Sanyo is one of my favourite digital watch companies of the 1980s – they put some great technology into a budget plastic case and banged out thousands of them for a waiting public.
The World Time calculator watch was a Hong Kong special – the circuitboard is labelled C135 – and came out with several watch company names – including Piratron and Meister Anker.
Function-wise, you get 12 hour time, day/date/month, daily alarm, 8-digit calculator and world time!
The mode button switches between time and calculator only; other functions are selectable via one or more of the front buttons.
World times can be seen in normal time mode by simply pressing the corresponding button for the country whose time you wish to see.
There are 12 time zones to choose from (no Wellington NZ sadly) covering a good range of places.
For all the watches Sanyo made, their calculator watches aren’t ever easy to find. Perhaps the low-quality plastic cases and buttons saw most confined to the landfill once the batteries ran out (or started leaking).
This one turned up in a lot of non-working watches and the issue was relatively easy to see – there was no oscillating crystal installed in it. The pins of the old crystal were still there, but the crystal itself must have got ripped off at some point.
Once replacement crystal later and the display was back dark and strong. Setting the time and date is pretty simple (hold down the mode button for a few seconds and set Alarm, Time, Date in that order).
Another classic digital calculator watch, and another super Sanyo!
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Hello from America. Today, I am wearing my mint Sanyo World Time calc, and it makes my day when I do! I came across it in wonder a few years back because, like you say, they didn’t take the wear and tear too well. Thanks for posting all this great info!