Episode 121 - Digital Watches

Published on Wed, 17 Feb 2021 22:15:07 -0800

Synopsis

The episode discusses the history and evolution of digital watches, starting from the earliest mechanical "digital" watches in the late 19th century to the rise of LED and LCD watches in the 1970s and 80s. It covers key milestones like the Pulsar LED watch, Seiko's pioneering LCD technology, and the eventual dominance of affordable digital watches from companies like Casio and Timex. The hosts also share their favorite modern digital watches and provide a recommendation for affordable storage totes and a car defogging sponge.

The hosts appeal for listeners to leave reviews on iTunes and suggest future episode ideas, while also promoting their website, Instagram, and Patreon.

Links

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Transcript

Speaker
Andrew	Hello fellow watch lovers, nerds, enthusiasts, or however you identify. This is 40 in 20 of the Watch Clicker podcast with your host Andrew and my good friend Everett. Here, we talk about watches, food, drinks, Everett's jazz fingers, and other things we like. Everett, how are you?
Everett	I don't think you missed a single beat there. No, you gave me jazz fingers. That was good. I'm doing really well, man. Good to see you. Good to see you. Yeah, it's been a fucking long day, dude.
Andrew	It has been a long day. Yours has been more trying, for sure, but a long day.
Everett	Yeah, I mean, it's like, it's one of those things, right? It's like, oh, yeah, I could complain, but I probably shouldn't. I didn't do you any good, because I don't care. I did close on a house today. Congratulations. I did care. I did a site visit with an 85-year-old woman whose neighbors are building a fence, and we walked literally arm in arm around her 88 acre property. Wow. Masked up.
Andrew	She was wearing gloves. But she still insisted on arm and arm. She did.
Everett	She's 88. She probably needed the support. 85. And her property is hilly. And it was indeed a support thing. And then I told my wife, I spent the morning walking a lovely country estate with a very, very sweet woman.
Andrew	She doesn't have, like, a side-by-side or something to travel the property?
Everett	You know, she doesn't. I think she actually likes walking.
Andrew	That's a long-ass walk.
Everett	Yeah. I mean, we were out, you know, it's not that far. For 85, it is. I mean, I was going to say we were out for, it was, like, two hours.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	I had to see the whole property. I don't know that I had to see the whole property, but she wanted you to. She insisted I see the whole property.
Andrew	And she's paying you up for the hours.
Everett	Walk on, sweetheart. She at one point told me that she was very glad I had come out and that she was feeling a lot of catharsis and that she was okay with the price for the catharsis, which I was like, well, that's nice. At least she knows I'm billing her my normal rate for every second of this.
Andrew	You know what? I enjoyed it so much. I'm going to charge you the normal rate. My walking rate is significantly higher. Yeah. How are you? Good. You know, tired. We had our inspection today. Our house, as far as we know, cleared inspection. So we're starting the wheels rolling on our house neighbor to you.
Everett	So did both the house you're selling and the house you're buying get inspected?
Andrew	House I'm selling got inspected. House I'm buying gets inspected next week because this was our trigger for subsequent activities. So next week we have our inspection at the house we're buying. Which will also, I imagine, be pretty clear. It's not a very old house, and it's already been through an inspection.
Everett	Yeah, just through an inspection. Was there a buyer's repair addendum on that? And they've done all those things. That's awesome. Yeah. Yeah, so you know that it's gonna, well, you suspect it's gonna be good.
Andrew	Yeah, they did all those things, and then it, I don't know, their sale fell apart. Good for me. Good for you. I mean, they'd have done it anyway. Yeah. Well, I don't know. In this market, it's hard to convince people to do things because there's as is offers that are over asking price also. So it actually turns out we're not doing any like unless you unless the copper piping and wiring has been removed from the house, a bit just gets sold in this market. Yeah. And even then it's like, well, you know, we can we can put new shit in. Yeah, that's right. So that's right. So I do think we should stop yammering on. Stop yammering. We got a big topic today.
Everett	We have an exciting topic. I'm going to yammer for the next hour and 15 minutes.
Andrew	Yeah, but we shouldn't just yammer about nonsense and bemoan the fact that we only have an hour to talk about our topic. So we'll hit this one early. Thank you for those of you who have gone on iTunes and added reviews and ratings. I don't know if it's helpful or not. I'm told it is helpful. iTunes being the biggest carrier of podcasts, ratings and reviews are extremely valuable for algorithms and all kinds of things that I for sure don't understand. Everett claims to understand, but I'm certain he doesn't either. I do not claim any such thing. They are, for some reason or another, like Yelp reviews, wherein if there's a lot of positive reviews, those listings get pushed to the top.
Everett	You know, I don't know if the algorithmic reality of our review page on iTunes does anything. I do know it helps my self-esteem.
Andrew	It does, because there are not nearly, well, proportionally, there's still just as many bad reviews. Proportionally, there's not so many mean reviews, because someone just digs. It was like, what? Why? I don't like the sound of my voice either. I also know I'm not funny. Like, these are not new to me. Why would you have to point it out? That's just mean. Next, you're going to go after my baldness.
Everett	Hey, do you know you have a mole on your cheek? Yeah, motherfucker. I do know. It's there. It lives there with me.
Andrew	We're friends. Moley, moley. So, feel free, please do, in fact, hit up iTunes, smash that like button in the way of five stars. Like and subscribe, bro. Yeah, write us a review. We're happy to take suggestions for future episodes. Yeah.
Everett	So that was the original pitch. It was like, put them on there and we'll do it. We haven't gotten any, although we, a number of you lovely people, a number of you lovely people have left a review.
Andrew	Yes, we have, we have probably 15 to 20 new ones.
Everett	Man, I don't think it's that many, but we're going to go 15 to 20.
Andrew	We're going to, we're going to, we're going to name it and claim it as they say, and get 15 to 20 more reviews. So, so please do hit us up on the iTunes review chart. rate us be honest you don't have to give us five stars i wouldn't give us five stars but you should and leave a review ideas we do read them uh over and over again such that i can quote a few of them well look we've only got an hour so we should spend 15 i know only an hour i don't think we've had we maybe have had two episodes that have run under 60 minutes hey stop bemoaning it i'm bemoaning it Join us next week for another hour and a half of watches, food, drinks, Everett's Jazz Hands, and other things we like. Bye. So today's real episode, we're going to talk digital watches again. I thought we were talking about hairsprings this week. We're going to talk about hairsprings, digital watches, and Gorilla Glue hairspray, the newest, greatest invention coming to you from the fine purveyors. Man, we're going to have trouble this tonight. We cannot stay on it. Uh, We're talking digitals, and we've talked about digitals before. We're going a little bit different route. We're going to talk the history, the life of digitals. Digital watches. Obviously. I'm sorry, you're just not being clear. And then hopefully at the end, we can talk some of our favorites, but we're going to get into it. We're going to get into the life story of the digital watch.
Everett	The digital watch was invented in 1983 when Casio unveiled the CA53W calculator watch.
Andrew	Uh, followed three years after that by the Casio world timer and look at us go. We're done.
Everett	Very nice to see you guys.
Andrew	It really starts at two unique points. I think, I think the origin of the digital watch and really it's story begins twice in history, which is kind of weird. It, it first begins in 1883. Eight. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. What'd you say? 1883. That's 1883. That is... 19th century. A hundred and... some years ago. 160 years ago? 40 years ago? 30 years ago? I think 118. It's not 118 years ago. 138? That's closer. I'll apply a compressor. You guys will be fine. With a fella named... Joseph Pallweber. 25-year-old Joseph Pallweber. Yeah, he's just like... He's 25. Banging right now. Banging. 25, and he invents a digital, and we're gonna air quote, digital... Patents. Patents, yeah. Patents. So maybe he beat somebody up and stole it, but he patented, air quotes, digital mechanically powered pocket watch.
Everett	Literally digital.
Andrew	Yeah, literally digital in that we're not getting three hands anymore. We're getting a wheel display of numbers. And these, so he sold his technology to IWC and then they went on to sell it to a name that I didn't bother writing down because there was no chance I was going to be able to say it. Kotobet. Sure. He sold it to them and they started producing pocket watches. using this digital display. And when I mean digital display, I mean a two digit hour and a two digit or a two digit minute window.
Everett	Wait, wait. No. Stop your car.
Andrew	Freeze it. Stop your car. Not if you're on the freeway. Okay.
Everett	I mean emergency lanes. Okay. He's a cop. Look up. If you don't know, if you don't already know what we're talking about when we say an IWC Paul Weber, P-A-L-L-W-E-B-E-R, all one word, Paul Weber, if you don't know, so he's an Austrian, dude. I just want to clarify this. He's Austrian. If you don't know what this is, stop and look it up. Because these are pocket watches. And it may be hard to imagine what this looks like if you haven't seen it. From the dial down view, you've got an hour... Imagine four date windows. An hour date window at about 12 o'clock. Mm-hmm. At just under where the center post would be, you've got two date windows. You've got two... They're not date windows, but they're windows with digits in them for the minutes.
Andrew	Mm-hmm.
Everett	So you've got a big date window up top, and right in the middle you've got two minute windows. And they're powered by three separate wheels. Yes. Three separate wheels. So the hour turns independently from... The minutes. The minutes. And the minutes, the first digit and the second digit also move independently. And they rotate opposite, correct?
Andrew	Perhaps. I wanted to say that the minutes rotated opposite. That sounds right. Now with that, because this was internationally sold, it also comes with a weird label under the hours, indicating hours, as an arch. Imagine a horseshoe under the hours, indicating hours, and then an inverted horseshoe over the minutes, indicating minutes. Now these, as sold, were typically a blank dial that were then hand-painted.
Everett	And some of them are... Just magnificent. Works of art. Yeah, some of these enamel, you know, many of them are enamel, if not all of them, but Yeah, I mean I was blown the fuck away by you. Yes, gorgeous ostrich.
Andrew	I want one. So the first digital watch 1883. There was a couple iterations of that there the the people who bought it from IWC quite a bit. Sure, they made a rectangular iteration, but the same the same layout obvious, right? This is the same movement powering this watch. So you're still getting your twelve o'clock hours and your six o'clock ish minutes.
Everett	We'll say for reference, I W C estimates that about seventeen thousand of these get made between roughly eighteen eighty three and eighteen ninety.
Andrew	Yeah, and they were they were sold in and marketed as heirloom items because number one, they're a novel movement. These are precious my brand new precious metals and hand painted dials. Super cool. If if for no other reason for us now just to look at pictures of them because I imagine very few of us are ever going to get to handle one of these in person. And if you're one of the fortunate few, congratulations.
Everett	Next big. Did you find one of these for sale? You always look these up.
Andrew	I usually look them up for sale. I was scared to. I'm going to have I'm going to have some some some some liquid assets here soon. And I didn't want to. You're going to poop. No, no, no, no. I'm selling a house. Take me into the 20th century. We're gonna take you to very early in the 20th century, to a World's Fair. Which by the way, why don't we have any more? COVID.
Everett	Did we have World's Fairs? In woke lids.
Andrew	When was the last time we had a World's Fair? I don't know. I'd go to a World's Fair.
Everett	Yeah.
Andrew	Or we just reached the pinnacle of development in science. It's all done. Well, that tracks. Next, next important development. It's the 1904 World's Fair. St. Louis. A product that was patented, developed in 1903. I got it in 1902.
Everett	That's okay. Hey, I'm just... Potato, potato.
Andrew	Eugene Fitch patented the Play-Doh clock. A digital, air quotes again, digital clock.
Everett	And unlike the Paul Weber, this is not wheels turning. This is much more, in my mind, much more modern current. This is kind of what I think of when I think of a digital, an analog digital, but it's a flipping cards type of deal.
Andrew	Cards flipping on a spring release. I mean, it's a mechanical watch. It's a mechanical clock. But the spring tension, rather than rotating hands, is flipping cards. Kind of like, imagine a... train or airport display board, but horizontal as opposed to vertical. Yeah. And that's what it's doing. It's flipping cards and rotating through hours and minutes of the day. It's in like a glass bell. Yeah. I want one. And those are actually reasonable. You can find them for sub $300.
Everett	That's not bad at all.
Andrew	No.
Everett	And obviously they're not 1903 vintage, but and so these are introduced by the insomnia watch company. I might be saying that wrong. You know, it was most things wrong. You know what else was introduced at the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.
Andrew	Corndogs.
Everett	Red Hot Riplets. America. Really? No, I made that up. I made it up just now.
Andrew	Man, I was pumped. I'm going to look it up real quick.
Everett	And so I don't have a ton to say about a Play-Doh clock, but needless to say, this is technology that still kind of gets used today, less so now, but certainly in the 80s and 90s. sporting events in particular are still using similar technology, the flipping card technology. You've seen this, whether you know it or not.
Andrew	Ready for a couple other just real quick inventions that were released in the 1904 World's Fair. X-ray machine. Oh man, that's a big one. Electric typewriter. That's actually way earlier than I would expect, given that I remember typing on a mechanical typewriter. And it wasn't that old. The tele autograph. It's a fax machine. Telephone answering machine then called the pulse on telegraph phone. Tabletop stove, coffee maker, automatic potato masher. Need one of those. Bread machine, dishwasher. So we're getting into like really modern technology in the way of household items. Yeah. And a play-doh clock. Which speaks to the insane horological advancements that have been made in the 20th and 21st centuries.
Everett	So, and to be clear, I think when people say digital watches, digital clocks, they're not really thinking about mechanical digital. No. They're thinking about electric slash electronic.
Andrew	We're thinking LCD screen, battery powered.
Everett	Certainly electric powered, right? Which takes us to 1956. Yeah. That's a big jump. A fellow named D.E. Protzman with some other folks. You guys, let me tell you, the information on this fellow and these things we're about to talk about is scant. At best. So a fellow named D.E. Protzman, who we can't really nail down, or even confirm was alive, born or died and quote unquote others patent the first digital alarm clock. It's an analog affair. It's digital ish with sort of a mechanical analog timekeeping.
Andrew	So I'm what I'm what I'm thinking is these are the early digital clocks that are still Plato clocks for the most part, but they're plugged in.
Everett	And it's unclear to me if this was ever produced.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	I think maybe not. We're patented in 56, digital alarm clock.
Andrew	I mean, we all know that the real key to success is just patenting or trademarking something and then suing people for others.
Everett	Or at least applying for a patent. Yeah. And saying for some period of time that a patent is pending.
Andrew	Just like the inside of a port-a-potty. A port-a-potty has not been approved upon in Forty years. Patent pending. Still says patent pending on the inside.
Everett	In 1970, D.E. Protzman and his unidentified friends.
Andrew	The mythical they who always get you into trouble and the source of all your mistakes.
Everett	They patent another electrical this time, electric digital alarm clock. Also unclear LOL if this one was ever made. Yeah. And maybe not. I mean, certainly prototypes, you would imagine.
Andrew	Maybe they just patented it and sold the technology and then had a NDA.
Everett	I think that gets us, I think that really, that really gets us to the second beginning of this story.
Andrew	And now we're at the third, actually. I mean, the first second, the first second to kind of share. Act three. I mean, the first and second are 20 years apart. And then the fifties.
Everett	Have you ever, when you listen or edit an episode or something, like come to this dark realization that you'll never be a voiceover star.
Andrew	Yeah, when I hear myself talk, I know that.
Everett	I will never make money in voiceover work.
Andrew	No, we don't make money podcasting.
Everett	Too true. Too true. We appreciate you listening, all seven of you.
Andrew	And both of our moms. Love you, mom. So... Can we move to the 70s now, please? You do whatever you want, boo. In the 1970s, a lot of things were happening in the world of virology, and two kind of unique things were occurring at once.
Everett	Donna and Eric doing their thing.
Andrew	In the Vista Cruiser, you know, just hanging out down the street. So in the 1970s, A couple companies, well a lot of companies, everyone was kind of working on this pioneering technology of a digital display, of a fully digital display. This little known, totally nothing company, and I don't mean to degrade it, but Electrodata, led by Mr. Thies, George Thies, wasn't a player in the watch game. Maybe he was a player in other industries, didn't take the time to look. He was developing the guts of a fully digital display watch, but did not even know where to go for the skeleton and the skin.
Everett	I got this stuff, you guys.
Andrew	Yeah, I have this cool technology. And Hamilton, they were working on the outside and the light. So they had a case and the lights, but they didn't know how to illuminate set lights. They're like, well now to the hard part. So Hamilton and Electrodata joined forces in 1972. Released. Well, sort of released. There was, there's some, there's some squish here in the timeline, but they joined forces to create the first fully electronic, fully digital display. LC, no, LED screen watch.
Everett	Yeah, well... The Pulsar. And Hamilton's been working on this for a while, right? In fact, they have their prototypes circulating in 1970. So the fellow who's leading this project, a guy named John Berger, who's a Pennsylvania native, still lives in Pennsylvania, maybe dead, hard to say.
Andrew	Probably, if we're going to be real here.
Everett	John Berger is this kind of young dude at the time. He's in his mid-30s. And he's leading this project. And he's charismatic. Super young dude.
Andrew	Charismatic. Sounds just like me. Just like Andrew.
Everett	Almost exactly like Andrew. Probably had hair. So 1970, he actually unveils this thing on Johnny Carson.
Andrew	Well, they all do.
Everett	18 karat gold. Johnny Carson makes a crack about not replacing Mickey Mouse and throws the fucking thing on the ground.
Andrew	Well, he says it's going to replace Mickey Mouse. Because it's going to be the day you went bankrupt. Because in 1970, and with a not always on functionality, and during the release, he had to hide the watch to sneak a battery change for how many times he'd illuminated it. They're advertising this watch for $1,500, which roughly corrected for inflation is about $23,000. I don't think it's that high. $19,000 to $25,000. There was a range.
Everett	I've got 2100, it's actual price at about $13,500. We don't often argue on the show, but God damn it, Andrew.
Andrew	I'm prepared to die on this hill. Okay. It was a bucket load of money. It's at least $13,000, perhaps as high as $21,000.
Everett	We'll accept. And it's in 1970 dollars. The $2,100 final selling price is $150 more than an entry-level Rolex.
Andrew	Yes. And corrected for inflation to $19,000. So it's not up to $21,000. Corrected for inflation $19,000. Such that, I mean, a little bit later anecdote, a calculator watch came out and Gerald Ford was like, yeah, I'd like that for Christmas. And I think, I want to say it was like $395,000.
Everett	Yeah, it's like $3950,000, almost $4,000.
Andrew	Yeah, which corrected for inflation is like $29,000. Betty's like, nah. Not happening.
Everett	He's going to get a paisley tie.
Andrew	This is like my wife and I. I'm familiar with that argument. It's just now you can buy a calculator watch for 20 bucks. I think I'm going to buy a sub.
Everett	No, you're not. Okay. No, do it.
Andrew	No, do it. So we should circle back. That's a fun anecdote. Johnny Carson's making fun of the watch and the expense of this watch, but people were down with it. They sold out in 24 hours of the of the 24 karat gold edition.
Everett	18 karat gold.
Andrew	Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because on second release there was a there was a higher carat.
Everett	Yeah. I think they go 18. They go gold filled and steel in that order.
Andrew	On the full release in the in 1972. You guys. I don't know what to tell you.
Everett	It's irrelevant. This is where we're at tonight. We're drinking six and a half percent.
Andrew	No, these aren't six and a half.
Everett	These are like nine seven. I don't think they're that high. Ah man, fuck off. Is it six and a half percent? Yeah. So his design is based on a digital clock made at the request of one Arthur C. Clarke in collaboration with Stanley Kubrick for 2001 A Space Odyssey.
Andrew	And we're going to take an important aside here. 2001 A Space Odyssey was so committed to being futuristic and correctly futuristic, that they didn't hire set designers. They hired aeronautics designers. They hired people to make this look right. And at the time, Hamilton was kind of the pinnacle of American watchmaking. These are spraying a lot. Are we shaking them? So Kubrick goes to Hamilton and says, make me a 2001 clock and watch while you're at it. And they do so. They realized later that the watch probably isn't going to work in the way that they designed it. But this is where it kind of all begins, where they're like, we need a space age watch. No ticking. You can't hear it ticking in space. I don't remember the tagline. I don't know. It had something to do with not being able to hear it in space, but you also couldn't hear it on the earth because it's fully digital electronic.
Everett	I don't think this clock makes it to the cutting room floor, or I think this clock finds the cutting room floor. It found it.
Andrew	But if you can find the original unedited, I understand there's a 20 second shot with it in it. Fantastic.
Everett	Yeah. And it's a cool looking clock. If you look it up, if you Google it, you'll be able to find a copy of this. So they take this design because this is like the future, right? And we're in the 70s, right? Which is 60s has spilled into the 70s at this point. Flying fucking cars and everything. The future is now. And Soylent Green is people.
Andrew	I don't think I understand what you just said. Let's continue. So here was the problem. We're going to point out the just absolute failures and not failures because this watch is an enormous success. It sells out. It's making a ton of money. It turns them into the green. Here's the problem though. It doesn't have an always-on functionality because the engineers can't figure out how to translate the battery power into powering the LED screen because LEDs consume an enormous amount of energy. So there's a button to turn it on. You would get a 1.5 second on period for every button press. So imagine for those of you with an Indiglo watch, Push your Indiglo button, and it will hold for neighborhood of that amount of time. And that was the amount of time you had to read your watch. So there had to be great legibility, good size screen, but also you had limited battery presses before you had to change a battery, or limited viewings before you had to change your watch battery.
Everett	Yeah, and it tears through them if you're pushing this thing frequently.
Andrew	It eats them up. I've noticed since my five-year-old has learned how to actuate the illuminator buttons on my digital watches. they noticeably last time. Oh, interesting. Yeah. I've made several battery changes this year.
Everett	So needless to say, this thing is a fucking hit. Yeah. It's a hit. So any sort of skepticism goes out the door.
Andrew	Fuck you, Johnny Carson.
Everett	Almost immediately. Almost immediately, this is the watch to have. So they later introduce a gold-filled model. which is a little bit less money, like $1,700, and a steel model, which is a three and a quarter, I think. About three and a quarter. And within two years, everybody and their mother has jumped on board. U.S. semiconductor manufacturers, of which there are plenty at the time, realize, oh boy, something's going on here. So the first one that jumps on board is a company called National Semiconductor. Weird. And National Semiconductor quickly comes out with a module for 125 bucks, which is about half the price that Pulsars are able to produce modules for at the time. So retail price, 125 bucks. And roughly the same time, a whole bunch of companies also get on the mix. Latronics, Texas Instruments, Commodore, fucking Intel, IBM, Hewlett Packard, Hughes Aircraft. Everybody and their mother is making LED modules. Something like 30 American companies making LED or LCD, but primarily LED modules. 50 more, in addition to those 30, 50 more U.S. companies making watches with those 30 modules.
Andrew	And so LCD is a big, a big asterisk. because people can't quite figure out LCD yet.
Everett	Yeah. Yeah. Well, and so, right, most of the digital watches we see today, the vast majority are LCD. It's taken for granted that LCD is the better technology. LCD in the early 70s is not better. No. LCD is unreliable. Clouds. Clouds within like a month if you're using this thing regularly. So it's lower power consumption, but they have not figured out the liquid crystal system.
Andrew	It's also always on. At least in the United States. Yeah, this is what's there. It's always on. You just quick glance without battery consumption.
Everett	So Hamilton, I should say HMW, the company that owns Hamilton and Pulsar, because Pulsar quickly becomes its own company. It started as Hamilton and they quickly make it its own subsidiary, putting John Berger in charge. In 19... This watch sells so well, that in 1974, HMW sells Hamilton to SSIH. It's not because Hamilton's no longer a viable company. It's because they have a cash cow in Pulsar.
Andrew	Yep. And they sold really when the getting was good, because if they had waited a lot longer, they would have bucked.
Everett	We simply do not need Hamilton anymore. So LCDs at the same time, we talked a little bit about LCDs. LEDs have this problem where they're super power hungry. The first LCD watches that are introduced in the early 70s, 73, they start coming out from American companies. They're super problematic because they go cloudy in a month. That all changes in 1973, specifically late 1973, when a little company, little company from Japan called Seiko, introduces. It's the LCVFA06LC, and you should look it up.
Andrew	And it's so fortunate they've changed their references.
Everett	This is the first six-digit quartz watch. It's got an LCD screen, and at the time, LCDs are trash. Yep. This watch, thousands of copies are made, and not a single one of them is known to have been returned for an LCD
Andrew	error. Can we also mention real quick that in 1969, they also introduced the first quartz watts and auto chronograph. And then by the way, they're dropping an LCD. That works. Seiko's doing shit. They are killing it from 1965 to 1973. I don't think any watch company has ever accomplished a much as much in an eight year period as Seiko accomplished in that period.
Everett	And, you know, there's an afterthought. Nobody's watching them.
Andrew	No, because they're coming from Japan. And they're making big waves in the watch market, but in the way of the larger consumer market, they're not there yet.
Everett	Meanwhile, the power of the LED in the United States is such that Seiko unveils this fantastic LCD watch. Seiko's US marketers are saying, hey, you really need an LED watch. We're going to get squashed. Patek Philippe executives in the U.S. are threatening Patek Philippe executives in Switzerland that they're going to be out of a job if Patek doesn't make an LED watch. Yeah. People are so convinced that LED watches are the future that literally U.S. heads of these international companies are sending correspondence threats to their foreign counterparts, headquarters, motherships, as you were, that if they don't jump on, they're going to be fucked.
Andrew	Meanwhile, in the Japan in October 1973, they changed the game again because they couldn't have changed it enough in the last five years. And they drop an LCD watch that doesn't cloud. They found a way to stabilize the liquid crystals which I don't understand and I maybe should have taken more time to figure out, but I'm not smart. I don't understand how it works. What effectively what it is, is the electric current passing through the crystals energizes them and causes them to be visible. That's the only way I can explain it because that's the, that's as simple as it gets tracks. And that electric current is being drawn from the battery that is powering the quartz. Well, that's, that's zapping the quartz and causing the timekeeping.
Everett	So meanwhile, everybody is selling a ton of watches except for Seiko. American companies in particular killing it. Timex has an LCD watch in 74 and it kind of bombs, but, but LED watches in particular are totally killing it until 1976. In 1976, Texas Instruments is sort of leading the chase for affordable LED watches. John Berger says early on, like sometime in 72, Hey, I think that the modules might get down to 20 bucks, which at the time I think is sort of a benchmark. I think these modules might get to 20 bucks in 1978. Texas Instruments, and he says so pessimistically, right? Like, these are going to be expensive for a while.
Andrew	Yep.
Everett	We're not going to get this. Texas Instruments kills it. Two years early, $20 movement.
Andrew	And two years later, $9 movement.
Everett	One year later, so the very next year, 77, $10 movement. We've got a $300 movement in 1972, and by 1976 we've got a So right, we talked about National Semiconductor undercuts Pulsar by half, 125 in 73. By 1976, Texas Instruments is completely blowing the competition out of the water, but you're doing so in a really reproducible way. Everybody's able to look at that and do the same stuff.
Andrew	Yeah. And so this goes from a luxury movement, which is maybe the downfall of quartz. It goes from a luxury technological pedestal.
Everett	Gold, 18 karat full gold watches in 72.
Andrew	Gerald Ford is talking about it.
Everett	To Sammy Davis Jr. I mean, the who's who of celebrities, American celebrities in particular, but not just American. Shahs of Iran.
Andrew	Right.
Everett	Everybody's in on the game.
Andrew	To you can grab it next to the Juicy Fruit
Everett	at the grocery store. By mid-77, you can get a $3 LED watch. Boom. And that's what? 25 bucks today or so, maybe 30, something like that.
Andrew	But... In fairness, we still pay $10 for an F91.
Everett	Basically, LED watches become cheap crap for the masses, which is a death now. Which is a death now. And we can blame it on Texas Instruments. Fucking calculator, guys. You know that TI83 plus is still like 120 bucks.
Andrew	Is it really?
Everett	I have probably five of them. You should put them on eBay. Buy yourself a couple of Hamilton LED watch. A Pulsar. Everyone goes tits up and none fall harder than Pulsar because Pulsar is heavily invested in this technology. They've invested long and deep fully.
Andrew	That's the company. Their entire organizational structure is based around this LED technology, which was, at the time they invented it, developed production methods for it. A luxury item that people were willing to pay top dollar for.
Everett	And quick correction, I said Hamilton, it's HMW, who's now sold Hamilton to SSIH. But Pulsar is the shit. But the bottom falls out. They sell their name, to a music company, I think in Texas, called Rhapsody, who obviously later sells that name to Seiko. LCDs wind up filling the gap. Yep. And Seiko, as the pioneer of good LCD technology, really jumps in. Another company that takes advantage is Timex. Mm-hmm. Not until a little bit later. But everybody's laughing at Seiko in 74, 75. All of a sudden, Seiko is able to really start to push their product, right? It's cheaper. It's got a different feel. And it's not one of these American LED busters.
Andrew	It's always on, 10-year battery life. I mean, shit. I'm looking at my... I mean, it's a Casio, but it's got 10-year battery printed right on the dial.
Everett	They could do it.
Andrew	They could do it. Always on, always legible. and cheap.
Everett	By 1980, there's only one American firm left. It's Texas Instruments. And they fire everyone in 1981, like 2,200 employees, because there's no money left. The American LED watch market has totally bottomed out.
Andrew	Because there's something better.
Everett	There's something to be learned here. There's obviously something to be learned. I'm not smart enough to learn it.
Andrew	Don't try to beat Seiko.
Everett	They're just doing it. So 1980s, Timex is starting to kill it. 83, 84, they've got their Timex Ironmans, Triathlon watches, and they're just everywhere.
Andrew	And companies like that are this SIHH group and Hamilton and all these other luxury brands are still gasping for air. Not only are they suffering from the courts crisis, but they're also in the midst of like, how the fuck do we beat these LCD screen digital watches? Companies like Youngins are dropping watches, Tissot's dropping watches. These entrenched Swiss companies are dropping digital watches just to try to stay alive.
Everett	Yeah, that's right. This is sort of, when we talk about courts crisis, this is the last stage of the courts crisis. You know, 1980s Casio becomes a real player too. So Timex becomes a player. Casio becomes a player. 1983, DW5000 is released. The G-Shock. 1984, the very cheap CA53W Casio calculator watch, which I'm wearing right now. And I have one in the mail. That gets dropped. 1989, the famous F91W. gets introduced. And basically, in that time, like a thousand other Casio digital watches are on every elementary school kid's wrist. And are still in production today, folks. And most of them are still in production today. Seiko introduces a TV watch.
Andrew	Yeah, which is super cool, but basically not functional.
Everett	Not functional, but basically using the same technology.
Andrew	Not like a weird little adapter plug in that you can plug into your wall and you can watch black and white TV on your 30 about this.
Everett	I don't know if these would work at all anymore. In fact, I suspect they would not.
Andrew	I'm tempted to get one and test it out on the toilet because that's really the only place that you would need it. Right. Like imagine Super Bowl Sunday. Like, man, this has to happen right now, but it's the fourth quarter. You just go plug it into the wall and you get to watch Super Bowl while you're Addressing the chicken wings and corn dogs that you've consumed.
Everett	Continue. 1990, Younghens releases their M1 radio watch, which we've talked about on this show before. We have.
Andrew	I love that asymmetric case.
Everett	I think 1993, Seiko introduces a Scuba Master, which is the first dive computer. And so on and so forth, right? The rest of the story is recent enough that we can kind of collect it mentally without too much labor.
Andrew	You know the only thing that we couldn't find, and we'd be interested to hear your thoughts. Oh yeah. The first digital ABC. So we know of a 1962 altimeter mechanical. We can find that. We struggled to find the first digital, all digital, all electronic ABCs. My guess was that it came, that it's from a debunked, or defunct, debunked, defunct? Defunct. A defunct company whose shtick was ultra tool watches. And they produced for a year or two and ultimately sold. That's my guess.
Everett	Mm-hmm.
Andrew	Because it's a super specialized market that you're not going to be able to generate a lot of sales in, but it's a technology that's really valuable to an already viable company. That's my guess. I think that's right. But I don't know. We couldn't find it.
Everett	But I think that's right.
Andrew	Yeah, but I want to know.
Everett	I like to know. When is the first ABC watch, you guys?
Andrew	Yeah. Also, an interesting aside to the always on battery dilemma. It wasn't until the Apple Watch Series 5 that they were able to solve battery consumption for always on. It's a huge dilemma. And Seiko was like, we got this.
Everett	We got this. Yeah. I mean, at some point, right, just innovation is going to present itself. I think what Seiko has done better than many, many, many companies.
Andrew	Any. I'm willing to go so far as to say any other company.
Everett	Is that they have picked the right pony. For lack of a better phrase, right?
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	They picked the right pony at the right times, in the right ways. They picked right. And it's almost as simple as that, right? Yeah. It's not that Seiko was working harder than Texas Instruments or Pulsar. It's that they just picked right. They don't make mistakes. I'm not going to suggest it's luck because I don't think it was. They just had their finger on the pulse of what was coming next.
Andrew	Yeah. And they don't get hung up by this is the way we do it. And this is the way it's being done. Seiko seems to be a very nimble company for as big as they are and as big as they've always been to be able to say this is the next thing. And they obviously make mistakes. They have bomb, like just bombs.
Everett	Well, you know, the Astron, right? The Astron fails. The Astron is a failure.
Andrew	But it's a milestone in technological development. And it exists today. Is it a failure? And I mean, I don't, I don't, there's a whole lot of other components there, but they, they do a very good job of not getting stuck or tied to the thing and being willing to let it go. They move on, rub it out. Yeah, just like most of us do.
Everett	Can we talk about a couple today? Get these cool watches, watches. Yeah, we don't have a ton of time. And so we're going to fucking blast.
Andrew	Yes. So I'm going to caveat all of my picks was saying these are all watches that I really dig.
Everett	And me too, right? So Andrew makes some picks here today, I make some picks, and then we have basically decided to adopt each other's picks. So you're going to get five watches. We both picked all five of these.
Andrew	Correct. And for me, they're all too big. That's one of the complaints I have with the coolest digital watches of today, is they tend to be too big for me. Like, give me these watches in like a 38, and poof. Fuck yeah. So my first pick is the S B E P 003 thank you Seiko for amending your reference numbers post your 1963 release or 1970 73 release it's the digi tuna this watch is so cool it's all the things you like of the tuna fully digital it's just it's I mean, I don't know if there's much more to say about it. I love it. It's the Tuna. We all know and love the Tuna, but it's fully digital.
Everett	And we didn't pick this watch, but I think that there's another watch, the Arnie. Yeah, the Arnie. Which is an anodigy watch, right? So you've got a digital display, a small digital display, and a normal analog three-hand timekeeping. I've got a similar watch, which is my AMW 320, which I've talked about ad nauseum on this show, but it's a very similar dial layout. Both the Arnie and the SBP, the DigiTuna, are in that tuna, that shrouded case, which I think is super cool.
Andrew	And the MW320 might be the most depicted watch in media of all time. It's in a shit ton of movies.
Everett	Even modern shows. Yeah, yeah. What was the True Detective?
Andrew	And The Office. Made several appearances in The Office.
Everett	Continue. Yeah, I think the next watch I'd like to talk about a little bit, just because I think it's fun, but these freestyle sharks. classic clip watches. Freestyle shark watches. You've seen them. They're cheap. I've almost bought one. 40, 50, 60 bucks. They come in a billion colors. An actual billion. A literal billion, billion different iterations. I love these things, man.
Andrew	They're super cool. I don't know how either of us don't have one yet because for how cheap they are.
Everett	They've got, they've got a nylon, a nylon strap. It's adjustable. It's adjustable sort of with a doubling back function, almost like a NATO, but it's instead of being NATO, it's closer to a mesh. It's on nylon. It's a clip. So it's actually got like a backpack toggle clip that you use to close it. Uh, they're just, I mean, they're surf watches is what they were created for. And I just love them. I love them. They're really, really, they're classic. They've sort of got a Casio feel. They're super eighties feel. Yeah. Super eighties, uh, you know, resin cases, uh, I think if I'm buying a digital watch today to kind of wear in the summer and just screw around with, it's one of these. A hundred meters roughly of water resistance, I think most of them are quote unquote 300 feet, but roughly a hundred meters on a digital watch for 50 bucks, do whatever you want. Yeah, it's 50 bucks. I think the square, the most classic square version is 33. But they also make a bigger, wider 38 and I just really love them. Yeah. What do you got?
Andrew	I don't know. Oh, I do. Next up, I've got the Breitling LCD NavTimer. And this watch for me is like just a... Why did you zoom in so far? That's like size 98 font. I didn't mean. This is for me like just a pure grail style watch. Yeah, I think for me too. It is a nav timer with a single big ass one display LCD screen in the middle. It's got a slide rule, which again, we don't know how to use, but it is so sexy. And these are like these, these show up on Chrono24 What are you doing on your... These show up on Chrono24 with some regularity for between $2,500 and $3,500, generally in Germany, which makes me think that these were mostly sold in Germany. They're so good. They're 48 millimeters, though. That's a hard pill for me to swallow. Is it 48 or 45? Oh, they're 45, because the other one...
Everett	Yeah, they're big, right?
Andrew	They're big.
Everett	It's a big Friday watch.
Andrew	Yeah, they're very big, and they're a very tool watch. This could be... If I were to buy this watch, it would be the absolute biggest watch I ever would own, but it's also a great watch for me in that if I were ever to get to the point that I could buy one of these in good condition at, say, $3,000, it's a great watch for me because it's not an everyday wear for me. Yeah. It's a watch that I break out occasionally, but I spent three grand on a watch that I wear occasionally.
Everett	You know, Brad Holmes, the planter's peanut on multiple social media sites. Brad Holmes has a gold one of these. I assume it's plated. I don't know that. I assume it's plated, but yeah, it's pretty. It's really.
Andrew	They're so cool.
Everett	It's really cool.
Andrew	Super 80s. Yeah. And I mean, it's a Breitling. It's got all the legacy, all the heritage, but it's also got all this cool technology that's kind of emerging at the time it was produced.
Everett	Super cool watch. So the only one of these watches that we're going to talk about today that is maybe going to be hard to find is this next one. And we've talked about, I would say, a distant relative of this watch about 7,000 times on our show. which is the Casio World Timer, which you've got on your wrist today. The Casio Royale. Casio Royale. This is the Seiko G757 Sports 100, a.k.a. the Octopussy watch.
Andrew	That's so cool. I love, like, the Seiko plate. Why?
Everett	But I love it. Seen on the wrist of Roger Moore in the James Bond-filled Octopussy.
Andrew	The worst Bond of all time.
Everett	This this watch is if you pull it up and look at a picture, you're going to think, oh, world timer, different in some ways. It's not got a square or rectangular case. It sort of flares out at the top. It's got this bezel on it, a hundred or 270 degree bezel on it. Yeah, a Seiko. I mean, this is just freaking cool. I think this is my favorite pure digital watch I've ever seen in my life.
Andrew	It's super cool. It's weird. And I take back Roger Moore being the worst. Timothy Dalton was the worst.
Everett	But... You are going to... We're going to have like 10 people leave the show.
Andrew	Timothy Dalton was in one James Bond movie. There's a reason why. That's like 30% of our... Yeah, it sucks. Send us your comments with who was the worst and it was Dalton. This is a super cool watch. And the reason it is called, the reason you think it's a Casio is because the world timer was designed very, very, very close to the Seiko. It doesn't have, in lieu of all the, what am I, the word I'm looking for is alerts? Being in the top right, there's a world map on the world timer. Uh, in lieu of the world map, it has a column for all the alerts that are in just the first two rows of the very top right of the world timer that you're looking at right now to compare data. Yeah. Super cool. And last up is the X 33, the Seiko Speedmaster X 33, which is the watch that is used to go into space. Currently there's a hundred thousand iterations. I think it is Absolutely, and without question, the most underappreciated Speedmaster there is. They're anti-digi, but there's so many very, very cool iterations of them. They're titanium cased. They're just, they're fucking awesome. And you can get them for about half the price of a pure analog Speedmaster.
Everett	Great bezel. Amazing crowns on these.
Andrew	Yeah.
Everett	And we're talking about the Skywalker. I mean, in particular, we're referring to the Skywalker version of this. Amazing pushers, a classically shaped Speedmaster case, twisted lugs, but with some additions, with some super modern lines, flat surfaces where you wouldn't expect to see flat surfaces, just Maybe the most underappreciated Speedmaster, like you said.
Andrew	The analog display is super legible while the digital display behind it is very legible. You don't lose anything in your Anadigi marriage there. A lot of Anadigis, they will tend to favor the analog display and give you just a short bar of digital display. Yeah, this does not do that. This is not doing that. The entire dial is your digital display and you have your analog standard three hand running over top that doesn't interfere with your view and legibility of it.
Everett	You know, I think that there's, I think obviously this is a space watch, which makes it neat. I think the dial layout is very cool and good. I think where where underappreciation for this watch comes from is of the case. The case work on this thing is... It's phenomenal.
Andrew	Incredible. Everything has been adapted from the Speedmaster we all know and love to fit a digital chronograph. It's so completely different, but so completely familiar. I dig it. I would, I think, I mean, and I'm on that weird, I should have a Speedmaster, but I should also have an SKX. I think if I'm going to get one, I think an X33 is the way I go.
Everett	I dig it, man. I dig it. It's a great, I mean, you can find these two for $2,500, $3,000, eh, more than that.
Andrew	Between two and three, you're going to find these. And there's lots of iterations. There's a 45 degree dial rotation.
Everett	Like that Seiko motorcycle watch.
Andrew	Yeah, like the motorcycle watch. There's a lot of iterations and you're going to be able to find one that you like. If for no other reason than to make as your computer or phone background.
Everett	Andrew, other things. Go.
Andrew	I have another thing. It's in my notes. I came prepared. Go to Lowes.com. Go to Lowes. And search Commander Storage Totes.
Everett	I'm going to suggest that the HDX are better, but OK, keep going.
Andrew	Suggest all you want. Commander storage totes come in at least three sizes. And here's what I like about them. I like a lot of things about them. Number one, most storage totes that you get, like whether it be KitchenAid or Rubbermaid or not KitchenAid, Rubbermaid or any of the other thousand iterations all claim to be stackable, which they are. You can stack anything. You can stack cards. Doesn't mean they're meant to be stacked. These commander totes are meant to be stacked. They have a, a wheat, what's the word I'm looking for? Protrusion at the bottom of them that fits perfectly into an indentation in the lid. They lock nicely. They have already drilled and cut out holes around the entire perimeter of the lid. and tote, which allow you to lock them, if for some reason you need to be locking your totes. But they stack and they almost, almost lock together. They don't lock together, right? But they lock together, such that if you push one, it doesn't fall off. Yeah, they're great. They are terrific. And here's the best part. They're cheap AF. The 27-gallon tote costs $10.98 at your local Lowe's. Yeah. Which means even if they break, who cares?
Everett	Yeah, no, that's right. You know, I went with the Home Depot version of this when we did the same. I spent like $400 on totes one Saturday.
Andrew	Yeah, I saw your mountain.
Everett	Because we wanted to have matching, you know, not aesthetically
Andrew	You wanted them to be able to stack, you wanted them to be able to interchange. Exactly. You didn't want to have to worry about what lid, which tote.
Everett	And we're moving, so it just made sense. So we bought a bucket load of these. I went with Home Depot, but they're basically the same, right? The HDX at Home Depot or the Commander Totes at Lowe's. They're phenomenal. I think if you're the type of person who says, why would I buy a $500 watch when I could get a $1,500 watch? If you're that type of person, and some of you, some of you amazingly are in our listener You may consider the Rubbermaid Roughneck. I think that that is the only tote that is better than this, but they cost about three times as much. Yeah. Tote. I love it.
Andrew	Great pick. And the nice part about it is organization is key.
Everett	To everything.
Andrew	To everything. Knowing where things are. Sam was making fun of me because I'm starting packing already, and on every box I have the contents, not all the contents, right, but like the general contents, the room it will be delivered to, and the sequence number of that box. So on my first box, I have one of, I don't know how many boxes or totes I'm going to use. And on subsequent boxes, I have their corresponding numbers. So then when everything is delivered to my house, I can verify that all of my boxes live in the same place. This is why Sam made fun of me. But here's the thing, I don't lose boxes when I move. These totes are money. They stack. They organize nicely. They have about five different sizes, and they cost next to nothing. They're great. Organize your garage.
Everett	Organize that shit. I'm sorry to make fun of you like I was sleeping.
Andrew	No, make fun of me all you want, because you have 25 of them in your garage right now.
Everett	I got another thing. It's every single bit is boring. Do me. All right, you guys, listen. If there's ever been anything discussed in other things that I'm going to extremely strongly in the most direct sense possible recommend you buy. It's this. This is for sure something that every single one of you should own. A vasectomy. A vasectomy. Please call your doctors. No, it is a travel-on are a v e l o n windshield cleaner and defogger. So this is the sponge. This is a company that makes a sponge window defogger and Eddie Bauer over the years has sold these branded those travel on these travel on brand uh sponges and it is without a doubt so we we do them as stocking stuffers. I've never got one. I've never made a stocking for you next year, boo. Fuck off. I'm gonna live across the street. Put my Christmas tree in your house. Every year when I get one of these, you know, some people, everybody's got new cars, modern cars, and so maybe it's not a big deal, but you can put them in the bathroom. It is the single most effective defogging method I have ever encountered in my life. Besides letting your car warm up? Yeah, it's more effective than that because It's instant. You know when you wipe the mirror in the bathroom after your shower with a towel? Don't do that. Say you want to see the mirror. You wipe the fog. It comes back instantly. This thing actually, it's sort of coated with like a microfiber, some sort of shammy material. It's crazy, man. It is crazy. It's so stupid. They cost $5.25 today. Travelon, windshield cleaner, and defogger. yellow one size and you wipe like a sponge you wipe like a sponge and it absorbs the moisture so every every january i get into my car with my new one of these because they crack and get and they get yeah they're chamois they're kind of leathery every january i'm like dude these are so cool five bucks 25 cents get it use it for any defogging situation and tell me it's not the greatest purchase of your life
Andrew	In the world we live in where some folks wear glasses and we have to wear masks. Oh my God, it's the worst.
Everett	Yeah. Andrew, anything you want to add?
Andrew	Review us. Hit us on iTunes. Review us with episode ideas. Tell us what you like. Tell us what you like. Overlook the things you don't.
Everett	Overlook the things you don't. Just like marriage. Yeah. Love us for us. Thank you for joining us for this episode of 40 in 20. Check us out on our website. That's WatchClicker.com. That's where we put reviews and every episode of the podcast, articles, sometimes fun stuff actually gets posted there. Check us out on Instagram at 40 and 20 at WatchClicker. If you want to support us, you can do that at Patreon.com slash 40 and 20. And don't forget to tune back in next Thursday for another hour of watches, food, drinks, life, and other things we like.
Andrew	Bye bye.
Everett	you