Today's watch is a very historic model, and probably one of the most pioneering watches I own!
The watch is an LCD watch by the American watch company Gruen. It is called the Teletime (but this one doesn't have the watch name above the display) and first came out in 1972.
1972 was around the very start of the LCD watch revolution, before their popularity began to rise (around 1975), and in the middle of the LED watch hayday.
The Gruen watch company was founded in 1894 and based in Cincinnati. In 1953, the Gruen family sold out of the business and the company broke up in 1958. The watch business headquarters moved to New York under new owners, and manufacturing moved to Switzerland. The factory closed its doors in 1977, marking the end of the original Gruen connection (although the name is still owned and Gruen branded watches are still made).
The first LCD watches used a technique called dynamic scattering, but this had quite high power consumption and not too high contrast. In 1969 James Fergason developed a new method called field effect display based on the twisted nematic field effect (some other sources credit this to Schadt and Helfrich in 1971). He took his idea and formed a company called ILIXCO to produce the longer life, lower power consuming and higher contrast display he'd developed. The first watch to use this display was today's watch, the Gruen Teletime!
It uses a 606F module which was produced by AMI and is hand soldered. It is as basic as you can get, only displaying hours and minutes. There are no buttons on the watch, and it uses a crown for time setting. Pulling out the crown starts setting mode, and turning it changes the time - there is no separate hour and minute setting, the crown does the same as it would for an analogue watch.
The original sale price in 1972 was $200. This doesn't seem bad until you realise that was around 1/10th of the price of a new car!
The watch is an LCD watch by the American watch company Gruen. It is called the Teletime (but this one doesn't have the watch name above the display) and first came out in 1972.
1972 was around the very start of the LCD watch revolution, before their popularity began to rise (around 1975), and in the middle of the LED watch hayday.
The Gruen watch company was founded in 1894 and based in Cincinnati. In 1953, the Gruen family sold out of the business and the company broke up in 1958. The watch business headquarters moved to New York under new owners, and manufacturing moved to Switzerland. The factory closed its doors in 1977, marking the end of the original Gruen connection (although the name is still owned and Gruen branded watches are still made).
The first LCD watches used a technique called dynamic scattering, but this had quite high power consumption and not too high contrast. In 1969 James Fergason developed a new method called field effect display based on the twisted nematic field effect (some other sources credit this to Schadt and Helfrich in 1971). He took his idea and formed a company called ILIXCO to produce the longer life, lower power consuming and higher contrast display he'd developed. The first watch to use this display was today's watch, the Gruen Teletime!
It uses a 606F module which was produced by AMI and is hand soldered. It is as basic as you can get, only displaying hours and minutes. There are no buttons on the watch, and it uses a crown for time setting. Pulling out the crown starts setting mode, and turning it changes the time - there is no separate hour and minute setting, the crown does the same as it would for an analogue watch.
The original sale price in 1972 was $200. This doesn't seem bad until you realise that was around 1/10th of the price of a new car!
I bought one of these back then and it was a huge conversation piece. I remember taking it off at a party and handing it to a girl across the room. When she was done looking at it she threw it back - right into the wall. It was still covered under warranty and repaired.
ReplyDeleteBTW, I still have it. I took it back a second time because the gold plating was worn off. When I picked it up the jewelry shop owner said he would sell my any watch in the store for half price if I wouldn't bring the watch back again.
ReplyDelete