Yesterware

Seiko T001 When I first purchased my Seiko TV watch a few years ago, I was able to set up a local TV broadcast and watch video on the watch.  This week I pulled it out to test out a new RF modulator and couldn't get a picture no matter what I tried. It would barely even show static. If you're not familiar, the watch comes in two parts - a receiver box, and the watch itself.  The receiver box is basically a compact radio that also happens to tune in TV broadcasts and output video to the watch screen.  Given it's age I was not surprised when I opened up the receiver box to find pretty much every single electrolytic capacitor had leaked.  The fluid from a failed electrolytic capacitor is corrosive and if left unaddressed it can eat away the copper traces on a PCB.  Unfortunately this process had begun by the time I got the board out.  WARNING : the last thing I wish to do is gatekeep, but these receiver units are rare and this repair should not be attempted if...

Nothing can ruin art and inspiration like money can When I was in 3rd or 4th grade, our science textbook at school featured a picture of the Seiko T001. https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/mobile/900/ I can't recall if that's the first place I laid eyes on one, but I remember becoming almost obsessed with it.  I later saw the watch featured in the movie Dragnet, and much later (though it was a much older film) in the film Octopussy. There are plenty of sites such as the one above that tell the story of the watch much better than I can, so I'm not going to duplicate that effort.  The truth is I didn't really know the history of the watch and it didn't much matter to me either.  The fact of the matter is that in 1982 Seiko made a working television screen the size of a wristwatch face. When I was young, the miniaturization of technology was awe inspiring.  It opened our eyes to what was possible and made an incredible promise out of the future.  ...