Those old batteries are silver/oxide chemistry, while it can happen usually they don't swell/leak as much as the alkaline ones

I love it when you give us a close up!!

My first digital watch was a plastic Texas Instruments LED with a denim strap. 1977? My mom got it as a reward/gift for saving a ton of stamps at the A & P grocery store. It was my Christmas gift that year. I cut the tape several times a day off of the wrapping paper to push the button & test the accuracy with the local time phone service: " At the tone the time will be...beeeep." I wore out the batteries before Christmas day and mom was a bit upset that my new watch didn't work on Christmas morning. I told her that the batteries probably are dead No biggie - we can hit Radio Shack tomorrow. Wore that thing for a good two years until it got smashed up for good in a bicycle wreck. PS - it was very accurate for a cheap 70s LED. Great vid, Fran! Thanks for the flashback!!

Brings back my childhood memories. Always wished I could have one of these. Goodness, did I get so old already :)

I collect vintage quartz watches, and this failure is incredibly common for old LED watches stored in less than ideal conditions. Fortunately the movement used in those Fossil's were pretty mass produced pretty recently (relatively speaking at least) so you can find some other models mainly from Japan to swap them out for pretty cheap if needed. Annoyingly the display they use isn't swappable with any of the 70's models I have (Except for maybe Uranus or Kuatron, but I have heard mixed things) :/ The oldest I have is a 1972 Pulsar P2 that has a similar, but periodic failure from a breakdown in the IC pretty common for those and fortunately a replacement module is available from a hobbyist/professional manufacturer in Germany if I wanted to go that route. The oldest I have with no failures is a 1975 Zenith Defy TimeCommand which was the first watch ever with both an analog and digital display and the only ana-digital watch ever made with an LED display. Unfortunately for that one if it ever dies replacement parts are pretty much impossible to find since few were made. If you wanted to go the early 1970's route I would recommend getting something with a Hughes module in it since they're pretty bulletproof and were the most common type of modules used so parts donors are pretty plentiful for relatively cheap. Commodore or most from Texas Instruments should be avoided at all costs. Cheaply made then, and hard to find in working condition now lol.

Alkaline button cells swell as they run down - you can usually see the flat side dome out - maybe they expand sideways a bit so probably that rather than shrinking plastic

That was fun. It just goes to show you, there’s almost always a way.

That is SO COOL!!!! So glad you had the second one and that it worked ❤❤❤

Awesome restoration. Love the song at the end too.

Reise in die Vergangenheit.... So eine LED Digitaluhr war meine erste digitale Armbanduhr überhaupt. Hatte ich von meinen Eltern in den 70ern bekommen und ich war mächtig stolz drauf. Man musste sich nur jedesmal überwinden sich die Zeit anzeigen zu lassen, wegen des enormen Batteriehungers. Dagegen waren die LCD Uhren ein echter Fortschritt.

You should make a new display for the empty watch. That watch is cool looking.

I bought one at the fossil store in 1998 and still have it. And it works great! It is a 2002 model.

Of course is antique... is a fossil!

Ah.This brings back memories. Back in 2001 I walked out on my fiance and made her my EX fiance. I remember talking to my father afterwards and he said "I suggest you get out of here for awhile." Not because he didn't want me there, but he knew she was mentally disturbed and may come looking for me. So I went to the local mall and spent the money I would have spent on her on a silver digital watch similar to that one at the mall's Fossil store. Sweet freedom ever since. Thanks for bringing back a positive move in my life!

"Vintage Reissue", eh? Nice. Joy for ever. Those old school oversized vias - now they'd be way smaller and tented too! :) Damn COB. I wish you could recombobulate the missing segment. I'd try testing the bubble display itself first.

Hey Fran..Im old school and really diggin ur stuff!! A true "Renaissance Sister"👍🏿✌🏿

Nice watch! Looks like those SMD components were all HAND soldered on! Nice!!

I have a Star Wars watch THAT I ACTUALLY WORE!! I should have left it Mint-In-Box! 4 LEDs.

nice repair and i love that watch it reminds me of my TI calculator from the 1970s !

That watch is retro beautiful 👍🏻

Hi Fran, a wee pressie for you. Cheers. 😊

I love the look of those bubble LED displays. So cute! I bought a set of modern bubble LED displays a while back with the intention of making a little bedside clock, but at the time my electronics skills weren't really up to the task. Now I'm working on a different clock design that uses Soviet-era 7 segment VFD tubes from Ukraine, which is obviously larger and more like a living room bookshelf/mantle clock rather than a bedside clock, designed almost exclusively using 4000 series logic chips like an early 1970s Soviet clock would have been. The next one will be the bubble LED bedside clock, which I intend to make using a more integrated clock chip, ideally a vintage one from the 1970s/1980s, which would be more like the design of a western clock from that era.

It looked ks like the red plastic "watch glass" is slightly misaligned?

I've been collecting LED watches since I was a kid in the 80s, even when they were very much not cool. When my local Fossil store discontinued their line of LED reproduction watches in 1999 I bought a dozen of them and then gave a few away. The ones I kept are prized possessions! I might have a spare module if you're needing one ...

Nice! What's it's worth on ebay I wonder?

"Thanks for WATCHing" made me giggle :)

Sometimes the movements work funny if the back cap is not on. The metal band holding the batteries in contacts the cap and transmits 1.5v (half supply) to the case and buttons to work correctly. Had a russian Electronica 1 that did not work correctly without the cap on. Could be worth a try.. had ones where the chip died too and ones with mangled led interconects. Cool watch to join the Tissot and the Illinois :)

I have had luck fixing that same issue you had by baking it in the oven for a little bit.

Had one of those LED watches in 1976 maybe even 1975. It was cool, it was dark red glass and you had to push a button to get it to light up for about 5 seconds. It had a twist-o-flex band and one day I was showing a friend how you could tie it in a knot and part of it broke. I wanted a wide leather band to put it on and when I finally got ahold of one I couldn't find the watch. I was bummed. It took two large watch batteries to power the LEDs. I still have an LED calculator from around 1972

What a fossil of a watch!

cool resto vid, reminds me of the goldtone LED watch Techmoan had but that was an HP with calculator. I had an early LED watch in the late 70s & I remember thinking it was such a pain to have to push the button each time I wanted to see the time as opposed to just looking at a regular analog watch. I know it's designed that way, to save the batteries, but still was a PITA to me

When I was about 15, in the mid-‘70s, I got for Christmas a Fairchild Saturn LED watch that looked very similar to this Fossil. I wonder if Fossil’s Chinese factory bought up surplus supplies from Japan to make it? It was from the JC Penney catalog and cost about $75, a lot back then.

Restaurada relógio digital de led ⌚😉

Love LED watches. Recently I lost my Bulova Computron and had to order another one at eBay. The problem was not to find them being selled but rather to deliver them here...

The Colombo episode is called Playback. They show a watch like that one.

Sir Clive Sinclair would be proud :D

I had a couple of LED watches, a number of decades ago. I think I still have a larger one somewhere. You had to press the button each time you wanted to see what time it was.

omg so beautiful , and there's room for a little SD & an rpn calc or whatever. that's the look the the casino royal was trying for . IF this had not come back together, it would be a 'could not watch'

Cool you made what is called a frankenstein watch 🙂🙃🙂

These LED watches always remind me of a realistic looking satiric Saturday Night Live advertisement for one. Such watches required pressing a button to turn on the display and using buttons in various coded presses to set them and such. The watch in the ad had four buttons and was touted as "The Digital Watch so Complicated it Takes Two Hands to Operate." You see one hand pressing some buttons in some sequence and finally holding down two on opposite sides of the watch. Then another hand comes in and holds down the other two buttons on opposite sides. And the LED then lights up.

Somebody had a Sinclair Black watch back when I was in the 6th form (UK), about 1981 or so. Was so cool and unusual for the time, even if it was a few years old by then.

I remember first seeing these kind of LED watches when I was young. An older cousin had one. I thought it was so cool. I had a toy one that had a grain of wheat incandescent light bulb that lit a fake red LED screen to show a time that would have been correct twice a day. lol My first proper watch was the basic "five function" (yeah, they counted hours, minutes, date, month & seconds as separate functions! lol). I stopped wearing watches the day I decided that I was a lead guitarist, and that's what I was going to do. A watch would slow down my playing I concluded. I always wanted one of those actual LED watches though. Another variant of them is the Sinclair "Blackwatch" that I have seen numerous adverts for in old Practical Electronics magazines. You could actually buy it as a kit and solder it together. A few days ago while out shopping my nearly seven year old son wanted a watch, so we went into The Warehouse, which is a department store roughly equivalent to Walmart. I got him an electric analogue watch. He suggested I could get a watch too. I have not worn one for over 30 years, but I saw these black square watches that appeared to have no screen. Well, you push the button and it's an LED watch! A more modern implementation. The LED displays are white and much bigger, but it's the same 'press the button to see the time' approach - which it has to be. Even these days with modern lithium CR2032 cells and much more efficient LEDs, a constantly powered LED display is going to kill it pretty quickly. It reminded me of both my cousin and his watch, which was much like the one in your video and also the Sinclair "Blackwatch" so I bought it immediately put it on in the van and have been wearing it every day since. Keeping better watch on the time too. This modern implementation is still pretty basic functionality, exactly like the old five function LCD watches. A couple of refinements. You set the year in as part of the date setting. So presumably it will deal with leap years properly. And you can choose 12 or 24 hour time format. Of course I chose the latter.

@4:12 Every time I use a screwdriver to dig something out, I go ahead and jab my hand with it 1st to get it over with. Similarly, when hammering a nail I put my thumb on top of the nail, that way you'll hit it every time.

I seen one of them on a episode of columbo.

I still have my LCD Casio calculator watch from 1976 .

Muito interessante o artigo

Almost looks like the old Sanyo(?) I had back in the 70s. Man, oh man, does that bring back memories. Question. Did you clean the pushbutton contacts? Iirc, that was the biggest issue, other than battery drain.

try the white plastic ring on the other watch think that black one might been shorting out the battery

Yeah… without getting much more involved, that’s the best that can likely be done. Anything more intrusive, like using a fiber laser to reverse engineer the chip and a garage fab to make a new one - likely possible if the reproduction used the old chip from the seventies - would destroy the antique value anyway. Although, it would be cool to try to reboot this tech from hobbyist level. Anyway… thanks for the video!

Wondering if the plastic shrinkage caused a via or soldered joint to break.

When I was in elementary school I read a short story about a kid who blew all his money on a watch like this that broke within hours of his buying it; and that story pretty much subliminally formed my entire perception of digital watches.

Enjoyed this one Fran! Have a great day Frannie!

More a cannibalization than a restoration.

Most unique digital watch I can think of is the Timex illusion.

I bet those Duracells won't last 20 years without leaking...

so in 2023, I'm watching a video where Fran performs a Frankenwatch transplant of 2 circa 1998 Fossil "2002" series watches that are reproductions of the original LED watches from 1978. Got it...

Could you center the front red lens on the case?

I have an LED watch on the back Commodore

❤

I wonder if the caps are worth replacing?

I remember the days when that was so " tomorrow" hard to believe that it took 25 yrs to pay homage .

They didn't ever bother to fully bond out the left most digit, they only bonded out enough segments to display a 1

We were all so gaga about the new technology that came out in the 80's-90's ... be right back ... my beeper is vibrating

What does the contact on the batteries have to do with the fact that the 32kHz crystal doesn't seem to work well?

Great to watch you watch ⌚️ 👍

Great episode, Fran! This reminds me of my late brother's National Semiconductor watch that stopped working. He had also obtained some HP MAN-3 (?) 3 digit LED bubble displays similar to the ones in your watch, which are still in his parts box 😄

This fossil brand may be rare, but around 1976 -78 many other similar designs came onto the market, initally they were very expensive, I still have some other off shoots stored away.

Many years into the future someone may find an actual fossilised Fossil watch.

🤗

Cant believe the price of batteries in the us! Very common on the original bubble displays😢

Your lucky that everything was interchangeable 😅

Might be worth trying to heat it on a hot pad or in an oven, or use a hot air pencil, remove all the plastic parts first. Can’t hurt to try as it isn’t much use with the faulty digit anyway.

Nice. I thought this series was fantastic when it came out; bought my 2002 in 1997, which shares the same innards. Found the original chemistry batteries to be better than the modern, averaging about 2-3 years compared to 1-1.5 today.

I think the batteries are too thick. Ideally they use AG10. Too thick and you risk cracking the circuit board when the back is replaced. These Fossil led's can be temperamental. Remove the small Phillips screws that hold the two parts of the module together then split the module in half. I think there are 3 screws (the 2 that connect the push contacts and one at the bottom) Check the otherwise invisible part of the electronics for anything amiss and then re-assemble the module and see if the faulty digit now works. The chances are it will. Sometimes just separating the parts is enough to coax it back to normal function. They get lazy particularly if not used in recent times and especially with batteries left in situ. Oh yeah,save yourself some dosh and use regular button cells. I have used them in my collection of led's for 30 years and never had an issue with them. Silver oxide are both expensive and unnecessary.

Frankenfossil FTW!

The lesson: Don’t judge a COB by the cover🤖

It is quite a handsome piece

Те відчуття , коли батарейки Дюрасел коштують дорожче годинника. Але, що не зробиш заради експерименту та спортивного інтересу =)

I have the fossil my high school girlfriend gave me in 1997... I'm definitely a watch guy and I've got some very expensive pieces but I don't know why fossil gets all the hate. Robust case solid end links. Miyota digital movement. I've got much more expensive watches but I'll always keep my fossils.

Your channel reminds me that I really miss Radio Shack stores.

“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-two million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.” - D. Adams, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

🥝✔️

Lol appearantly there is a gold fossil 2002 Winamp skin. This is checking all the retro boxes 🤣

rare and sought after

I bought an Armitron LED watch around 1978 (a ridiculous bit of marketing as you had to used you other hand to psh a button to check the time) but I had to return it as when the LED watch face was exposed to the sun, the watch would reset to the wrong time! Any speculation of what was happening? It was as if the LED's were acting as photocells.

Not that rare. I see several of similar Fossil watches in auction sites here (Japan) around 25USD.

Oh but maybe, just maybe, it can be fixed...

I can't be the only one who sees how off-centre the lens is on that thing.

They have a lot of fossil 2002, just not this model

I have two early led watch same insides as this one but mine was a round style silver funny my dad gave them to us kids one year I wore it and a guy looks at it and asked where i got it my dad he said geez i gave 500 dollars for mine holding his arm up well you got jipped buddy

"it's about as old now, as the original of which it is a reproduction" so it literally is a "Fossil"

Hi Fran Now, tell us how much of a pack rat are you - did you throw away the other watch or did you keep it "just in case"?!!

Fran is _rich_ now? Yes?? 🙂

Of course it does not work. It is marked "FOSSIL" for a reason. 🤣