Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Seiko UC-2000 / Data 2000 – the wrist computer
In the heart of the golden age of LCD watches, Seiko released the first ‘wrist computer’ not just allowing people to make use of the two built-in memo screens, but opening the door for geeks with a penchant for coding, an opportunity to create their own mobile apps via their Apple computer or extension UC-2200…
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Zeon Speed Shot game watch
They say all good things come to those who wait. Sometimes you just have to wait a bit longer than you think. That was the case with the Speed Shot watch which I’ve been looking for for more than 10 years, probably closer to 20… I saw a grainy picture of it in a Popular…
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Zeon Space Invaders game watch
The Zeon Space Invaders is a cool clone of the Nelsonic Space Attacker watch (minus the melody) made by Collins Industrial and dropped into cases and badged by a tonne of watch companies in the 1980s. It was the quintessential schoolyard game watch (not that I ever saw one in NZ, but I have it…
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Tiqua Muliti-Sport musical alarm
I don’t come across many watches I’ve never seen before, but this is one of them! The Tiqua Muliti-Sport (check the spelling 😆) has a Modutek module, but is a clone of the ESA/EMM 931.571 module which is a complement for the ESA/EMM 931.771 digital hands module. You can see the various modules here. The…
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Casio GF-2 Scramble Fighter
It’s a rare thing to get lucky on eBay these days. Usually any ‘untested’ watch will not only have been tested, but will be irreparably damaged, missing pieces, or be entirely different from its description. Fortunately this one was buried in a joblot of watches from India, where there was no expectation any of the…
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SpaceWorld & the Embassy Theatre, Hamilton NZ
This is definitely not LCD-related but it’s some local history and has been sitting in drafts for *ages*. The picture above is a shot of Victoria Street, Hamilton. You can use the scrollbar at the bottom to show/hide the view of the photo taken in the early 90s, with a more recent shot from 2021.…
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Casio GC-7 Cosmo Flight
Casio game watches are too expensive! There, I said it. Before 2010 you could buy a Casio game watch on eBay, in nice full-working condition, for around USD100. But then the vintage digital watch collecting landscape changed and nowadays seeing them listed for $750+ is not unusual. Not that they sell for that price, but…
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Zetron melody watch – Scotland the Brave
Even as a child I thought Scotland the Brave was a stirring anthemic powerhouse of a song. So finding this melody watch with a great melodic version of it was a lucky score! Melody watches rarely display the song they play so it’s always a bit of a crapshoot when you get a watch that…
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Remex Roulette watch
The Remex Roulette watch was one of three Remex game watches that appeared near the beginning of the 1980s. The other two were Matrix and Polaris Attack (I have a Polaris Attack but it has been destroyed by battery leakage and won’t run again – but I’ll keep looking). For a while the Matrix and…
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Orient Space Wars game watch
This is the third of the fabulous Orient game watches that use the same circuitboard but quite different LCD to create unique games. The other two are Pierrot (Clown) and Soccer. There is also a Space Wars 2 and one called Tank or Combat which I’m still looking for. Space Wars appeared on eBay in…
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Zeon Coronation Street melody watch
EVERYONE knows the Coronation Street tv theme – surely, it’s been on the box since 1960 !!! Let that sink in — 63 years on the tv (as of when this post was written) and it’s still the same theme, with some differences, but even those didn’t come until it had spent 50 years on…
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AIWA HS-TX494 game walkman
Wait … what’s a walkman doing in here? True, it has an LCD so fits the liquid crystal vibe — but have you ever seen a name-brand cassette walkman (sorry Sony, personal music player) with not one, but two unique games?! This isn’t some iPod lookalike with a big colour LCD where it’s pretty easy…
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Zeon Rockabilly Time melody watch
Melody watches are great — there’s nothing like an alarm going off playing a tune, rather than a beep-beep-beep noise, while people in earshot try and pick what the familiar tune is they are suddenly hearing. Somewhere between a single melody watch, and one you can program yourself, lies the Selectrophonic four-melody watches, where you…
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Orient Comment Alarm watch 751103-41
Orient, despite being a brand that really only sold to the Japanese Domestic Market back in the 1980s, certainly turned out some well-made and innovative watches. Like this one — the 751103-41 Comment Alarm watch which featured a dot-matrix display, one of the earliest digital watches to do so. It had many of the common…
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Mercury Sea Ranger game watch
This watch was a long time coming – literally! First, it’s taken me ages to find one — several years — at a half-reasonable price. Thanks to Leo for alerting me to this one (on a non-eBay auction site) and bidding/forwarding for me — thanks mate, you rock!! And second, for some reason instead of…
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Shivas Space Raider game watch
This is a rare one — I must have seen only 3 of these in 20 years — the metal-cased version of the Space Raider game. The plastic versions are rare enough — like the Sinitron and the CompuChron — but the metal version is right up there in grail territory. This was a bit…
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RPG Slot Machine game watch
Collecting digital watches is a hobby full of surprises! After nearly 20 years collecting, I figure I’ve seen just about every digital watch produced from the late 70s to mid-80s – and then one I haven’t will come along and remind me I most definitely haven’t… Like this one – the RPG slot machine game…
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Pulsar Y739 calculator watch
Watch fans like to rave about Seiko’s calculator watches – the C359, C515, C439 and C153 – and I admit I have a soft spot for the C359. But the Y739 is the best of the lot (unpopular opinion) even though it doesn’t carry the Seiko logo. Instead it’s Seiko’s sub-brands that have their name…
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Zeon James Bond – For Your Eyes Only melody watch
Roger Moore was my James Bond – he was Bond when I was old enough to start watching the movies and, The Spy Who Loved Me through to A View to a Kill, the debonair (and often safari-suit-wearing) Roger Moore cut a fine figure as the archetypal British spy. While the watches worn by all…
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Orient Soccer game watch
Just like the Pierrot Game watch – this fun timepiece uses the same circuitboard with a different LCD, this time the sports-themed Soccer. Game watches generally are a testament to the talent of designers who are shown a watch LCD with typical time features and are told to go and make something fun with this,…
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