Quartz time

Hands up if you played any of those Nintendo Game & Watches, and Super Mario on the NES back in the day.

Now take that hand and grab your credit card.

Wiki - Game & Watch: Super Mario Bros

Best fifty quid you'll spend all year.

For the full experience, I recommend playing the poxy Ball game for a few minutes at first, to refresh all those neurons relating to your experience on this form factor with its segmented monochrome LCD and tinny piezo soundtrack... And then play some Mario. You'll feel like you're holding a prop from Back to the Future 2.

Actually, does anyone have an old one of these, with the single screen? I'm interested to know what they weigh - this new one feels incredibly light; I reckon it could use some ballast.

Also wondering if it's basically a NES, ready for someone to hack it so it can play any of the old ROMs...

So Casio have an interesting new, um, vintage modern watch, postmodern (classic style) number...

The ABL-100. I reckon it might become a bit of a classic...

It's a bit wider than an A158, but only 8.4mm thick, which is nice. Looks retro but sports an accelerometer and Bluetooth, which allows a bit of extra configurability via the app, but mainly it's used to sync time with your phone, which makes it HAQ, I guess. Also some other shit like pipping the piezo for phone notifications or whatever if you like... Nifty. Still has a battery life over two years.

So I'm thinking about getting one...I like the black one but I'm not a fan of the black screen. So now I'm thinking about getting two, if anyone wants a gold one with the black screen? Or maybe the silver one with the loud colours and a black screen?

So there's some bloke in Peru selling a watch on eBay, ships 'worldwide' except for a huge list of exclusions... 🤬

Would anyone be so kind as to grab it for me and post it on to Oz?

I was hoping they would do something like that one day.

They lost me at chromed resin.

.

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They lost me at chromed resin.

Yeah, they look pretty shit when they start showing wear... On the other hand, my DBX-100 doesn't get much wear because it's so heavy.

I just bought another G Shock I don't really need!

https://www.argos.co.uk/product/2926175?_%24ja=tsid%3A59157%7Cacid%3A850-954-7978%7Ccid%3A20146563349%7Cagid%3A%7Ctid%3A%7Ccrid%3A%7Cnw%3Ax%7Crnd%3A3213423647151399179%7Cdvc%3Am%7Cadp%3A%7Cmt%3A%7Cloc%3A9046884&cmpid=GS001&gad_source=1&gclsrc=aw.ds&istBid=t&istCompanyId=a74d8886-5df9-4baa-b776-166b3bf9111c&istFeedId=30f62ea9-9626-4cac-97c8-9ff3921f8558&istItemId=ixwmwimtt&utm_custom1=&utm_custom2=850-954-7978

cough

I might have a problem

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Got stiffed on one of the DB-500s; fucker sent a poxy DB-360 instead. Pretty damn happy with the rest though; the two dead ones just needed a battery :)

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That’s nice!

Fuming

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Can't remember where the talk of the smaller field watches was, but nothing but good things to say about the 36mm Timex Expedition North, solar.

Been fantastic in all sorts of conditions, surfing, riding, general wear.

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Forgot I had this.

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Got stiffed on one of the DB-500s; fucker sent a poxy DB-360 instead.

The proxy service sorted me out with a full refund after a bit of back and forth... Side hustle is go, assuming I can sell them in reasonable time for the sort of prices I see around.

Bought another 22, a lot more variety in this bunch, they're pretty interesting stuff, including a few absolute classics. Did up a spreadsheet, and near as I can figure, I'll just about break even after I'm down to the ones I'd like to keep for now, leaving me with eleven really cool watches which will have cost me about fifteen bucks a pop, with an average value somewhere between $350-$400.

Tricky question as to how long they'll continue to appreciate, but I'm thinking it's nice to imagine I might have an alternative to crossing my fingers for an inheritance to supplement my woeful superannuation balance...

I'm also considering designing a new case for the FS-00, and having it made by PCBWay or someone... Lose the proprietary strap fixture, maybe go with the Swatch setup which makes the standard spring bar arrangement look stupid. Keep the back cover and O ring, and the crystal dimensions.

What I'm really curious about, is whether there's anyone in low-volume manufacturing who can supply watch crystals (preferably in glass, but not necessarily I guess) with designs in paint on the back like OEM ones.

Seems like a tall order for a single low-volume mob rather than an OEM supplier, so perhaps I'd need to find one company for each aspect of it... Anyone have any clue how to go about finding such companies?

Some swatch brand loyalty

Although the strap feels a little cheaper than the irony straps

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Does anyone else have a Swatch Maxi? Forgot I had one until I went into the loft yesterday. Have never hung it, too big to go anywhere!

Is that one of those wall clocks in the shape of a watch? Had one in the 80s

Yup, that's the one.

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That’s the nicest one I’ve seen…still not sold on it though

Mines pretty grim too! A lot of the wrist designs are 'bold', so to have that 2m long on your wall...

Yeah nah, that shit can stay in the 80s

Second batch, everything works (maybe half a dozen weren't running), waiting on batteries now.

Some more interesting stuff here. VDB-300, can record and play back voice memos, 30s memory. Has an EL backlight, and the alarm is super loud; pretty handy watch. PRT-50, has a barometer and a thermometer, logs measurements into a little graph on the Twincept LCD, super cool but hard to read the transparent LCD above the analog watch face. WVA-200 is another Twincept (easier to read that one), they both light up the whole face with EL.

CA-901 from 1982, proper hardcore vintage business, this was a couple of hundred bucks even with the LCD blemish (most of them have bleed now). Lovely NOS one up on eBay at the moment for 860 quid. Has a game in it.

T-2000 from 1984, this is a gorgeous thing. Front-facing speaker is fairly loud, and the hourly chime can be either the standard bi-bip or a really unusual ding-dong, which makes you wonder why bi-bip is so ubiquitous. The beautiful big dot matrix strip is lit centrally from above by ye olde incandescent; it's glorious. Translates five languages, pretty damn fancy for the time. This one had some badly corroded side buttons, which I swapped out with the ones from the DB-500 with the cracked screen I got for parts.

Couple of DKW-100s, big fancy-looking JDM numbers with full dot matrix for the Kanji capability. Haven't quite figured them out; the manual was only printed in Japanese and there's no digital copy of it floating around. These have a couple of contacts on the side for a data connection to a PDA.

Couple of analogs in titanium; the one without a crown is a JDM Waveceptor, and complicated AF to set (it wants to know the year), had to translate the Japanese manual for that. I'm annoyed I can't just buy a jigger to broadcast one of those time signals for it to sync to, but I guess I can make one... Some bloke put some code for it up on GitHub. These two ti watches were like $5-$10 each (plus proxy charges and shipping).

Let's see, what else... A couple of the less interesting Databanks came with the T-2000 in a lot of three. DBT-700G lacks an original strap and has lost a bit of plating off the front buttons, but is otherwise very nice, that's a timetable one. Haven't quite worked it out, manual not available. Couple of DB-500s, they're great value. Metal and glass, big clear display, sleek form. The later all-plastic DB-520 (bottom right) although apparently quite sought after, just isn't in the same league.

Then there's three FS-00s, a 5mm thick Databank with EL and world time, but unfortunately no sound. These go for a bit. Not a fan of the elliptical window which shows the flat edges of the screen; the other style looks a lot better I reckon. These came with three different modules, not sure what the differences were, maybe the backlight shining through the black instead of the silver on one of em? Some of them have a coloured stripe along the middle of the display, maybe that's another variant.

Got a third batch on the way, some good stuff in that one too.

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Anyone want? Need to accept it's lived in a drawer long enough.

GA100, aftermarket strap/bezel.. functions perfectly. Make me a non insulting offer by PM and I'll chuck it in the post.

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