Recent letter regarding Howard R. - please comment.

[retroleds]

[Received March 5th, 2010]
Hi Ed,
I don't know the details of how things went with Howard Riehl in the 2008/2009 time frame.
I know he's quite a character, and his own worst enema in many situations. In spite of it, he could be quite an attraction.

I saw Mike's post about him having delivered on the module he'd been waiting on for so long.

I know for certain that both Howard and Barry are reading the posts here. Maybe intermittently, but they are.

I'd like to post an open letter to Howard, asking him to bury the screwdriver, and come back to be a contributing expert on his fathers work. With a clear understanding it's not a sales platform to stick the members from. I'm sure there's a "don't feed the wizard" sig line that would fit him.

Now you may have a lot to say here. Or maybe not, and just reply with an evil emoticon. I don't know. There could a load of nasty stuff I'm not aware of, making this idea completely absurd.

Anyway, It's just an idea.

My answer:
It's kind of like the difference between really hating what you are doing, and only hating that you got caught doing it - I think the later scenario is Howard, all the way. Every time I let him on for, say 1 month, that means he gets to solicit 4-8 deals(on and off dwf.nu). We hear about those deals for several months(maybe forever if he is in true "end game" mode ). And my hands then become slightly tied against booting him , as I might be angering him to not fulfill on that last deal or two. As we just went through with Peter and Mike. They both bought off Howard while I was letting him play Moderator for the Synchronar area - I too had thoughts of giving him some credibility up front and seeing if he would grow into it. Apparently he is too wounded, he can't do that.

So, no I am not having him back on. After having weaned us, collectively away from that poison, I'm not doing that to you guys again. Our current(and future?) Synchronar gurus collectively know as much about those pieces as Howard, IMO.

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
~ Albert Einstein

WON'T GET FOOLED AGAIN - Special Edition Recut - YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oUbGLVvfB7Y

I would be a bad host to let a known undesirable in to the party.

[clockace]

i think both mike and i have gotten what we paid for from Howard, finally. but not with out much aggravation and numerous emails. i do believe there are others who have paid for, but not received their product, who have waited so long they have given up. maybe they could weigh in on this. peter

[retroleds]

.. Every time I let him on for, say 1 month, that means he gets to solicit 4-8 deals(on and off dwf.nu). We hear about those deals for several months(maybe forever if he is in true "end game" mode ).

Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
~ Albert Einstein

If nobody sends him money, the situation of unfulfilled orders will remain resolved. Just say 'NO'.

Lest we forget.

[ronaldheld]

I received an email from Howard stating that he will be sending out my watch. I also learned about some new products he would be offering in the future.

[retroleds]

I received an email from Howard stating that he will be sending out my watch. I also learned about some new products he would be offering in the future.

I'll believe the new product part when I see it. If Howard or some investers have finally got it together, that would be great - and they won't need exposure here(not that I am ruling it out). It sounds so '70s, "I got some good stuff coming man ".
I'm not holding my breath on a new Synchronar but I'll be the first to admit it would be kind of cool.

[J Thomas]

[retroleds]

It's amusing that such a talented individual had focused his abilities into making a digital wristwatch.

He actually made some of his first big money in a digital scale for weighing bottles of alcohol - the idea was that a bar owner could weigh all bottles at beginning of the day and again at night and know exactly how many shots had been sold. Same technology then went into those Hobart scales that were/are in millions of deli departments worldwide. And many highly intelligent individuals use their intellect for less than "rocket science". Jails are full of individuals with greatly above average IQ.

[clockace]

to add to the mystique, howard told me in one of his last emails to me[months and months ago] that he had investors and was working on the mkV. he would give no other details because he felt it would be blabbed all over this forum. he also said it would be very expensive to purchase. peter

[J Thomas]

[RaWatch]

When I visited Roger Riehl at his home and atelier in 2003 he was working on debugging the Mark V circut. He had a huge color coded diagram that was very complex and he was checking it by hand. He was proud of the fact that no one had succeed in reverse engineering his chip designs. He said he delibertly added "red herrings" into his designs - non working parts that would baffle people trying to copy what he was doing. Looks liked it worked.

I got a great photograph of him standing in front of a large scale diagram of an earlier circuit. The diagram looks to be about 4 feet by 4 feet.

[retroleds]

to add to the mystique, howard told me in one of his last emails to me[months and months ago] that he had investors and was working on the mkV. he would give no other details because he felt it would be blabbed all over this forum. he also said it would be very expensive to purchase. peter

Par for the course! For the multitude of people who sent in a watch for an "upgrade" during the last decade, who have no watch in hand despite paying for one, the cost has been very high.

I'm personally not terribly geeked over any potential feature set a Mark V would have. I personally think that many digital timepieces made after the late 70s have about all the features you could ask for. If they are sticking with the exact same body and switches, it will really be a step back - adding more features will be like texting with 4 buttons . That look and function was fine for the '70s, but this is 2010, it needs to evolve a bit. I'm also thinking that remakes of vintage classics generally degrade the price, value and charm of both the originals and the remakes. The LIP remakes are a good example.

Barry told me the same thing about his Dad sending out several different versions of his designs due to some amount of paranoia. I personally don;t get it, there are several ways to make a digital timepiece circuit and the user adjustable speed control doesn't seem to loom terribly large in the user desired feature set for watches. I think a circuit made in China would be just fine - they do a much better job on the circuits than most of our vintage pieces, with the exception of the displays.

[J Thomas]

[retroleds]

I have, admittedly, a bad attitude regarding Howard and the whole Synchronar "legacy". I personally can't imagine someone intentionally taking so many steps to "protect" an item that has never even remotely been copied, and such great lengths to seal up an item from anyone else looking at or repairing their product. Just seems like a bunch of blatantly planned obsolescence. If Howard is being overseen and held accountable by some more reliable people, I am sure my 'tude' will dissipate with time. I have had nothing but good dealings with Barry.

I too have great respect for the inventor's intelligence, determination and achievement - just slightly dismayed at how it was manifested.

Lot's of intelligent people have "holes in their Swiss cheese(head)" - myself included.

[rewolf]

...I got a great photograph of him standing in front of a large scale diagram of an earlier circuit. The diagram looks to be about 4 feet by 4 feet.

That would be interesting to se

As for the Mark V chip: I believe any effort in getting Roger's design "fabbable" is wasted time. It would be faster, easier and cheaper to implement it in software in some run-of-the-mill low-power microcontroller - you can get such a chip for 1 or 2US$. Of course it wouldn't be "original 70's style", but you couldn't even spot the difference.

[retroleds]

Seems many of the Chinese made digitals are still using dedicated clock chips like the vintage ones. Amazing how they can do that for a $10-15 watch but you can't get that done in the USA or Europe for hardly any price. But yeah, the programmables are the way to go...I've been tinkering in that direction myself.....the really discouraging part is the inability to get small, quality displays. Unless you are going to order 10,000+

[bruce wegmann]

You could always go the SASM route...use vintage displays salvaged from otherwise unrepairable modules. Probably gather a few hundred that way...enough to satisfy a good percentage of the Synchronar market.

[retroleds]

You could always go the SASM route...use vintage displays salvaged from otherwise unrepairable modules. Probably gather a few hundred that way...enough to satisfy a good percentage of the Synchronar market.

Personally I would like to put out a watch of one of my designs - I have no interest in retrofitting a hundred Syncrhonars. I'll just use a Bulova driver module if I want to Frankenstien one for fun(or profit).

[rewolf]

Seems many of the Chinese made digitals are still using dedicated clock chips like the vintage ones....

Yes, the simple ones (time and date only) may do this. These chip designs are 20 or 30 years old, only upgraded to recent process technology (that is, die shrink) and can be produced in masses for just a few cents per chip.
But the very special features of the Synchronar would require a custom design - far too expensive for only a few hundred chips to be made.