If LED Watches Were Vintage Computers

[abem]

In reflection upon Mr. Jobs' passing, I find myself remembering the 1970s and musing about the similarities between the early days of the personal computer and the vintage LED watch. Here are a few (mostly) tongue in cheek parallels between the early LED watch makers and the early personal computer makers. Please feel free to correct me where I'm mistaken or append your own since I know many of you guys were there too. Apologies in advance for slamming your favorite watch (and computer) brand. Here goes...

1) Pulsar = Apple
Technology + Design, sensational marketing, a cult following, touch and motion sensing 40 years before iPhone.

2) Hamilton = HP
The highly regarded establishment, high style, pricey products with innovative engineering and appeal mainly to saavy afficianados. Note: This is refers to old HP from the 70s, not the HP of today.

3) Bulova = IBM
Long established company with a history of innovation and solid products but conservative (stodgy) style.

4) Omega = Osbourne
Overpriced, boxy, heavy but well built devices, had some success with the first model but couldn't follow through with a successor.

5) CompuChron = Compaq
Good value for the money, became pervasive with lowest common denominator products that are just ok and nobody remembers today.

6) Grima = Grid
Elitist, uber pricey, jewel like products that you admire but would never even consider actually buying.

7) Hughes = Atari
A leader in the 70s with products that appeal mainly to the adolescent nerd demographic.

8) Synchronar = MITS
Has a claim to be first, forever David against Goliath, a historical curiosity that never really went into production.

9) Texas Instruments = Tandy / Radio Shack
Cheap, hideous plastic mass produced devices for the masses.

10) Commodore = Commodore
Quirky English firm with products that can't seem to quite get it together.

11) Timex = Timex / Sinclair
Cheap, unpretentious, and dependable but unpolished. Shipped a lot of units.

12) Sinclair = Heathkit
Doomed by the harebrained idea the idea that soldering iron wielding consumers would want to assemble their own electronic products.

13) Uranus = Kaypro
Innovative with ghastly milspec level unstylishness but with a certain appeal to those who appreciate the obscure.

14) Longines / Wittnauer = Acorn
Little known European niche brand with a fancy pedigree but trailing edge products.

15) Orient = Franklin Ace
Mid level, competent but inscrutable and undistinguished products from the Far East.

-abe.

[retroleds]

HAmilton/Pulsar/Omega - since they were all really owned by the same conglomerate, their varying levels of success were mainly in marketing and design dollars spent. IMO

I think you gave Texas Instruments short shrift - their early work, and their affiliations with both Willie Crabtree and Louis Zanoni place them a bit above their final line of LED products, which were as you indicate, $20 items of mass production. Their early modules for Wells/Benrus and their own later modules, all have stood the test of time nicely. Alas, they were not a jewelry or watch manufacturer, so their pieces suffered in that regard. Only one of their LEDs (101) had a glass crystal...it's a nice piece. Every real collector should own one. Rarest in stainless.
I like your take on Commadore

[retroleds]

5) CompuChron = Compaq
Good value for the money, became pervasive with lowest common denominator products that are just ok and nobody remembers today.

-abe.

I certainly remember Compaq - I have an absolutely perfect, Compaq CDS-520 ...a 386 Machine, one of those all-in-one deals, with a 2x CD drive. Actaully mothballed in a plastic bag with the original keyboard, mouse, software......saw very little use at an office I was working at. Became mine to take home. All loaded with the original Windows 3.1 When it is another 18 years older I'll find an appropriate place of nerd worship for it. Maybe.

Someone gave me two of those Osbourne 1's with the big floppy drive - I could kick myself for getting rid of them. SOrt of a cult item now....people pay insane money for them.

[retroleds]

Too bad about Mr. Jobs - he really seemed to be on the........... Job.
RIP

[abem]

Ed,

That 104 is a nice watch - good build quality, fantastic display. It's noteworthy because it's an exception rather than the rule, which sort of proves my point. The hex shaped TI 104s are also nice. I have a gold TI 104 - does that make me a real collector? I didn't know that they made a stainless one: http://www.timetrafficker.com/watches/l ... index.html

In the 1970s, Hamilton, Pulsar, and Omega were not the same and even if they were, they still had different brand identities, which is what I was trying to get at more than corporate structure. So, I think it's still a valid exercise in brand identity to try to characterize them. By wearing a particular type of watch, garment, etc. simply by making that choice, you're revealing a tiny bit about yourself. For each of my watches, I think I can explain what I like about it and why I feel a certain connection with it that made me choose it in the first place.

I was trying to capture the Gestalt of each company and product identity (and have a little fun) which is inevitably going to result in broad, sweeping, and sometimes false generalizations. I was kind of slamming on a number of brands to see if anyone would come to their defense. After all, these companies all made products that people loved at one time, which is a good and worthwhile thing to do.

-abe.

[retroleds]

Abe:
I totally got that you were having some fun with it. Some of those brands - wow, flashback.
See, the stainless 101 IS rare - I've seen one of those for every probably 50+ of the gold-toned ones....and with the correct TI marked band, no less. The 101 is one of my personal wears - clear display, not too big, not too small. You own a gold 101 - you qualify!

It's my understanding that before the Pulsar showed up on Johnny Carson, the ink was already dry: Hamilton was owned by the same conglomerate that owned Omega. Time Computer remained free only a short while longer, but was essentially strapped at the hip to the others.

[Andy_from_Perth]

funny thread!

what would be the equivalent LED watch to WANG computers?

[abem]

Oh, yes, almost forgot about Wang. Here's a guess:

16) Gillette = Wang
Companies with successful old line businesses try to get into the "new fangled thing" which they know nothing about with predictable results.

Technically, a more accurate comparison might be Novus, which, like Wang, already had a successful technology business, but it's more fun to ridicule Gillette.

-abe.

[LEDluvr]

Great thread!
How about: National Semiconductor = National Semiconductor ?
Any ideas for Elektronika ?

[abem]

Did National Semiconductor market a 70s era microcomputer?

Electronica made a home computer, but not until 1993!:
http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/R ... K-1991.htm

So I guess:
17) Electronica = Electronica

-abe.

[retroleds]

Oh, yes, almost forgot about Wang. Here's a guess:

16) Gillette = Wang
Companies with successful old line businesses try to get into the "new fangled thing" which they know nothing about with predictable results.

Technically, a more accurate comparison might be Novus, which, like Wang, already had a successful technology business, but it's more fun to ridicule Gillette.

-abe.

I'm not seeing the Wang
=Gillette at all. Gilette didn't try to make a watch - they hired a very decent manufacturer(LaGeneral) to make the watches for them. And they're not that bad.

Wang started out making computerized systems for typesetting(1964), then moved into calculators(some which were very respected, albeit, very anachonistic). What else could they do but follow the computer revolution? I think Wang is more like Roger Riehl. Riehl had great success BEFORE he tried making a watch, the watch was his last stand, and it hasn't ended real pretty. R.R. had made millions on his computerized scales and circuits, which were used in millions of those Hobart brand digital scales you would see in meat markets back in the late '60-today. The first system was actually to measure the amount of alcohol that had been served in a bar, per night - just weigh all the bottles. R.R. also set up and ran the only long-term business that remanufactured the alloy lined brake drums GM put on some of their early 1960s cars....it was still operating at the time of his death The Wang family was just plain greedy and ran a nasty scheme against their shareholders for the first 2 decades.

Novus - just another "case for hire" deal, holding National Semi modules. But why look down on that practice - it is the same one used by virtually all the manufacturers, many who didn't even make the electronics It is the way most watches and clocks have been made for the last 200+ years - one company makes the case, another the movement, another the dial, another the band/strap, another the crystal.

[bruce wegmann]

It wasn't just the lower-end digitals involved in this; even Omega bought modules from Time Computer (and later, from Frontier); they never developed their own proprietary electronics (like GP did for their driver's watch).

[Andy_from_Perth]

http://www.google.com.au/imgres?q=marti ... =116&ty=76