interesting digital watches

[Maximilian Hohmann]

Hello!

(05-10-2024 04:52 PM)Kelvinretro Wrote:  Any wearers of HP-01s or other interesting digital watches?

I would not call myself a "wearer" of the HP-01 but I am the lucky owner of several, stainless steel and gold plated, working and broken.

Apart from these I only have a few cheap LED digital watches not worth mentioning. BUT I am the proud original owner of a "Microma Blade Runner Watch" that I got as a present when I was still at school, maybe 1976, long before Blade Runner was even filmed. My father had a subscription to Scientific American and for years they carried full-page advertisments for these watches which made me badly want one for myself. Microma was Intel's short lived venture into the watch sector to which they introduced some technical advances, most importantly a battery friendly LCD when everyone else was still making LED watches that needed a new battery once a month or even more often if you made a habit of pressing the button every few minutes. Here is an article about it: https://www.chipsetc.com/intel-digital-w...ables.html
I wore mine a lot and it is not very pretty any more, the "crystal" which, like on the HP-01 is made of plastic instead of glass, is missing and the original bracelet also. But it still works!

The watch has since accumulated quite some fame because Harrison Ford, playing the main character "Deckard", wore it in the 1982 movie "Blade Runner", by some, including me, considered to be one of the best science fiction films ever: https://www.watchhunter.org/2017/10/watc...watch.html
This makes the watch almost equally rare and collectible as the HP-01, althogh the collectors do not necessarily belong the the same group. The prices are similar, but I must say that an HP-01 will give you more value for money.

Regards
Max

NB: Over the years I have been able to aquire some spare Blade Runner watches for decent prices, both the black version as seen in the movie and the stainless steel one that Microma made originally.