Pulsar P3 - When a Digital Watch cost more than a Rolex - 1970s LEDs

[@Sam-lr9oi]

"Wrist Computer Tells Time Without Hands" What an amazing headline.

[@Colddirector]

Ironically you need hands to activate the display lol

[@Sam-lr9oi]

I was also thinking that without hands, are they even still wrists? Woah, dude

[@52Ford]

Now you just have to ask your smart watch and it will literally tell you what the time is...

[@NickBailuc]

@@Colddirector i think the no hands means without the minute and hour hand

[@Colddirector]

Nick r/wooosh

[@bargainboondocker3420]

I can't understand why it is that when someone retires they get a nice watch. For the first time in their life they don't care what time it is and NOW you give them a nice watch. Shouldn't they get that when they start the job? lol

[@liquidfabi]

I dont think he sold it himself, he's probably dead for a while if he retired in the 70s

[@RoadStuffUK]

They should get a nice pair of slippers.

[@nullset2]

that read like a joke right out of Seinfeld

[@GuitarMastr3000LP]

Watches are just Nice!

[@duffman18]

Bargain Boondocker Watches are more jewelery or fashion accessories than things specifically to tell the time, as you could always get cheaper watches that did the same thing. For a man to receive it as a gift it might be the most expensive accessory they have and potentially a family heirloom eventually. It's like when certain sports or universities or whatever give you a special ring, or when someone gives you nice cufflinks. They either have no purpose or there are cheaper things that do the same job, but that's not the point. It's function is secondary.

[@rogerking7258]

Boy, you've hit the nail right on the head. In 1975, for my 18th birthday, my parents said they would buy me a Rolex. But I said that I'd rather have one of the new fangled quartz watches (a Seiko with an analogue face) which was the same price. Six years later when it packed up I took it in for repair, but the shop said it wasn't worth it because the could sell me a similar new watch for £30. We really didn't realise in the 1970s that electronics were about to drop in price so drastically. I remember my parents buying a Grundig transistor radio and it cost a week's wages. Can't help wondering what the Rolex would be worth now.

[@fabiosemino2214]

The team went very far with waterproofing, the buttons aren't connected to the module with gaskets, they are actually cobalt magnets activating reed switches.

[@borayurt66]

That is a very good piece on information that got lost among the "dick" jokes...

[@drumsmoker731]

👍👌

[@ctrlaltcreate3827]

For some reason this comment made my day

[@novakane8722]

9:43 he say that.

[@Rainaman-]

So the whole thing is magnet operated? Cool

[@theprogressiveatheist7024]

So if Dick retired in 1974 at the age of 65 he'd be 109 years old in 2018. RIP, Dick.

[@Heidegaff]

R.I.P. He surely was a really impressive Dick.

[@testytest3083]

and its either his wife or kids sold the watch

[@ДимитријеКончар]

It's the first time i heard about this guy Dick but he was a Damn good man he fought in Vietnam and he will be missed

[@DownassMusic]

Why

[@garminbozia]

@@ДимитријеКончар he was kind of a dick and fought for the wrong side the whole time

[@45sguy68]

70's comedian Gallagher used to have a joke that went "Is it bad taste to give a digital watch to a one-armed man?" This only makes sense if you realize about the button-push for display.

[@dr666demento]

In the first or second season of Saturday Night Live they had a fake commercial for an LED watch. It had four buttons, two on each side. The joke was all four had to be pressed to display the time, three could be done by the wearer but the fourth had to have someone _else_ press it. At the end the voiceover said: ''The Whizbang... Like asking a stranger for the time''.

[@lordmikethegreat]

The author of The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglas Adams, made a lot of digital watch jokes. Form Wikipedia: Earth's population are described in the first novel as "so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea." When Arthur Dent temporarily loses his left arm as a consequence of the Infinite Improbability Drive, he panics upon realizing he can no longer operate his digital watch. Hyperintelligent pan-dimensional beings built the supercomputer Deep Thought in part to comprehend why people spend so much of their lives wearing digital watches. There is video of him discussing it here: kzbin.info/www/bejne/hmHOloiegs6NapY

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

You also need two hands to SET the time.

[@ramseysaiymeh3377]

And the award for dude who likes the worst comedy ever goes to

[@supersexyspacemonkey1977]

70s, 80s, and 90s comedian.

[@SSmith-fm9kg]

Thanks for the video, well done! When the P2 came out in 1973, it cost more than I was making in a month, in the USAF. I was dazzled with the introduction of the Hamilton LED, it was so cool. Last year I saw an eBay ad featuring a P2, and thought DAMN, I can afford one now! I have a P2 Tiffany & Co. that I worked on and got running, and a P3 gold filled. In the late 70s, I bought a Compuchron for about $12, just so I could have an LED watch, but it and all others had the LED bar segments. Now, with my P2, I check the time often, just to see the LED dot segments. And to think...it only took me 45 years to get a Pulsar. Next, I'm looking for a 1974 white Corvette coupe with saddle interior. Hmmm, I've waited for that for 45 years, too...

[@sshep86]

Plot twist, the guy's name wasn't 'Dick'. Turns out his colleagues didn't really like him.

[@ausintune9014]

why dont trhey jsut use richard. It's alot better then having "DICK" on your watch

[@nickm5419]

Dick=Detective.

[@Troph2]

James, i think it was a joke....Dumbass #woosh

[@davidsiler5505]

LOL

[@LIFE-dc5tn]

R/wooooooooosh

[@amyhelie6061]

5:35 he clicked on playboy. Lmao

[@clinteastwood657]

Keen eye there mate.

[@villeda7534]

😏😏

[@clinteastwood657]

@DF AMO Look, the playboy link is purple @ 5:35. That means the link has been clicked before boy. As men, we should always think sexual punk.

[@lexluthor2988]

Good eye

[@jezusmylord]

well it is a good magazine with good interviews and articles.

[@justicewarrior9187]

That first Hamilton Pulsar is a design masterpiece even for today's age!! Timeless design

[@Wanking_wanker]

“I don’t like expensive watches” **checks eBay** “$1000-10,000” Ah, cheap

[@misterman1371]

1000 isnt a lot for a watch

[@Wanking_wanker]

Max Tactical bruh, we are all not rich

[@misterman1371]

@@Wanking_wanker has nothing to do with being rich. Because someone can't afford a $15 Casio, doesn't make it expensive.

[@Wanking_wanker]

Max Tactical you can find luxury watches for $500 and $1000 is cheap for this watch, it’s a expensive watch

[@misterman1371]

@@Wanking_wanker $500 is not a luxury watch lol

[@electropunk42]

"This planet has, or had, a problem, which was this. Most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time. .... And so the problem remained, and lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches." Douglas Adams

[@steven3379]

electropunk42 great book by the way!

[@TheOldAmishMan]

Which book?

[@eggo5643]

@@TheOldAmishMan Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy!

[@nbhelenatashnbex5736]

Still, a pretty neat idea

[@KhoaNguyen-rk9dz]

LOL in the 21st century digital watches are for peasants :)

[@JimGroome]

That magnet system to set the time/date is absolutely genius

[@gordonlawrence4749]

A note on static discharge and electronics. Back in the 70's the die geometry was way larger (20 micron) compared to today (0.2 micron or sometimes smaller) so from that standpoint they were less sensitive. However the static protection circuitry on the chip pins amounted to - - - bugger all. Nothing what so ever - dilly squat - zip - nada and nothing. These days even CMOS (which used to blow up if you even thought about static electricity in the same room in the 70's) has built in Shottky's and all sorts that mean you stand a fair chance of the chip working if you poke it after shuffling across a nylon carpet then attach yourself to a van de graff generator for half an hour. Some of the MIL-STD human body models are in effect 2000V off about 30pF. That is a hell of a poke to something that makes a pin prick look like the marianis trench.

[@Hisham23633]

You should be working for the top secret department in the federal government.

[@TRAMP-oline]

That size of a .2 microns die shrink isn't correct anymore. CPUs are about to enter the Angstrom era, and they're currently around 20 to 8 NM. So add a 0 to his statement and he's closer, but right now commercial CPUs are about 180 nanometers smaller than .2 microns.

[@volvo09]

When I was a kid I had a LED watch that someone gave me with no band (in the late 80's) and I loved the display with all the teenie led dots.... So I hooked it up to 2 taped together "D" cell batteries and rigged the screen to stay lit somehow. It looked like a bomb and was no longer a watch... But I loved the display and it was my bed clock. I slept with it for quite a while.

[@crimson7151]

Wow nice

[@HANSIHANZEN]

That’s a neat story! I’m sure it was kool to see it when you woke up in the middle of the night.

[@HoennLink]

Try wearing that to school now...

[@ctrlaltcreate3827]

You just inspired an art piece I just want you to know that

[@Shadow77999]

Lol

[@LMacNeill]

Christmas of ‘78, my parents bought me a Texas Instrument LED watch. Very 1970s-looking with a silver stretch-band, black edges around the sides of the watch, a silver bezel, and black-looking display area (until you press the button and the LED lights up, of course). Looked like something a Star Wars StormTrooper would wear, which of course my 8-year-old self found fascinating at the time. LOL

[@eachandeverything9932]

I remember 1 Xmas back in the very early 190s. My mom & dad got me a credit card sized, musical Casio calculator. It was so awesome.

[@raksh9]

LMacNeill - Do you still have that watch?

[@anilrehmatullah7906]

u made it sound cool i want one

[@VolkswagenNut1969]

LMacNeill I think I got that same watch in Christmas of 1978 when I was also 8 years old. Funny to still remember it in such detail today. It really was a cool thing at the time. :)

[@MrJorgito89]

I didn't get a watch, I got a pen with digital clock on it! It was already early 80's , so I guess it was not that expenses, but for a kid like me, it was priceless...I was 11 in '81, but I do remember my father wearing a watch with red led displays...

[@eddiealston1233]

We enjoyed your 1970's LED Wristwatch Video. My wife Sherry, and I were most pleasantly surprised that you chose to include my custom-adjusted opening Wrench and my Batteries with homemade Spacers,(the good set !!). Great Video. Best Wishes, Eddie & Sherry Alston, England UK.

[@psycloneranger2279]

"dont rub a baloon on your head while youre doing it " lol

[@viriatvsoflvsitania5422]

Dick was a nice chap apparently. To the point of receiving a 2 grand watch as a gift from his mates :)

[@duffman18]

Viriatvs of Lvsitania The way it was phrased makes it sound more like he was a partner in a lawyer firm, rather than just mates

[@edgarlee2802]

I remember watching an episode of Happy Days with my family back in the mid seventies. I commented to my dad that Potsie (one of the characters) was wearing a digital watch. My dad took this as a hint that I wanted one for Christmas. I said I was pointing out the fact that they didn't have watches like that back in the fifties. I still got my first digital watch that Christmas though!

[@seanmaxwell3319]

Edgar Lee You should’ve just told him! Less risky lol

[@Bignewshound60]

Loved this. It was a real trip back into my childhood in the early 70s. I remember Ford having a pulsar but most of all Telly Savalas as Kojak has one. I saved up to get one from watches of Switzerland but could only raise 75 quid. The sales guy told me LED would never last as LCD could be seen in the sunshine. But then he told me an analogue quartz was the future. I bought a seiko SQ. loved it. Wore it for ten years until I forked out for my first Rolex Datejust. This was at the time Rolex was still making the vile oyster quartz. I still have my Datejust 40 years on. It was the start of my collection. I do remember pages of newspaper ads for LED watches. All for about 15 quid. This would have been in the mid 70s. We all had them. Texas Instruments did one. The seiko...? I gave to a friend who emigrated to New Zealand. He wore it until it 2011 when it vanished in the earthquake. Anyway. Thanks for the video. It brought back many memories.

[@Caledon91]

While I assume most people would devalue the watch for having the personalized engravings but to me that's what makes it more special. It's not a pristine museum piece, it was someone's personal watch with a history. Honestly I'm surprised Dick didn't consider passing the old watch down to a son or grandson. I have a lot of old possessions (mostly tools and tech) from my grandparents not just because I love old tech but because in a way having all these old things is kinda like a memorial to them.

[@FiXato]

Chances are it was one of his descendents who actually sold it, as it's unlikely he'd still be alive today if he'd retired in the seventies.

[@seanregan730]

I totally agree its strange how pristine examples that may have been shut in there case in a drawer somewhere for years are of great value. I wonder what a challenge it would be to research who Dick was and put a story to the watch. much more interesting that someone used this in day to day living. I think its nicer to have some history and provenance showing that the item actually wa used for what it was intended and stood the test of time .

[@mgscheue]

I agree, it gives it a bit of a mysterious back story.

[@michaelmartin9022]

If the office whip-round turned up the equivalent of $2000 I imagine he was working for a pretty big and successful company, and was probably pretty senior, if not CEO, when he left. That should narrow it down some. Would probably have been a pretty technological company, too, an older middle-aged guy who still appreciates new tech.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

That's part of why my dad bought the gold Swiss movement pocket watch he found at a pawn shop - it was dated and personalized, so even though it cost less it was more valuable to him.

[@save9624]

I never thought that LED or LCD watches had ever been luxury items! When I was a kid in the 80'/90' you can find them as gift in the washing machine detergent paks.

[@allieboy181]

Save yeah cheap ones

[@londonroulette]

What a great video. I’ve had in my memory from school around 1981/82 a kid who got a digital watch with the red display and he pressed it and I went ‘wow’ to this day I want to buy one

[@jon-paulfilkins7820]

For people confused why Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy made references to "people who thought digital watches are a really neat idea". This is the era Douglas Adams was writing the first book. And it got published just as the back lash was starting to happen, which made the reference twice as funny.

[@thomasschoemehl7403]

Jon-Paul Filkins Ok, now I finally understand his beef with digital watches, which i have always thought were a pretty neat idea.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

When I was a kid in the early 90's digital watches we're being very heavily marketed as trendy and cutting edge. Yet you could get a cheap one for about five bucks. Granted that's like 10 bucks today. Still, backlit LCD watches we're treated as the thing that would make you the talk of the play ground. I read the Hitchhiker's Guide series for the first time at around the age of 10 when super bright blue backlights were new and I STILL thought that joke was on point.

[@bobdole4694]

@@OtakuUnitedStudio Everyone I knew wanted a Timex of some description with Indiglo. To be fair; it was a fairly decent backlighting system at a time when most were lacklusture.

[@OtakuUnitedStudio]

@@bobdole4694 most of the "backlights" on watches before Indiglo were tiny, impotent LEDs that were neither bright not well positioned. Indiglo was like the first actual backlight.

[@paulnash9851]

I love Techmoan. I hope he never retires, I mean, what could you buy him ???

[@Redskies453]

How about an eReader comprised entirely of nixie tubes?

[@harrylane4]

@@Redskies453 he's probably got one already, let's be honest

[@presterjohn71]

This video has slightly annoyed me. My Dad had one of those in the mid 70;s back when he was telling the courts he could not afford to pay any more maintenance for my sister and I. Cheap sod.

[@ataru4]

His name was either Dick or he was a dick

[@UnitSe7en]

Obviously he was telling the truth; He spent it all on the watch.

[@spiff2268]

Dammit, that was gonna be my joke. You beat me to it.

[@Leroset]

presterjohn71 But look at your pic! You have become everything he was not--a kind and caring father! And his watch deteriorated in value quickly, so he lost doubly on that one!

[@jon-paulfilkins7820]

Yes, Maintenance = child support.

[@stumulne9542]

My first digital was a $55-ish clone of that Pulsar. No magnets, though - nearly waterproof buttons.... Besides the cool factor, it was handy to check the time in a dark theater if the wife/girlfriend dragged you to something dull. Mostly stuck with digitals, although almost always LCD, since then. I once got a digital watch from my boss - he'd purchased a bunch of 'em for about $20 apiece, and I happened to have the programming info for the chip used to build the watch. "Here, Stu. You figure out how to set it, and you can have one. Just set mine, too!" It worked for years.... I also had a low-end Accutron, back in the 70's. College graduation gift: "If you don't graduate, we're taking it back!" I really liked the accuracy (as are many of the LCD and LED watches). Bulky, though, but since I had the cheap one.... [grin].

[@billmyke746]

Beware the ' Techmoan effect. buy one NOW kids.

[@CassandraCarter]

It's been a couple hours, already too late.

[@volvo09]

Too late

[@numbers9to0]

The kids watching Teachmoan are 40+. :)

[@wocereW]

It's been too late for quite a while. I've been repairing non-working LED watches purchased on ebay for a few years, and even those fetch ridiculous prices.

[@mzaphod64]

Would any of you guys give $1000+ more for this? It's certainly "attractive" but to me attractiveness in these retro vintage ones lies in retro, classy, and their low price. In that order I believe.. What I'm saying is that attractiveness is in Wearing cheap too!

[@Jerrycourtney]

It’s 10:45 PM. I have to be awake at *4:00 AM.* I just watched a 15/min video on some obscure retro watch _for no apparent reason._

[@Fabformcatering]

I’m convinced it’s a form of mind control.....but in a good way.

[@elifoust7664]

Digital clock radio..1971...little number flaps drop every min.......loved it.

[@VirtualLunacy]

I had one from when I was a kid... It died after about 40 years.

[@fidelcatsro6948]

like a baseball scoreboard hahahaha

[@hsas2047]

Ahhh, there's nothing better than a bit of Techmoan in the morning. I almost spilled my coffee at 8:38 when he said: "I suppose it's best not to rub a balloon on your head while you are doing it." His humour is amongst KZbin's finest.

[@SuperSmashDolls]

The fact that the watch is so eager to turn off immediately to save battery reminds me of the Apple Watch's similarly aggressive display timeout

[@KatSpicert]

It's come full circle. only this time the analog is digital too.

[@inshadowz]

Ah! My own first digital watch was a Pulsar, a 13th birthday prezzy from mom and dad, albeit a far cheaper, less classic and, at least by 1982 standards, more modern LCD one. Never gave the brand name much thought, then or later. Most of my contemporaries had fancy Casio things with calculators and such. Mind you … it may still be rattling around in a drawer somewhere. May have to dig it up and take it out for a bit of a nostalgic trip :)

[@roderickwhitehead]

I remember when I was a kid in the late 70s being given a Star Wars digital watch. No idea what happened to it, but I remember how elite it was having a digital LED watch.

[@pauljones3017]

This one? kzbin.info/www/bejne/eIaQkn2nrcuLgqs

[@steven3379]

Great video, I purchased my P2 stainless steel version for 395.00 back in 73, I still have it and it still works fine! Thanks for the the video! PS, I was 19 and working at McDonald's! PS, I lost the magnet but I use a small pencil eraser sized magnet to set it...

[@Quigsworth1]

While James Bond has worn Rolex's, his iconic watch of choice was the Omega Seamaster.

[@jacksonfilm]

Rolex never paid to be used in the Bond movies, unlike Omega and every other watch brand featured over the years.

[@seb3311]

just found my forgotten Pulsar P3 which i bought about 7 years ago yesterday in a box in the cellar... now i find this video which also made me check on prices for the P3 ...I`ll open a beer now and celebrate, cheers!

[@MichaelSteeves]

I lusted after one of those in the '70s. Now I wear a Seiko 5 and get the reaction "wow, they can do all that mechanically! Amazing!"

[@orsoncart4327]

The magnet setting was to help make it waterproof, the buttons on the P3 (Date Command) are sealed with magnets inside them that activate reed switches on the inside.

[@drohegda]

Techmoan LEDs sales really started taking off when the TV series ""Kojak"" was on in the early 70s and he had on a certain model. I remember that years Christmas In the USA everyone wanted one. Actor Telly Salvalas played police lieutenant Theo Kojak in NYC, it was a police drama,Everybody use to watch it, it was #1. Look on KZbin for old shows. Thanks for the video my Friend.

[@mjh5437]

Kojak was great...."Who loves ya baby?....Book him Crocker!!"

[@aristideau5072]

I started collecting Pulsar's ever since one day when I fortuitously noticed what I thought was a Fossil P2 copy on the wrist of a beggar that asked me for $2. It looked pristine, but on closer inspection it was a mint P2 because it had only one button instead of the 2 buttons on the Fossil reissue. I asked him what he wanted for the watch and he said "depends on what you are asking" and I thought that he must be aware of the watch's $500 value and when I timidly offered $50 he could not get it of his wrist fast enough. Ever since then I have collected pretty much every Pulsar mens model (including a NOS boxed greenie) plus several other interesting LED's and first generation LCD's including a Omega Speedmaster LCD that I scored for $80 at a pawn shop. Collecting these is relatively cheap and very rewarding on account that they were very groundbreaking for the 3-4 years in the early-mid seventies.

[@Stijn081]

Better Call Saul is set in the early 2000's.

[@maxmustermann1455]

not the entire series. I actually don't noticed the watch when I saw the series, but there were definitely some flashbacks to his "slipping jimmy" times.

[@UsernameThomaSS]

Stijn Stevens So?

[@AlTheJuggernaut]

It's 2018, so why do watches from the 70s exist? Checkmate, atheists.

[@Stijn081]

UsernameThomaSS So nothing. Just a correction. No ill intents here.

[@exiles_dot_tv]

Slipping Jimmy wasn't set in the 1970s though. Saul would've been a kid in that decade, not a grown businessman buying expensive digital watches.

[@gregwolking]

I had a Texas Instruments LED watch when I was in high school (1975-77). That thing ate batteries like you wouldn't believe, even if you *weren't* always mashing the button to light it up. I think they lasted maybe a month or so at most. Biggest problem was that they died *quick* with no warning (no lithium batteries or ultra-low-power CMOS chips back then!) so the only way you knew they were dead was when it just didn't light up. ;)Oh, and yes, the TI watch was so relatively cheap mainly because it only used single-segment LEDs and only had a plastic (not waterproof) case.

[@JohnnyParanoid]

I've got 16 watches. Mixed bag of digital, mechanical (automatic and hand-wind) and a couple quartz mechanical. I didn't pay more than $300 for any of them and most were purchased new. I love luxury watches but not in my price range or really applicable for my lifestyle anyhow. I'm always on the look out for one of these Pulsars. They're a really cool part of horological history. Thanks, as always! Cheers!

[@lisocampos8080]

I appreciate your sense of humor. That's why i subscribed.

[@mortensentim511]

Does anyone know roughly the size of the LED dots? It would be interesting to see if modern SMDs are small enough to replicate it.

[@dianaramirezjara9659]

Some of these time telling items are truly timeless.

[@LordZarano]

And now we have pocket computers with always-on O-LED displays showing us the time. Time set by synchronising with a worldwide telecommunications network.

[@palibakufun]

Don't forget the rise of smart watches, too. My Galaxy watch can make a phone call and send a text, is waterproof, has thousands of different watch themes, and all manner of things. And it's a lot cheaper comparatively to the LED watches in the 70's. Cool stuff.

[@JoeLinnMN]

I had a friend who bought a Pulsar watch when they first came out. It was very impressive at the time. He also bought a Pong (first home video game) when it first came out. It was another marvel at the time.

[@Balc0ra]

I have two modern LED watches from Tokyo watch. One with numbers, one is more of a dot math based system. And I've used the last one more then the first. And handing it over to the jewelry store here that does battery changes on watches. They always ask if they should adjust the time for me to. And I always say yes. But every time I get it back with them saying " we had no clue what the display said" :P Thus it's unusual. Thus why I like it. It always caches a few eyes when I use it.

[@DrewHerrema]

Do you mean Tokyo Flash?

[@RCAvhstape]

Is that the one they were selling on ThinkGeek a while back?

[@Balc0ra]

They had many names over the years. But yeah, It's Tokoy Flash. And I know they have sold a few variants of them on ThinkGeek. But not the two I have.

[@iflick7235]

I was a boy when this watch appeared. It was a brief phenomena. Buyers were stunned when they realized you couldn't read the time in sunlight. And yes, they cost a small fortune. They are still to be found in sock drawers everywhere.

[@TheSpeedygift]

Hi I was bought an LCD watch in 1976 for my 21st birthday for £99 which putting it through the inflation calculator gives £691

[@Colddirector]

damn, I bought the casio f91w on my wrist for 20 bucks, which would be even less in USD, let alone adjusting for inflation lol.

[@stevetaylor8446]

1977 I had my first Time LED watch...loved it and have been searching for one ever since. Large LED display and easy to see...handy now as I get older and my vision is fading. Great video yet again...keep up the good work

[@TheRealColBosch]

"Mr. Bond, we're going to need to talk about your expense accounts."

[@MrWeAllAreOne]

I am 51 and remember my first led watch,Texas Instruments,with great affection. It honestly felt so high tech back then.

[@R33Racer]

*13:37* I like it.

[@ravisriram6746]

Yep. Still have my silver Texas Instruments LED digital watch from the '70's. For those of us who grew up in that era this was cutting-edge technology. Having been used to analog watches and clocks we found digital readouts new and exciting.

[@georgestewart5879]

Great video, only down side no puppets .

[@FiXato]

George Stewart needs more childish unfunny puppetry indeed :)

[@totih144]

Same story here, need more comedy

[@MrJ0mmy]

:( he needs to bring them back

[@LMacNeill]

Indeed - been awhile since we’ve had some of those childish unfunny puppets. I miss them.

[@billrowse2266]

That's an upside

[@esa062]

That was an intersting era in the history of timekeeping. It is hard to understand today, what a huge thing digital watch was, and how big improvement LCD was. And then in a few more years it had to be a quartz watch with hands, and now it's mechanical again. I think you are right, LED watches are getting a renaissance. Also, today's smart watches are similar in that they can't show time continuously.

[@pedalcarguy]

Sir, you really have the knack of presenting obsolete products in a way that makes me really really REALLY want them. Thanks a lot! Keep it coming! 😂😂😂

[@verycarla67]

my uncle had one of these. i don't remember who made it. i should ask him if he still has it, because i thought it was the coolest thing i'd ever seen when i was a kid. thanks for the trip down memory lane! :)

[@elifoust7664]

Bought a cheap version in 1976,K-Mart... took it to" war "in Korea,Got wet.......died.

[@g.hanson9636]

RIP Eli Foust.😥

[@edmund8954]

wait how much is it???

[@virgenfj]

Wow. This a novel. Thanks for your service

[@thersten]

You got wet and died. That's so sad.

[@Enetso]

Did you serve in the demilitarised zone or something? The Korean War ended in 1951 so I'm slightly confused.

[@mattsmith9024]

Today when I got into my big rig I decided to put on an audiobook to pass the time. I felt that a good re-read of Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy was in order. All those references to digital watches! And now, here we are!

[@Magicmushroomboi]

2019 hop on that OLED watch flex 😂😂

[@mar4kl]

My father, who loves gadgets to this day, was very proud of his Bulova Accutron watch, which my mother gave him for their wedding in 1962. Still, I remember him talking out how much more accurate new quartz watches were, starting from the early 1970s. However, as noted in your video, the prices of those early quartz watches was well above and beyond what he could justify spending, so I didn't actually see a digital watch until 1975, when one of my cousins received one as a bar mitzvah present. I don't know what brand that watch was, but I seem to recall that the price of a LED digital quartz watch had dropped to a "mere" $175, which was still a very generous present, indeed. That's when I learned the other reason my father wasn't willing to go buy one for himself: he was a doctor, and often consulted his watch's second hand when taking patients' pulses, and the 2 seconds that the LED display was active after the button was pushed wasn't enough time to take a pulse. My cousin didn't have that watch very long, anyway, or at least stopped wearing it soon after he got it. He never managed to wrap his mind around its pushbutton controls. The buttons were either unmarked or very vaguely marked, so he would accidentally press the mode change button when he was just trying to display the time, and then couldn't remember how to change the display back to regular time mode. I also seem to recall that the time set button, despite being designed to be pressed with the tip of a pen, was not recessed enough and often got hit during the sorts of activities that 13-year-old boys typically engage in. That would cause strange things to appear on the display. (Remember, this was 1975, when calculators were still new to a lot of people, and a display like "12P" on the watch's 8-section LEDs just looked like nonsense to us.) The display would also stay lit in when in set mode, which would run the battery down rapidly. And, since the mode change button stymied him, you can imagine that the set mode utterly baffled him, so whenever this would happen, he thought the watch was broken. I don't know if the watch actually broke or its battery ran down and he decided not to bother having it replaced, but the next time he saw him (we lived about 6-1/2 hours apart by car), he was wearing a mechanical "digital" watch, which used a pair of wheels with numbers printed on them and displayed the time through a couple of windows.

[@wojciechtechtips1602]

In a few years, Techmoan will review the New old Stock Pebble Time ;)

[@skeggjoldgunnr3167]

Wristwatch nerds respect and love this. Mainly because the quality and attention to detail and forethought and toughness for the price are the best. The marker of technology is unequalled.

[@BuildItnow]

is techmoan 1337!!

[@MarioManTV]

Build It Americans would say that he's 137. PM.

[@lazycalm41]

Another enjoyable trip down memory lane Techmoan! I remember 1 of my school friends getting an early 'Trafalgar' LED watch around 1975 ish, he was the coolest boy at my school & we all yearned to have LED watches, which in time pretty much all my school mates did! however as you say the batteries literally drained down before our eyes & before long all the school kids had LCD watches. Mine was an early 'Ingersol' But my mate still held his LED 'Trafalgar' sacred. I bet he wishes he still had it now ( I know I do)

[@The-Nil-By-Mouth]

Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

[@MrToradragon]

Hitchhiker's Guide to Galaxy. Am I right? :D

[@thenexthobby]

Mine was a gold Armitron sometime in the mid-late '70s. A Christmas gift, and my first wristwatch. At first, I kept pressing the button like any kid today that can't peel their eyes away from a smartphone ... to the extent I distinctly remember an adult mentioning it to me at the time. After the battery died a few times it become lost to the sock drawer and beyond. A Timex Easy Reader (or equivalent) replaced it for many years. Never had an LCD until very recently.

[@Zizzily]

The inscription is kind of depressing. Makes me think Dick either died or hit on hard enough times that he had to sell his retirement watch. Unless he worked at a job long enough to get a nice retirement gift but actually hated the job, which sounds pretty miserable.

[@allieboy181]

Zzyzx Wolfe well if he retired in 1974 he was probably already died in the 90’s or early 2000’s

[@KRW628]

I paid about $350 for my Pulsar Exec (auto command) in 1977. It sat in the watch box for 37 years until I found out they were making batteries for it again. It's working beautifully.

[@mdproductionslimited700]

My Dad bought one for $40 in the 70’s. I thought that was outrageous. A few years later you could get them in gum ball machines for a quarter.

[@chopin65]

I love your videos. My dad had one of these. I found it in a box after my mother passed away. Great video.

[@royd5154]

Would be cool if u tracked him/family down and give them it

[@edmund8954]

Dick probably sold it to him or something.

[@jakedelmastro]

Really blown away by the circuit boards in there, they look just like modern surface mount boards! I've never seen anything from that era that looked so "modern"

[@dawicked2k8]

Jake S. Del Mastro Mandela effect bro

[@mk-eb7xw]

@7:52, that is actually a modern replacement board to fit in your old Pulsar case if the original works are bad.

[@aremedyproject9569]

I’ve got An old LED calculator.

[@ednammansfield8553]

I remember a school friend of mine getting one back in the 1960's and they were very expensive to buy in the UK so not many had them. LCD watches drove the prices down and made them more affordable and also had a better battery life. The introduction of brands like Casio made them more affordable still and are incredible value even today with many having a 10 year battery life and great water resistance which the early watches didn't have.

[@Shock_Treatment]

The first Pulsar didn't even come out until 1971.

[@crestasboy]

I remember having a six million dolla man led watch and would love to have one again

[@pascaldorland]

Totally dig playing under the sheets with your watch..! I can remember turning on the light of my lcd watch and mesmerize by it.. Wish I still had it..a gift from my uncle..

[@iMadrid11]

If you think about it. The price of the Apple Watch ⌚️ isn’t as ridiculous today compared to early LED watches.

[@martinhowser4094]

Chris Bautista : yeah, but the chance of an Apple Watch being usable in 5 years, let alone 40, are very slim

[@deonisp]

Apple watch is not using the CUTTING EDGE technology of the time. It would have to be something with nano technology or living neurons to be comparable :)

[@Colddirector]

The battery life is so much worse though and it probably wont be usable in 40 years.

Love Apple, have the whole iPhone and MacBook shizzle but the Apple Watch is merely a toy, not a timepiece.

[@Colddirector]

Kevin S Admittedly the ability to send and recieve calls & text on a watch is attractive, but it's far outweighed by the battery life.

[@Starclimber]

Thanks, that was very entertaining. I wonder if you could find one of the ancient early calculators that had a stack of neon tubes to display each number? I tell people this now and they give me a look that suggests no such thing has ever existed. Unrelated but also pretty fun was a bike computer/watch I owned in the early 80's, fairly certain it was a Timex, that you could strap to a wired mount on the handlebars of your bike and record your distance and speed etc. This device went a bit berserk after a while, and started making a bizarre combo whirring/grinding noise on my bike one day, causing me to look around nervously for the source of the sound. Once I realized it was actually the watch, I saw the display was oscillating between 2 hundredths of a second endlessly, and never advancing full seconds. Sadly, it died shortly thereafter, a death I attributed to my salty perspiration shorting out the contacts on the mounts, or perhaps within the device itself.

[@Techmoan]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/oWWckIN9aqiId80

[@duartefilipepereiraneves6933]

I'm wearing a LED watch. It's o OLED watch to be more precise (Xiaomi Mi Band 2) I think we can say that LED watches are coming back

[@markky3050]

Eh, sort of. Oled is technically a different technology to led. Think of it as Led V2.

[@bobgrob4]

my dad had that pulsar that you could flick your wrist to activate the display - ran through batteries like crazy.

[@Mr._Sandman]

What a Dick move of him to let go of such a precious keepsake...

[@555RavenCrow]

Dick's dead, dude...

[@workonesabs]

If Dick retired in the 70's, say being aged 60, he would've been over a 100 by now. We can assume that the chap has passed on, probably in the late 90's, early 2000's.

[@ivanrlynn]

After garnering all that warm friendship too...

[@floobertuber]

Life is a terminal condition. Nobody gets out alive. Just ask Dick! R.I.P. DICK! Born ~1910, Died: ??? (sometime after January 1975).

[@floobertuber]

PS. I know you're almost certainly dead... but if it makes you feel any better, your watch still works!

[@WraythesPlace]

Your description about being in bed under the sheets looking at your Texas Instruments watch in the 70's caused a flood of memories for me. I used to do the exact same thing back then! I bet we even had the same model TI watch to!

[@87percentsure]

“He got picked on, because he had LED watch when everyone else had LCD…” And here I sit and watch this video with my beloved 2 button LED watch…

[@mbp1646]

Two years later and the price of those gold filled Pulsar P3s has gone up to between £200 and €300 on Ebay UK. I think you may have started a revival with this video Matt.

[@Christopher-N]

Digital watches really were _"a pretty neat idea."_

[@uphilliceskater]

Christopher Noel - Hitchhiker's Guide?

[@stargazer1359]

Thanks Buddy..You always make me miss the 'Olden Days' of my youth...

[@thetaleteller4692]

In other words: The iWatch of its time, an overpriced technical toy with bad battery live used to basically just to show the time.

[@jon-paulfilkins7820]

True, and some models like the Samsung Galaxy 7's, had an explosive reputation (linked to the battery tech).

[@harrylane4]

@@jon-paulfilkins7820 Galaxy note 7 isn't a watch...

[@DeadPalooza]

@@jon-paulfilkins7820 oh, is that a watch?

[@16mmDJ]

That note on the back of the watch makes it very special. Nice find

[@lxPhilxl]

"Thanks for watching". I see what you did there.

[@robstammers7149]

omg, I use to sell these when I worked for a well respected High Street jewellers, brilliant video, thanks, customers were constantly bringing them back for battery replacement!!

[@Steve080501]

Dick What a great name

[@duffman18]

Steve080501 Yep, even King's were called Richard. It's a good solid name

[@sshep86]

In UK, it's short for 'wanker'. ;)

[@johnfrancisdoe1563]

Steve Sheppard Really, I though it was short of the wanking bit.

[@SeliJue]

I buy me a LED watch a couple of years ago from an English LED watch shop who is still existing. Thanks for the video, I watch them all :-)

[@macartm]

Aww. No puppets :)

[@mikepapahotel]

WOW - talk about memory lane! I bought one of those back in mid-1975 from Debenhams in Bradford and wore it until I came to Australia about a year later - when it stopped working. I was pretty broke back then so I couldn't afford much, and given your comment about the price collapse - if I could afford one they must have collapsed a long way by the time I bought it. As you also mentioned - I had the mickey taken by friends and family - and it got worse after I arrived in Perth Western Australia in May '76 - mind you it's hardly surprising - back then Perth was little more than a big country town so heaven knows what they thought of the high-tech city slicker Pom! Thanks for the memories... :)