Lovely 1970's TRAFALGAR LED Watch with NO POWER | Can I FIX It?

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This watch was very kindly sent over to me by Ashley. It's a retro 1970's LED watch and it appears to be completely dead.
Let's try and get it working again!
Hope you enjoy!
Steve
PS. I'm not an expert in repairs at all. I do this for fun, and it may not be the best or safest way to go about repairing broken stuff. I'm pretty good at melting plastic though. Please don't copy me - I'm an idiot.
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Опубликовано:

28 сен 2024

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Комментарии : 572

@oldcodgerplaysgames9610 Год назад

Omg its my watch! Well done, so chuffed to see it running again. Sorry it was a bit anticlimactic though, i was hoping youd have to try and source some 1970s bits. But well done sir, enjoy it.

@StezStixFix Год назад

Thank you so much for sending it over. I can't tell you how much I love this watch! Although, it still has a fault, which I don't think anyone has noticed yet! 🤔

@chucku00 Год назад

@@Cyphus101 Not on this generation of watches, it hasn't any buzzer or alarm setting. There are so date settings too, only hours, minutes and seconds on a 12h base (no AM/PM). Alarm quartz watches came a bit later, in the late 70's with LCD watches.

@mattjohnson6276 Год назад

@@StezStixFix I saw it, if anyone else didn't they better watch it again. :p

@JasonFuss1992 Год назад

@@mattjohnson6276 You talking about the broken rubber ring

@mwk1 Год назад

*GET IN!*

@MyRetroWatches Год назад

I’ve loads of led watches from the 70s including this very model in stainless. They are when working very collectible, that model is £100-300 all day long. Push the button for time and the date button gives you running second and the date only as in 15th Is a rarer Trafalgar two button module. All I do with them is submerge in a small jar of alcohol and cycle in my ultrasonic cleaner for 30 minutes as it’s clears all the electrolytes out the way. Good thing with this one is all the tiny wire bonds that go to the leds are sealed in that hard resin. The earlier ones the bonds are exposed and generally fail. It’s early tech and predates LCD digital watches that came within a few years of these and of course took the market as battery life was superior. Even Omega made led watches and the most famous was Pulsar who made the first. Even Roger Moore wore one as Bond! Nice to see a watch on your channel Steve. Pleased you could save this one.

@martinda7446 Год назад

Yep, Bond wore a Pulsar (Time Computer) in the opening scenes of Live And Let Die, funnily enough M arrives and gives him his Rolex which he swaps over, and the Rolex supposedly has a magnetic field generator (impossible - As he makes M's coffee spoon twang off and stick to the watch, ''it can even deviate the path of a bullet'' Says Bond - ''I'd like to test that theory now' says M) and it also had a rotating saw blade bezel. Also just about impossible, though they must have made a working model as you saw it spin (and almost stop as he tried to cut a rope). LCDs were developed in the 60s but were not commercially viable until the early 70s when Seiko introduced their beautiful chronograph in 1973! (everyone else had to wait a few years) Live and Let Die came out in 73, so really the LCD was only a couple of years behind LED. LEDs ruled until about 1977 when LCD took over completely. The market was flooded with cheap Seiko chronograph rip offs in about 1978. Cheap LED watches were available in plastic resin cases by 1976 for a tenner and again the cheap LCDs came a couple years later. The Swiss were having a massive panic and continued having one for twenty years.

@iaincowell9747 Год назад

@@martinda7446 Bond wears 3 watches in Live And Let Die Hamilton Pulsar P2 2900 LED digital watch Rolex Submariner 5513 Tissot Visodate Automatic PR-516 The Hamilton Pulsar P2 was a technically advanced watch for the time, but function wise it was quite basic in it's features. It only had the capability to show the time (hours, minutes, and seconds) no date, stopwatch, alarm, or other functions. But the P2 was the world's first successful, mass-produced digital watch. LED (Light Emitting Diode) watches were only popular during the 1970s and were quickly replaced by LCD watches. The time is set by using a magnet, which is stored in the clasp. Holding the magnet against the Hour or Minute position in the back of the case enables you to adjust the time. Hamilton created an homage to the Pulsar P2, the Hamilton PSR H52414130 in 2020, a watch of which the design is almost identical to that of the Pulsar P2. The watch doesn't have a LED screen, but an LCD screen and is powered by an automatic movement. It's available in steel and a limited edition steel gold-pvd version. It also says Hamilton on the bottom right unlike the P2's Pulsar branding.

@MyRetroWatches Год назад

@@martinda7446 the first Seiko digital was the 61LC in 1973 but it was not a chronograph, that came in 75/6 with the 0634. There were 3 models with the 0634-5019 being the most desirable. I have all 3 that I have managed to save 6-7 years ago when they were still really cheap. Also have quite a few early Casiotron which were the first Casio watches proper well built and in their day were worth a fortune new. Funnily enough I have an advert for the Seiko 0634-5019 and it’s priced more expensive than a speedmaster on the same advertisement!

@martinda7446 Год назад

@@MyRetroWatches My memory is getting completely shot (or I didn't know in the first place - can't remember which😸). Thanks very much for that MyRetroWatches.. Whatever, I loved that Seiko chronograph (the 0634 thanks again) utterly timeless. (Well lets hope not completely timeless). Ha, ha, I have a Speedmaster Albino. Funny I think that it is the most perfect analogue watch, and its been in space and on the moon. I've had three of em. I used to have a collection of LED and LCD watches but stupidly sold them. I'm hoping you have a channel I can join..I'll look now Martin.

@EmeraldHill-vo1cs Год назад

@@MyRetroWatches I have a casio lcd from70/ 80's? which says its solar powered, with a bar on the front. Im pretty sure thats straight up B.S. ( I contacted casio au and they have no records that far back here)

@SlingshotGamer Год назад

Great fix Dave, looks like you had a lot of time on your hands to fix the watch

@BenRush Год назад

bad joke man. take it back.

@SlingshotGamer Год назад

@@BenRush I can’t, as I don’t have the time

@DForce26 Год назад

I second this...

@fphenix Год назад

Dave's sidekick, Steve, deserves a little bit of recognition as well.

@ovalwingnut Год назад

Oh SNAP! :O) That was way to punny.

@StezStixFix Год назад

Something a bit different today. Or something.

@willkra Год назад

Another good one Steve! In five years you can plot in "make me an upload fixing the main unit of a space shuttle" while you are drinking a beer🙂 AI is scary stuff!

@thinkingaloud2 Год назад

Why did they ever go out of fashion?

@Ewock1973 Год назад

Really cool video. Nice job Steve!

@RyanBlaha Год назад

Amazing work

@ianfindlay3450 Год назад

Pre or post the famous Hamilton one I wonder?

@ralphj4012 Год назад

Well done. The round component is a ceramic air trimmer capacitor (which regulates time in combination with the crystal), Removing the carbon resistive coating may cause timing variations. Johanson was the most prevalent manufacturer.

@martinda7446 Год назад

Johanson was working on surface mount at that time, IN THE 70S! everyone should have a good look at the transistors and caps etc on this Hughes module (I'm pretty sure this is). Extraordinary advancement for 1973 when these became available, They are almost identical to modern surface mount devices. I was in the electronics industry and was in fact learning my trade as a youngster from about 1978. I simply didn't hear about surface mount until maybe sometime in the 90s, at which point I was collecting LED watches.. I was too stupid to see how really clever they were.

@jonathanwright1507 Год назад

@@martinda7446 Yes but can you type 5318008 & then turn the watch upside down?

@StezStixFix Год назад

@@jonathanwright1507 😁 I used to do that on my calculator in school!

@jonathanwright1507 Год назад

@@StezStixFix I think we all did & back in the 80's, also, we thought the kids who had a calculator watch, were the coolest kids in the school?!

@JohnSmith-iu8cj Год назад

Mid 90s i had the calculator and remote watch. It was cool to have 😂

@RobSchofield Год назад

@ 9:05 - this is a capacitor preset to tune the crystal frequency during manufacture (small square recess in centre for the adjustment tool). It's then soldered in place (the arc-shaped area on the left with the two contacts) to set it permanently. The flickering might mean that the push buttons have corrosion around the contact points (the upright contacts on the PCB) and the case, preventing completion of the circuit.

@atourbillon Год назад

Vinegar is great for cleaning battery corrosion! Glad you were able to fix that beautiful watch!

@brunosmith6925 Год назад

"I have no idea what I'm doing" - then proceeds to fix it. Love this approach - someone taking their body of knowledge to an unknown entity, applying first principles, and getting a positive result. This is a valuable lesson for all of us.

@jannenreuben7398 Год назад

Nice repair. The 7542 on the chip is probably a date code - in this case it would be week 42 of 1975 which fits in with the age of the watch.

@JMUDoc Год назад

As a child of the 80's, I love OG red LEDs😁

@richardgrahame5408 Год назад

Back in the 70's, there was a program on every Thursday i think called Tomorrows World. It was a science program of all the latest inventions of the time. A watch just like the one you were showing, was shown complete with a box and stuff. The presenter made a really big show of it, how great it was and high tech it was. A price tag of £300 or so for it so only the well-off at the time could afford it. Well, it flopped and in the end, you could go down to your local petrol station and buy a digital watch for a quid and that was the 70's for you.

@daved3494 Год назад

I remember Tomorrow's World also. I believe James Burke - who went on to do a show called 'Connections' was on that show too.

@jimosullivan1389 Год назад

Tomorrows world were wrong in just about everything........"in the year 2000..all the work will be done by robots".

@bzakie2 Год назад

Yes I do remember when digi watches came out you had to press a button to see the time. We thought it was space age stuff! Nice job, great video.

@garymucher4082 Год назад

WOW, I do remember those digital type watches when they hit the market. Funny how technology has changed and cost reduced... Thumbs Up!

@Fifury161 Год назад

Yeah - they sell similar LED style displays (just larger digits) in pound shops now! They even have a "funky" animation when you press the button (the individual LEDs light up in sequence and then turn off one at a time, rather than show the full display at once)

@Ea-Nasir_Copper_Co Год назад

Man, Dave did a great job this week! (You did okay too, Steve.)

@StezStixFix Год назад

Dave is the MVP! 😁

@CalculatorObsessed Год назад

Brilliant fix. It was great watching you go through exactly the same process that I went through to fix mine. I absolutely love old displays like this.

@Chrish1981 Год назад

Cool watch! I'm an 80s kid and remember those everywhere, great vid!

@karlzips1 Год назад

I remember my uncle having a similar one and you are right he hated pressing the button because the battery drained so fast 😂

@Crackshotlol Год назад

Interesting fix, Steve! Keep up the great work!

@ShadowcasterZero Год назад

There's a lot of old wind up watch repair on YT. Not a lot of digital watch repair. Well done 👍

@redmax341 Год назад

its so great to see a watch from the 70s work again

@chanyphilly8266 Год назад

Nice one! My stepdad used to have one of those watches, and I remember thinking, "a lot of watch and very little screen" lol.

@GeorgeJansen Год назад

I was born in 1969. I think I may have seen a watch like that before... It was lovely watching you repair that watch.

@Factory051 Год назад

Hello Dave / Steve 🤣😂 20 seconds in and I'm in stitches.

@prairiedawg792 Год назад

That trimmer - I once made a tool using a single square pin pulled from a ribbon cable header (I think) and superglued into the end of one of those disposable propelling pencils. Worked a treat.

@Mymatevince Год назад

Great video!

@StezStixFix Год назад

Thanks Vince, I think I may have the watch bug now. Really enjoyed working on this!

@mandymoo7406 Год назад

i sold these back in 75 and they werent cheap,i was on £16 a week and they were well out of my league,the district manager turned up one monday morning and price crashed them but i decided i didnt want one as they drained batteries pretty fast,we also sold clive sinclairs watches and they were dire then we started selling pulsar watches that gained an hour in an hour,we had lots of returns but many people were just happy to show their mates down the pub that they had a watch from the future,forgot to add i liked the way you fixed it,well done

@john4013 Год назад

What a great watch, well done sorting it out

@Boogie_the_cat Год назад

1:03 I saw my little buddy and he made a funny noise! My weekend is complete. I heard somewhere that these watches use one battery per minute. 😂 You might wanna convert it to AC and just sit at home by an outlet all day. That's what I'd do if I didn't have a cat.

@comicmania2008 Год назад

Well done, nice to see it working! Looks like the watch my mate had when I was at school around 1974/75. Remember him saying you had to push the switches to keep the display running, it was designed to have a 1 year batt life, based on e.g. about 20 pushes a day average! I was quite jealous of his watch at the time, I just had a Sekonda clockwork analogue watch that my Dad bought me for Xmas. I'm completely useless at fixing watches, even at changing batteries in them! One thing I picked up when you were cleaning those little spring switches, you could use one of those small right-angled tooth brushes. But anyway, good job getting it running again!

@CallousCoder Год назад

70s Disco kitsch, all you need now is a white bell bottom leisure suit and a gold chain to match, and had that illuminated checkered dance floor! ❤

@NiallMacpherson Год назад

Excellent as usual. I await anxiously each of your videos!

@StezStixFix Год назад

Thanks Niall! 👍

@BrunakoPAO Год назад

Great to have the rap at the end 😁👍

@StezStixFix Год назад

😁

@mtshark7 Год назад

Nicely done Steve!

@zootmarketing4633 Год назад

Brings back great memories. Had one in college. Was a great look. Great watch. 😊

@NowInAus Год назад

Buys a watch tool kit just in case. Freakin legend! Great fix. Childhood memories of flashy buggers in the school playground. Top job Dave / Steve

@Dennistube001 Год назад

i used to have star wars digital watch when i was i kid. Best Christmas present ever

@stevehead365 Год назад

A 1970s LED watch, working. That must be a rare beast. They were all the rage at the time (ho ho) but inconvenient if you wanted to tell the time whilst driving.

@peter6782 Год назад

love the 80/90S retro music, first time i have watched and i really enjoyed it

@geoffcrabbe4323 Год назад

Super work buddy, Back in the day(1977 ) i recall a very cool tech/maths teacher at my school having one of of these..It looked And sill dose for me off the planet...A keeper...class..

@andrasszabo7386 Год назад

Nice watch, Steve. I have been looking for one like that for ages now.On those contacts I would use white vinegar to get rid of that green stuff. And it does matter how you put that back plate on.

@terryhall6766 Год назад

I had a watch like this in the 70’s cost a lot ended giving it to my friends son Michael a good watch one of the first of it’s kind nice to see one again

@Skyspace187 Год назад

Good ol high leaded solder joints... Totally from the 70s.

@KrispyBizcut Год назад

Im not a watch person at all but i really do love that one!! Its awesome af looking!!!

@simonlunt353 Год назад

Well done Steve love the watch l remember these watches coming out as a kid great watch 😊👍👏👏

@djlancematthew Год назад

Nice work! Also, would you please put the rap at the end of every video! I love it so much that I don’t have to skip through that every time I watch!

@solidamber Год назад

I bought one of those, a couple of years after leaving school, it cost more than a weeks wages for me.

@Woodus5000 Год назад

Nice Fix there steve ... Consistancy is Key .. and that watch is WELL cool looking .. Defantly not Stupid i agree

@gothicck 5 месяцев назад

That's what I need, "a scrape and a clean" lol. Cheers Steve

@BulletmanDoom 6 месяцев назад

That brings back memories. I had a similar Timex watch in the late 70's that worked the same way.

@wisher21uk Год назад

I love the old retro watches I have a collection and don’t have anything like that, I love the odd unusual styles too favourite being Storm watches they’re funky 😊

@usetherightbrain. Год назад

Dave and Steve- how bout fixing a burnt out LED light bulb?

@Tf_Maker Год назад

Definitely is waaay better the rap at the end, you also included many other “hidden” patreons. Great idea.

@simonscott1121 Год назад

I had one of those in the late 70s (from memory). As a kid, you kill the batteries by constantly looking at the time :D

@MrJruta Год назад

My gawd! I’m 56. My very first digital was an LED and black plastic. I miss it so much

@Mo-P Год назад

Kudos! I also much prefer the song at the end!

@watchingdanny Год назад

Outstanding Steve ! Your skills are always evolving. Love your channel. It's always a good time.

@SignalSmoker Год назад

ahead of its time, with some early surface mount components.

@IronHeel Год назад

You may want to get a new gasket and rub a little marine grease on it to restore the waterproof seal, if there was one.

@ovalwingnut Год назад

Agree Iron(man). Also, a Technocolor coat & Walking stick might go well? Ok. I'm just envious! I'll let myself out.

@UKNOWHO425 Год назад

@@ovalwingnutlol

@jayson8372 Год назад

Thank you! Bringing back memories of the past! Another show from the past "The Secret Life of Machines" featured that watch (a UK show from the 90s).

@medes5597 Год назад

The guy who made that, made a sequel show on RU-vid called The Secret Life of Components a few years ago. Worth a watch it you're a fan of the original.

@lolbeacham 6 месяцев назад

I had one of these back in the 1970’s , about 1976 I think got it for Xmas , it was my first digital watch .

@dtbjason Год назад

That is the appropriate way to do the thank-you songs i do believe, though never skipped them myself...

@MauR1CEnl Год назад

Cool watch! 😍😍

@timfaulkner852 Год назад

Nice job, as a mechanic I can tell you that the grey hard material, is what's called, quick steel, it's a putty based, chemical metal, which has a hardener inside, when mixed together, and exposed to air it creates a solid bond, and can b drilled and tapped, I think someone has tryed to make continuity, instead of soldering it! 👍

@sniper7219 Год назад

Took that watch apart when I was a kid, great memories

@RichDick777 Год назад

Sweet upload! Just a nice polish and you got yourself a neat, brand new watch.

@StezStixFix Год назад

Definitely! Gonna get me some polish and buff this up, I love it!

@Insectoid_ Год назад

You’ve got such a soothing voice. Quite relaxing to watch :)

@darryljansen7364 Год назад

Calm presentation love the rap dude you multifaceted and a joy to listen to.

@grahamlee1661 Год назад

So the problem all along was the spring contact on the back cover were not contacting the batteries to complete the series connection but was pushing partially on the crystal and one of the batteries. Once you rotated the back cover 180° at the end this completed the connection between the positive and negative of the batteries.

@SharpblueCreative Год назад

I’ve been thinking about getting a 70’s digital watch. That one looks pretty good.

@martinda7446 Год назад

That is a Hughes Aircraft watch module. I can't be bothered writing a hundred line history, but its all quite fascinating. I had a collection of these watches.. I'm sorry to say I don't have any left. The surface mount components on that module are identical (enough) to those that arrived over 30 years later. This was when through hole was all we had except for Nasa and Military applications.. Thank you Hughes Aircraft.

@BartManNL Год назад

1970s with SMT components! Akthoud developed in the 1960s it didn't really take off until 1985ish. Something special here!

@germancast Год назад

What you expect to be a potentiometer is a variable capacitor ;-)

@StezStixFix Год назад

Thank you! I knew somebody would know what it was! 👍

@wallyf7020 Год назад

Nice fix, and what a retro watch you have...great job.

@Njazmo Год назад

It's not retro, it's vintage. Retro is something new, but having old style.

@wallyf7020 Год назад

@@Njazmo no comment...

@hc3d Год назад

Great job, nice music selection as always and cool watch.

@marcholbeck3286 Месяц назад

Those old Mostek modules are among the best ever made and are damn near bullet proof. Often the only issue is the quartz crystal,other than maybe some old battery corrosion or caked on gunk. The QC's are it's weakness as they were in many led watches of the era but replacing it is pretty simple and will often bring them back to life. On these modules I leave some of the old QC's two wires in situ and still connected to the actual module and solder the new QC to these wires,thus avoiding direct heat to any part of the actual module. You were damn lucky flooding it with alcohol and you would not get away with it on most lesser modules,especially on the digits side. Use it very,very sparingly. You also missed some corrosion on the inside of the brass button contacts. Something many people fail to spot having cleaned the outside and visible parts. Nice you got it working though.

@mK_Dx Год назад

Appreciation for a device that is 50 years old and all it needs is some cleaning to work again.

@Mullspeed Год назад

Lovely mostek ic, week 42 of 1975!

@pengwin_ Год назад

you didnt say it steve, but when you fixed it, I said it..."Get IN!"

@electroddxful Год назад

Nice repair. I had one of those back in the days 👍🙏👍🙏

@willembuiting Год назад

Great video! Used to have one of those. In fakt it whas my first watch. Nice!

@EmmaRoyd-t3z Год назад

Well done steve excellent fix

@johno6637 Год назад

I remember my Dad getting that watch ,latest tech lol , how its changed so much now.

@JohnDoe-es5xh Год назад

I also own such a watch and I still have it. And yes, you have to push the upper right button to display the time. Was my first digital watch. We sometimes said: 12 divided by 20 - watches 😁

@newcastlewatson9370 Год назад

I watched the last rap. I enjoy your content, your sense of humour tickles me. Thanks for the entertainment

@kiwicory100 Год назад

love your videos, they give me inspiration to try various things in my own world.

@rrobroy Год назад

That's a nice watch. Good job. Cheers!

@m9cuss Год назад

what a beautiful watch! can you tell im from the 80s

@pixiepianoplayer114 Год назад

Gorgeous timepiece. Very Battelstar Galactica. Champion.

@davehaigh4769 Год назад

I had one of these brand new around 1977/78ish, I only had it a week as the switches were faulty exactly as yours were. So it was returned for refund. I was only just at secondary school at the time so it was a pretty cool thing to wear when all my peers had timex mechanical watches.

@DForce26 Год назад

Awesome fix Dave... And Steve... :p

@Nas_Atlas Год назад

Very nice retro repair. Fiddly things those watches.

@gusgone4527 Год назад

Yes! My first digital watch.

@ryker86 Год назад

That watch has a Gold Power Ranger vibe to it 😁

@Popeyes66 Год назад

I'm gutted i got rid of my watches similar to that one Steve,many moons ago. When you are young you take things for granted and think everything will last forever. We all know that is not the case though,eventually.

@StezStixFix Год назад

Totally agree with this. The amount of cool "tech" I've thrown away (as I'm sure everyone else has) is criminal! 👍

@Popeyes66 Год назад

Glad i am not alone . But also at the same time sorry for you and your ditched stuff. Please keep the content coming Steve. As you know . . .quite a lot of people like you ( and Dave ).👍