Casio TC-600 touch sensor calculator watch. A big screen, a touch screen (but not as we know it!), and a prophetic sign of things to come. I was king of digital watches wearing the TC-600 in my high school days, until I managed to nick the screen on the hidden tracers on the top of the screen. :(

[@AndyHullMcPenguin]

I suspect if you test these with fresh batteries, they may be a little closer to factory rated accuracy. The quartz crystal will "wear" as time goes on, and may drift considerably if they are subject to shock. You can push the crystal around its base frequency with the trimmer capacitor on some of the older watches, but more recent offerings may need a fresh crystal. A cheap modern quartz watch may leave the factory with less accuracy than the majority of the ones you tested, simply because they are produced to a price these days, and that price means the quality of the crystals may be pretty low. 30 seconds per month is about normal for a mass produced modern quartz watch, but a high quality crystal will push that to around 1 second per month. They will drift slightly with temperature though. For high quartz accuracy, you need an oven controlled crystal, but you would never cram one of those in a wrist watch.

[@davidcarrol110]

The Heuer Chronosplit from circa 1979 is innovative and cool AF.

[@oscarmarfori613]

If you'll give those Old Digi Watches a little polish on your polishing machine those things will still shine and will actually look better and can be might as well useable, nice video thanks for sharing

[@cte]

Very nice collection. I have about 40 digitals from this era. I stopped collecting a while ago because a lot of them started to die. 😭 Seikos are probably my faves. M516 (ghostbusters/voice recorder), RC1000 and A966 are probably my most loved models. TOTALLY high tech (for the time) geekiness. 😁 I have the talking Trafalgar you have also. Fun fact: that watch was worn in Superman 3 by Richard Pryor. The prop team added an extra set of buttons on top of the watch for the movie, to look extra geeky… not that it needed it!

[@MyRetroWatches]

I didn’t know that about the Trafalgar!!! Thanks

[@zakmarsh3150]

I think I had the same Timex watch shown at 58:00 during the 1980s, sadly I think it met it's demise in 1995 when it flew off my wrist into the road just as the bus I was waiting for arrived crushing it under it's wheels. The wrist clip was worn which meant it was prone to unclipping it's self, and the timing of the unclipping on that fateful day was terminal. 😒 Some interesting watches in your collection, I remember several of them being worn by others in the 1970s/1980s. 🙂

[@scottr3141]

Seeing these watches reminds me of the old guys eating breakfast in McDonalds in the morning. They still wear them .lol

[@LungsMcGee]

That Citron would look great on your wrist as you zip along in your cybertruck.

[@WMIYC]

That Casio Film watch is cool!😎

[@user-dg3io4px6n]

I didn't even know digital watches was a thing in the 70s when i think of the 70s-90s era i always think of the analog tech.

[@thomasgabriel2213]

Loved the video! So glad you went ahead and produced it, showing your digital collection. I almost choked when I saw the Citron...it instantly reminded me of a Battlestar Galactica fighter...LOL

[@Nothing19800]

Amazing collection!!!

[@dougieranger]

Brilliant collection. Good health to wear them mate.

[@tarjazz1]

I’ve got the Panam World Timer that I bought new back in the day when I lived in Japan. Unfortunately, it no longer works properly, and as I recall, we are far past the date limit of its perpetual calendar. A shame since I would love to wear it again for international travel.

[@SideWalkAstronomyNetherlands]

State the nature of the horological emergency! :)

[@KrisKendall-io4hm]

What a great collection I loved them all 👍thanks for sharing

[@danamoose1234]

This was so much fun, at such a surprise! I'm totally hooked and subscribed. I need to start shopping for vintage digital watches now.

[@MyRetroWatches]

Welcome aboard!

[@greendomeno6]

Lovely stuff Mike! I'll find some more for you I'm sure😉

[@MyRetroWatches]

Thanks Nick. Really like the film watch. Still got to bring the Sinclair to the channel on due course

[@kiwicory100]

i LOVE your vids mate!!!

[@Cleatus546]

Thanks for posting a great video. It brought back many memories. 👍 Nice collection, by the way. 🤜🤛