Search:

Thanks! Much appreciated

On its way! The weight and sheer heft of the thing is quite impressive but as a wearer of vintage watches and quartz beaters I've become used to smaller, lighter things on my wrist. (I did have one...

There main thing is that you like the Super Astral. Heck, there are some all-English Smiths watches that I'm not keen on (mostly the gold-plated 1960's Imperials and Nationals).

One difference...

No, all (or at least many) have the same caseback marking but the Smiths Astral's don't have a number (presumably a serial) on them. Also, I've never seen any Smiths Industry adverts or info that...

The case is a generic one used by a lot of small brands in the late '60s

https://forum.tz-uk.com/showthread.php?278922-The-Same-Case-Precista-1982-Smiths-quot-Astral-quot-Seiko-62MAS
...

I think that Astral ("Super Astral") is a French marque and not the Smiths' one, but I may be wrong about that.

See e.g. here
...

It seems Smiths used this case/bracelet combo on less exotic offerings (albeit with one crown rather than two)

A couple on ebay at the moment (don't all rush to buy them ha ha)
...

Ah, yes, the infamous "No Bell" prize for physics

It flew like a bird from the tweezers' mandibles and pinged twice on the hard floor.

A sweep with a strong magnet failed to produce anything.

so . . . . I have reached out to the Mighty John...

Umm, yeah, about that.

Are they special screws, unique to the Quasar?

Suppose someone had lost one . . . I mean, hypothetically.

Thanks John.

Is it just me or does the stepper motor move in time to the Michael Jackson beat?

Q for Quasar and Quincy Jones.

I am now the proud owner of a Quasar!

But I’ve yet to fit a battery as the screw that fixes the retainer / contact is very small and I am very clumsy!

I might have a look at my tweezer and...

Yes, I think those watches used bought-in modules / movements are are nothing special

From the mwr thread:


- it is a one second jump with a merry little bounce (a mechanically poor design)
- it needs to be set by TIM on the second pip, not third as there is a one second delay
-...

I think they tick once per second

I assumed the gold colour was Smiths "epsilon" gilt finish as used from the late 1940s onwards. I might be wrong. You think otherwise?

Just posted a link to this thread over at the Smiths sub-forum of mwr, which may bring in some more information.

I do like the gilding and rubies combined with slightly Heath Robinson engineering...

Thanks John & Matt: I really appreciate your knowledge and input here!

(And thanks for the photos John: more Smiths porn for my personal collection . . . . .)

Well, this is turning into quite...

Thanks!

So the quartz vibrates really fast (due to an electrical current?) and that super fast buzzing is halved and halved and halved and so on until you have a usable "pulse" at so many beats...

Unfortunately (due to the fact the I didn't really go to school in any normal sense of the word combined with my very own -- and vast -- stupidity; I'm not sure any school could have made much of...

All material copyright BHI / HJ


https://i.imgur.com/hBy0rrA.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/SCg9eFW.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/DeJb62h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/g43s5af.jpg

OK! I've got the relevent issues of HJ from 1974 -- will post scans later

May I suggest we start a new thread either over at Watch Talk OR (better) at the specialist Smiths subforum on mwr?
...

OK! I'll pull what I have together. I'm also really hoping to be able to interview an ex-Smiths employee who worked on the Q project

Cheers!

Thanks Matt. I think there's scope for a proper article about these watches. Some wider history and how that relates to the particulars of the story of Smiths plus a a tear-down and technical...

BTW, I know very little about quartz watches.

I understand that 14 jewels is a lot for a quartz but have no idea about the 1.5MHz thing. Is that "high frequency"? I'm guessing it's probably...