1975 Elektronika 1st Soviet Digital Watch

[SASM]

Again. great Pictures and very interesting stuff. What I like most is the Information about the soviet watches. This is an important argument to keep the forum running so that the Information isn´t lost forever.

[dutchsiberia]

Hearhear!!

[Andrew Babanin]

A new one in the collection. Number 15798 of 30+ thousands produced on this caliber. The end of 1975, still in the good shape

[Kasper]

i really love the simplicity in this design..very nice one.

[Andrew Babanin]

A small collection of earliest serial soviet Elektronika watches on traditional field effect LCD displays. Years of production November 1974 - March 1976. Approx 40000 timepieces were produced.

[Adam]

I like the top right watch. Just a little different to the rest!. Great collection Andrew.

Adam

[Andrew Babanin]

One more soviet early LCD watch for foreign market is in my collection. There's no any name, only QUARTZ on the plastic glass. Sometimes you can find it as Meister Anker. The module was produced in May 76, design is common for more early model with smaller LCD. The watch came to me from Germany, fully complete with original parts. After changing diodes it started with perfect accuracy.

[Andrew Babanin]

just a few different types of cases of Elektronica 3049 I had found in 3 years. The difference in style of case, color (Chrome, Gold) and manner of finishing (shiny, Satin brush, combination). The left model and the first in the bottom row are made of stainless steel - qte rare matherial for USSR. Pay attn for models with bracelets. It was not common to make watches with individual bracelets. You could buy some bracelet separately. But sometimes watches were equipped with original bracelets. Two models (bottom row two last ones) - are equpped with bracelets in GB and Europe - models are for export only.

[Kasper]

Incredible shot Andrew. You have to make a wallpaper of it. Imagine this 2 by 1.5 m big printed on glass.

[Andrew Babanin]

One more watch from calendar. There was one interesting calendar for 1977. Seems to me these ones - the very first watches from the end of 1974. I found one with yellow-lemon dial with traditional shape of case. As to other two - I didn't meet them before. But in January I found a watch with very interesting design. The case is the similar like in calendar (the second watch) but transparent glass replaced on painted one. Design of glass is very similar to Microma. Microma really was a proto for the first LCD digital watches.

1. A pic of calendar



2. A watch from calendar - very first watch from late 1974



3. Another watch from calendar







Pay attn how its design is common to Microma's design

[Coelho]

A warm hug to all lovers of watches! I'm coming for help, please! I have an Elektronika 5 b6 02! However the watch have a problem which is lack of contrast of the dial, making it sometimes difficult to see the hours even though it has new batteries! Can anyone give me help in solving this problem? Thank you very much.

[Andrew Babanin]

First of all try to change upper polaroid film on LCD. If it doesn't work - change diodes and capacitor - voltage uprises two times there, maybe problems with components.

[Andrew Babanin]

After years of investigation I found first Ladies LCD watch, made in february of 1976. It is based on 3049 chips but has 1.5 V power supply, so there are a few differences with gents one.











to increase voltage till 5V...













With gents 3049 cirquit block





A pic from the museum online catalog



cosplay for it :)

[Delmarva]

What a fascinating thread about vintage Soviet lcd watches. It has me thinking about shopping for a new or possibly vintage digital.

[Andrew Babanin]

I found one more watch, made by ZiM. The first one has number 0175, the second - 1208. So I guess there were many watches with such brutal design.

[Andrew Babanin]

For the first time there were experiments with LCDs. I guess that the first watches were equipped with domestic DSM LCDs. Later in summer of 1974 there were experiments with ILIXCO LCDs. In 1975 during first half of the year there were small quantities of watches with such displays, less than 6%. Mostly watches equipped with domestic FE LCDs by two factories - Platan and Reflector.
I found only 4 watches with ILIXCO of the first generation among 80 known samples.
Here they are. All displays made between April and June of 1974.



There was disadvantage of first soviet LCDs - small figures. There were experiments with size of LCDs. That time all LCDs were made of two thick glasses. If LCD is big then with temperature variations it can leak. But anyway I found very interesting timepiece with different LCD. All chips are from 1974- January 1975, LCD from May 1975. It is produced by Transistor (by factory itself). Transistor produced small quantities of experimental LCDs. It is interesting that this type of LCD was chosen as stream one in March 1976, so it was the only LCD of second generation of 3049 watches.

[Andrew Babanin]

A few more USSR digitals in french and HK cases



this one in stainless steel











One more soviet brand for export