Digital watches from the early 80's with lots of cool features

mikedublin

Does anyone else remember when Digital watches were the coolest thing around ? I remember been about 12 and getting a cool Casio one for my birthday back in 1982 and how excited I was by all its amazing features like having a calculator, a light, and a little space-invaders game on it. Countdown-timers, and having different time zones and beeping alarms on the hour were all great fun things to have. It took about a week to programe it all - and it was probably the first real piece of technology I owned.

Later on in the 80's there were even ones with radios , but I was always in search of one that would have a tiny television on it :eek:

bullpost

Remember getting a funky one around that time that played the Yellow Rose of Texas when you pressed a button.
Used to annoy the hell out of people with it.

gavtron

I had one that you could play Super Mario Bros on...I think it's still at home somewhere must get it out...I can still hear the tune in my head!

Skerries

i had that Yellow rose one as well
there was one that i wanted that was able to change the channel of the telly
other ones i remember are ones that were like a Transformer and one that was powered by water

bonerm

I had the typical one that could work as a calculator. I remember that the buttons were so small that (even as a 7year old or whatever) I couldn't push them and had to instead had to use the tip of a pencil to use them. Also I remember the little rubber buttons falling out of their slots on occasion. I don't know whether they were all this bad or whether I'd been bought a cheap knock-off version.

Also, I remember a friend of mine in school had a "transformer" watch.
http://30gms.com/permalink/watch_in_disguise/

Owen

I'd one bought in the local pound store which ran on tap water, there was a bank of 4 red strips at the top half of the watch, that you could fill with water, and it would power the watch for a few days.

I'd a radio watcn too my Dad got for me from Texaco's catalogue when you collected stamps. It had a standard display, and a wheel you turned to change station, and a headphone socket which doubled as your radio antennae.

vintagecasio

Yea i also love vintage rare digital lcd watches from 70s 80s Like Seiko and Casio Brands because that time 100% Genuine Japan made Watches which are more reliable and durable. i also found a site who stock these type of watches its very great site on early LCD watches. http://VintageDigitalWatches.com and you can also visit a museum of Rare Digital Watches at http://RareDigitalWatches.com thank hope you will find these sites useful.

DublinWriter

mikedublin wrote: »

I remember been about 12 and getting a cool Casio one for my birthday back in 1982 ...Later on in the 80's there were even ones with radios , but I was always in search of one that would have a tiny television on it :eek:

Yes! I had the Casio calculator one back in 82, it was quite thick, then they brought out a more contoured version later on. I also had the first version of the Casio remote control watch and remember nearly causing riots in pubs with it when major matches were on.

I remember seeing the Seiko TV watch on Tomorrows World in 1981 and wanting one more than anything. They change hands on ebay these days for about €500.

Last year all my childhood dreams came true when I bought a TV watch from a Chinese website - great fun. Even my Chinese 'I-can't-believe-it's-not-an-IPhone' has an analogue TV built in.

Run_to_da_hills

In School I always one of those Sam Casey look alike watches if anyone remembered the TV series Gemini Man. It was red and would make him invisible.

I ended up with a similar one which only lasted about 6 months and fell apart. My old Timex wind up lasted about three years. I never went back to digital since.

Cork

I would not mind going back to a digital watch?

They were real status symbols.

Today they seem to have lost their coolness.

120_Minutes

bonerm wrote: »

Also, I remember a friend of mine in school had a "transformer" watch.
http://30gms.com/permalink/watch_in_disguise/

PaintDoctor wrote: »

I'd one bought in the local pound store which ran on tap water, there was a bank of 4 red strips at the top half of the watch, that you could fill with water, and it would power the watch for a few days.

I'd a radio watcn too my Dad got for me from Texaco's catalogue when you collected stamps. It had a standard display, and a wheel you turned to change station, and a headphone socket which doubled as your radio antennae.

I had one of each of those as a kid.

DublinWriter wrote: »

I also had the first version of the Casio remote control watch and remember nearly causing riots in pubs with it when major matches were on.

a friend of mine used to do that, great fun as neither of us were into sports so we got a great kick out of it.

Oscarfishlover

bullpost wrote: »

Remember getting a funky one around that time that played the Yellow Rose of Texas when you pressed a button.
Used to annoy the hell out of people with it.

I had this exact watch in 1982/83. I can't quite remember which make it was, maybe a Casio, but it was a silver digital watch that played The Yellow Rose of Texas, very loudly when you pressed the top two buttons together. Unfortunately I went swimming in it down at the beach one summer and it never worked after that.

A bunch of us at school in the 80s had digital watches with alarms, we would all synchronise our watches before going into class as it will be very funny at the when all our watches beeped at the same time on the hour. We went too far in one teachers class and he confiscated everybody's watch when this happened one time.

gipi

I can remember the first digital watch I saw (back in the 70s *cough*!), it belonged to a schoolpal of mine. The watch only displayed the time if you pressed a button (and that wasn't done too often for fear of running down the battery!), otherwise it had a dark screen.

It didn't do anything else (no gizmos or gadgets like ye've mentioned above), but when it showed the time in glowing red, it was the coolest thing ever!

Oscarfishlover

gipi wrote: »

I can remember the first digital watch I saw (back in the 70s *cough*!), it belonged to a schoolpal of mine. The watch only displayed the time if you pressed a button (and that wasn't done too often for fear of running down the battery!), otherwise it had a dark screen.

It didn't do anything else (no gizmos or gadgets like ye've mentioned above), but when it showed the time in glowing red, it was the coolest thing ever!

My dad had one of these watches in the 70s, it was gold coloured with a round face, like you said, you have to press a button to see the time, I didn't have anything apart from the time of it. And rather than being LCD like nowadays, it was actually an LED display.. I don't know how long my dad wore this watch for, don't think it was very long, however it sat around in the house for years doing nothing, have no idea where it has gone now, but I bet you it will be worth a few bob.

I'm not even sure if they sell musical watches anymore, they sure were the rage back in the 80s, everyone had a digital watch with an alarm on it when I was at school.

eth0

Not from the 80's but I have one of these: http://www.itusozluk.com/image/casio-cmd40_170328.jpg but the strap is missing from it.

A real hit with the ladies :rolleyes:

There was a lad in school who had a watch with a digital camera on it. The thing was huge. This was just before the camera phone fad

Snake Plisken

bullpost wrote: »

Remember getting a funky one around that time that played the Yellow Rose of Texas when you pressed a button.
Used to annoy the hell out of people with it.

Yeah me too searched everwhere to get one that played the yellow rose of texas ended up getting it in Woolworths

Snake Plisken

Run_to_da_hills wrote: »

In School I always one of those Sam Casey look alike watches if anyone remembered the TV series Gemini Man. It was red and would make him invisible.

I ended up with a similar one which only lasted about 6 months and fell apart. My old Timex wind up lasted about three years. I never went back to digital since.

Yeah used to pretend my digital watch made me invisible when I pressed the light button lol

Lawrence1895

I had one as well, a calculator on it and the size of a box of smokes...until I found out, that '50m waterproof' was actually 50cm

Kersh

Great thread,

I had a Pacman watch (Nelsonic) when I was younger, and a calculator one.

In my teens, in early 90s I got a Casio Databank as a present, which was deadly!

Also had a few cheapies that transformed into planes and a robot and stuff . .

Thems were the days

Amalgam

Remember the Casio watches with the blue marlin?

Not many features, but I felt so damn proud of it as a kid!

Quite probably this very model..




My Dad bought it for me in a Tube station, somewhere in London. Then mysteriously delivered by a bearded person dressed in red..

MarkR

Looks like casio are ahead of you.

http://www.casio.co.uk/products/timepieces/casio-collection/

jimmynokia

my last casio was this,still have it its like new
http://www.casio.co.uk/products/timepieces/casio-collection/Product/CMD-40-1ZT/

marwelie

I had a digital watch which had a calculator and a game on it where you had to match the numbers on the screen with the numbers on the ridiculously small key pad on the watch before they got to the end of the screen. Was incredibly naff when you think about it now but at the time I thought it was the height of sophisication.