Does anyone remember or have a Sinclair Black Watch??

[davide]

I was thinking about the first digital watches that I recall appearing in the seventies and remembered the Black Watch by Clive Sinclair. I Googled it and found the link below.

http://www.ledwatches.net/articles/plan ... kwatch.htm

I'd forgotten what a fiasco the whole thing was - I wonder if anyone has one and whether, perhaps unlikely, any still work?

[xpatUSA]

I was thinking about the first digital watches that I recall appearing in the seventies and remembered the Black Watch by Clive Sinclair. I Googled it and found the link below.

http://www.ledwatches.net/articles/plan ... kwatch.htm

I'd forgotten what a fiasco the whole thing was - I wonder if anyone has one and whether, perhaps unlikely, any still work?

Coincidentally, I mentioned the same watch here about 1/2-way down and posted a pic.

cheers,

Ted

[Mike K]

I remember it - always advertised in Popular Science and Popular Electronics magazines. I was in grade school at the time. Boy do I feel old. :(

[xpatUSA]

I remember it - always advertised in Popular Science and Popular Electronics magazines. I was in grade school at the time. Boy do I feel old. :(

Mike,

Don't feel bad, dude.

I had already done 12 years in the military and 2 years in my first real job. I am old! :wink:

Ted

[Gruntfuttock]

Hi,

yes, I remember it along with every other one of Sinclair's early products. My Dad was a TV Engineer and got most of the electronics mags in circulation at the time (Practical Electronics, ETI, Television, and now and again, Wireless World). I used to read all of these (guess which career I chose!) and they were full of adverts for Sinclair products. As well as the watch, I remember the matchbox amplifier, and a tiny radio and of course the first calculator. I'm sure there were others but I haven't had a look through those old mags in 25-30 years. I don't doubt that my Dad still has them piled up in the loft somewhere!
The watch was indeed a fiasco, as with many of Sinclair's early products. I remember reading a review of the kit version in one of the electronics mags. I'm sure they said it was extremely difficult to assemble. and very hard to get the case closed.

[tudormic]

A friend of mine has a Sinclair electric ??, A electric, um, um, a electric something... :D (between a car and a bike.) at least you can sit on it.

[johnbaz]

a SINCLAIR C5??

john :)

[sundial]

In 1973/74 Clive Sinclair was selling pocket calculators in DIY KIT form for £5 each ... that is approx £30 to £35 in today's values ... and they sold ... but from memory they were not so reliable. And I recall walking down the Edgware Road and looking at his HiFi and Radio kits for sale in the electronic shops ... back in the bad old days when entry level HiFi comprised the ubiquitous Garrard SP25 turntable and various really budget price amps and speakers making for an awful sounding HiFi/Stereo for approx £100 ... which in today's values would be £300 to £350 ...

We have come a long way since then ... for the better in most cases.

Duncan

[tudormic]

Yes indeed a C5




:D :D

[inspector gadget]

Yes indeed a C5




:D :D

I think the real cause of its failure was the thought of the Scania 32 tonne truck passing you at 70 mph or so.....

[xpatUSA]

In 1973/74 Clive Sinclair was selling pocket calculators in DIY KIT form for £5 each ... that is approx £30 to £35 in today's values ... and they sold ... but from memory they were not so reliable.
Duncan

I bought one, put it together - it did work BUT it was a "scientific" calculator. To good 'ole Clive, "scientific" meant no functions and everything entered in 5-digit exponent form ** and calculated in RPN *** (reverse polish notation).

** for example 4.5678 = you went 4 5 6 7 8 E -4 or something loony like that.

*** for example to add 3 plus (4 divided by 5) you went 4 ENTER 5 ENTER <divide key> 3 ENTER <plus key> :shock: or something equally arcane.

Then good old Commodore came out with the CBM36 and Clive's toy went straight into the trash!

Ted

[abraxas]

.
I remember them but as they had to be assembled I just couldn't keep the interest. I remember buying my first LED for £30 ... god, I am glad I got over my quartz mania. I once had a Casio calculator watch with a 'shooting numbers' game that I loved.

john

[Neil.C]

I've seen a couple of black watches at boot sales (not working) What are they fetching nowadays?

My uncle has an original Sinclair mini TV that hangs around your neck on a strap so you can watch it. :lol:

[Griswold]

I still have my Sinclair Cambridge Programmable Calculator plus the four program manuals that went with it. :) Great calculator, even wrote a few programs for it myself. :) :) Only problem was that when you switced it off the program was lost and had to be fully re-entered the next time you wanted to use it. :( Oh, and the Littlewoods Pools Forecaster I wrote for it didn't win me any money either. :cry: :cry:

[rfrazier]

In 1973/74 Clive Sinclair was selling pocket calculators in DIY KIT form for £5 each ... that is approx £30 to £35 in today's values ... and they sold ... but from memory they were not so reliable.
Duncan

I bought one, put it together - it did work BUT it was a "scientific" calculator. To good 'ole Clive, "scientific" meant no functions and everything entered in 5-digit exponent form ** and calculated in RPN *** (reverse polish notation).

** for example 4.5678 = you went 4 5 6 7 8 E -4 or something loony like that.

*** for example to add 3 plus (4 divided by 5) you went 4 ENTER 5 ENTER <divide key> 3 ENTER <plus key> :shock: or something equally arcane.

Then good old Commodore came out with the CBM36 and Clive's toy went straight into the trash!

Ted

I still have and use a HP10 calculator. It and the computer calculator I currently use both use RPN. That's how numbers were meant to be entered. Funny thing is, a couple of logics (first order predicate calculus) with which I'm familiar use the equivalent of RPN (postfix) and they've never caught on.

Best wishes,
Bob

[sundial]

:( Oh, and the Littlewoods Pools Forecaster I wrote for it didn't win me any money either. :cry: :cry:

A statistitician/actuary colleague who once worked for Zetters told me that the best way to 'forecast ' football pools 'draw' results is to close your eyes and do them with a pin.

Duncan

[Griswold]

:( Oh, and the Littlewoods Pools Forecaster I wrote for it didn't win me any money either. :cry: :cry:

A statistitician/actuary colleague who once worked for Zetters told me that the best way to 'forecast ' football pools 'draw' results is to close your eyes and do them with a pin.

Duncan

That's prety much what my program did Duncan, only electronically. :lol: :lol: :lol:

[VA]

I still have the ZX Spectrum, in a very good condition, that my parents got me as a present ages ago.

Ahhh the good old days of learning how to draw circles and squares on a ZX.

:)


VA

[Gruntfuttock]

I was thinking about the first digital watches that I recall appearing in the seventies and remembered the Black Watch by Clive Sinclair. I Googled it and found the link below.

http://www.ledwatches.net/articles/plan ... kwatch.htm

I'd forgotten what a fiasco the whole thing was - I wonder if anyone has one and whether, perhaps unlikely, any still work?

Many thanks for the link. I've spent a good while on a trip down memory lane looking at some of those Sinclair products. The most recent Sinclair product that interested me was the 'Zike' battery assisted bicycle. I remember seeing some publicity for it at the launch, but as with many of Sinclair's products, production dates were not forthcoming and I never saw it advertised on sale. I just assumed it was yet another failure; not far wrong really!

[Crusader]

I still have the ZX Spectrum, in a very good condition, that my parents got me as a present ages ago.

Ahhh the good old days of learning how to draw circles and squares on a ZX.

I had no idea the Zeno Explorer was so venerable, or so versatile. :P :wink:

[VA]

I still have the ZX Spectrum, in a very good condition, that my parents got me as a present ages ago.

Ahhh the good old days of learning how to draw circles and squares on a ZX.

I had no idea the Zeno Explorer was so venerable, or so versatile. :P :wink:

:D :D :D :D


VA

[Pavel]

I still have the ZX Spectrum, in a very good condition, that my parents got me as a present ages ago.

Ahhh the good old days of learning how to draw circles and squares on a ZX.

:)


VA

ZX Spectrum was tremendously successful in Czechoslovakia in the 1980's. Lots of people had it via grey imports. It was never officially retailed.

It was not only useful as a computer, but also as a proof that the communist economy was going down the tubes. Programming in the Z80 assembly alnguage almost had a flavour of an antiregime activity.

[VA]

I still have the ZX Spectrum, in a very good condition, that my parents got me as a present ages ago.

Ahhh the good old days of learning how to draw circles and squares on a ZX.

:)


VA

ZX Spectrum was tremendously successful in Czechoslovakia in the 1980's. Lots of people had it via grey imports. It was never officially retailed.

It was not only useful as a computer, but also as a proof that the communist economy was going down the tubes. Programming in the Z80 assembly alnguage almost had a flavour of an antiregime activity.

Interesting! I, on the other hand, the only regime that I was anti it was my parent's! :roll:


VA

[abraxas]

..............

I had no idea the Zeno Explorer was so venerable, or so versatile. :P :wink:

I understand it can also be used as a high velocity projectile. :P

john