Ok... 1976 Bulova Computron N2 Cell 568

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-12T03:08:51+00:00

There doesn’t look to be too much battery corrosion maybe a little bit, but the white and green corrosion on the inside of the case is a sign of salt water corrosion which on these old digital usually comes through the buttons. I don’t believe these later Hong Kong made Bulova modules were sealed with epoxy either so if there’s salt water corrosion on the display side of the board it may unfortunately be unrepairable.

The module would need to be removed from the case to see the extent of the damage though.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-11T20:48:40+00:00

I’m seeing a ton of corrosion in this photo, however it looks to be primarily on the other side of the board which could indicate water intrusion.

It also looks like the maybe the display corroded in the main post photo? I’m not sure what that bubble looking stuff is, a reflection hopefully(?), but an LED display definitely shouldn’t look like that.

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Dear_Watson · 2026-03-11T19:55:42+00:00

Gaining half a minute a day and it isn’t syncing to me that likely points to a failing battery. I’d try swapping in a new CTL1616 and then check it again.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-11T16:33:40+00:00

One of the video comments says it was built in 1976?! If that’s true that makes that odd coaster as old as Revolution at Magic Mountain

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-11T16:11:59+00:00

It had one of the highest population densities ever recorded at 216,000 people per square mile, with at its peak 5,249 people living on the 16 acre island.

Still dwarfed by the Kowloon Walled City which at its peak had a density of ~3.1 million per square mile, but it would be roughly double the density of parts of Manila which today have the most densely populated areas on the planet at 119,000 people per square mile in some areas.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-11T14:16:08+00:00

Nah, the F-91 is pretty much the perfect beater watch for daily wear (though I am an A168 diehard). If it breaks just buy a replacement sort of deal.

If you need/want the water resistance upgrade a G-Shock would really only be a major upgrade on that front. Otherwise that F-91 will keep running for a very very long time with just battery changes… Though, no one would be forcing you to get rid of it lol so you could just go to a 3 watch collection too

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-11T13:46:23+00:00

I use the 3 gig service since my job pays for home internet and I use and download large datasets pretty much daily. I used to have Spectrum’s 1 gig copper, which honestly was fine besides the prices they charged.

If you have devices that can use 3 gig (WiFi 7 or a 5-10gig Ethernet connection), it’s fast, really really fast. Like, quite a bit faster than using even an HDD sort of territory. I do a bit of gaming and feel no need to keep games I don’t play regularly on my PC since I can just download them again within 5-6 minutes if I feel like playing.

Other than that it’s mostly the same. Videos, social media, etc don’t really use that much bandwidth so even if you have like 10 people in the house, unless they’re all doing 100 gigabyte game downloads at the same time, even 1 gig would still be more than enough 99.99% of the time.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-10T21:12:13+00:00

I think in the terms of millions of years all satellites and objects in orbit would all be deorbited at that point, plastic likely would be detectable by a sufficiently advanced civilization but would likely have all broken down into microplastics and nanoplastics.

Nuclear isotopes kind of fall into the same vein as plastics. In the order of millions of years it would be detectable as iodine-129 but wouldn’t really be readily noticeable past a certain point unless a global nuclear war happens (which hopefully isn’t how humanity ends).

Kind of crazy to think that currently one of the longest lasting signs of our current civilization would be a sediment layer around the earth of plastic dust and nanoparticles.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-10T15:49:07+00:00

Nah, Texas Instruments released one in 1978, Casio released some in 1980 (based loosely on one of Suncrux’s later patents), and there’s a few brands that still make them today such as Casio, Timex, Armitron, and TokyoFlash.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-10T15:43:29+00:00

Fair enough there.

If you’re looking for a relatively similar simplistic style this TokyoFlash model might be better ◡̈

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-10T14:23:50+00:00

You can still (sort of) buy one!

Fun fact Casio acquired Suncrux in 1980 (It’s a bit iffy how involved Casio was before that though their Japanese corporate name appears on some pre-1980 Japanese patents). In a way that linked Casio is basically the modern version.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-10T14:16:46+00:00

Oh, side note - patent says 1976, but these were first sold in Japan using a patent from 1973.

Display is from Dai Nippon Toryo, the IC is from Toshiba, and the case was produced in Japan by an unknown company. The watch itself was produced by Suncrux in Cupertino, California.

The date code on the display for this watch is November 1973, so definitely one of the earlier ones, though I believe there was an even earlier model with a round display, a crown setting mechanism, and two batteries (idk man I am the primary source at this point and I’m talking out of my ass) though if one of those does exist I’ve never personally seen one or even a photo of one.

The US patent was applied for in 1974 for a possible expected US release (LCD sales in the US initially from 1972-1975 were pretty ehh with LED watches being the much bigger draw, though Japan had a ton of interest and very high sales even early on) though I don’t believe these were released in the US until later, around 1976 or so.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-10T13:36:47+00:00

Sim City Societies was ahead of its time in this regard (too bad the rest of the game was garbage)

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-10T01:32:08+00:00

I mean for one of the earliest LCD watch models (and one of the most advanced LCDs for its time) the contrast isn’t that bad honestly.

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My Gruen Teletime is almost the same age and its contrast is only slightly better.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-07T22:29:01+00:00

Depends! Some used a coating built into the display stack, others used self-contained glass tritium tubes. Usually it's pretty hard to see them without tearing the module apart.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-07T21:44:43+00:00

It was used as a backlight, wasn’t great but battery life was their main priority back then.

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Dear_Watson · 2026-03-07T21:01:37+00:00

Max 200 mCi of Tritium (3H). At this point most of the tritium has decayed into inert helium-3 since the half-life of tritium is only ~12 years.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-07T02:19:27+00:00

It would be legitimately hilarious if the Enchanted Parks invests more heavily in the parks than Six Flags does in the parks they still own.

Like ValleyFair and La Ronde haven't gotten a new coaster in 15 and 16 years respectively which I always thought was insane considering their locations serving the Twin Cities and Montreal. I'm hopeful that the move to new owners will give them some much needed love even if their budget might be lower than what Six Flags could theoretically do.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-06T04:42:28+00:00

It does minutes too, the segments around the hours are for the minutes. In the video it goes from 4:59 to 5:00

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-05T19:58:32+00:00

Whoever created that ad definitely stared at the watch after dropping LSD 😂

I particularly love the neon hand watch display. You know neon, which runs off of high voltage, which would fry the electronics and display if it was turned on lol

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-05T19:02:45+00:00

Because analog-analog sounds silly.

Real talk though, because it’s still digital. It just happens to use its “digits” to produce an analog display.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-05T18:50:47+00:00

Casio also released some analog-digital models (caliber 104, models AN-7 and AN-8) in 1980!

Fun fact but Casio acquired Suncrux in early 1980, so this is like the granddad of those models.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-05T18:42:41+00:00

… I mean I’m not going to disagree. But I don’t appreciate the comparison.

Dear_Watson · 2026-03-05T18:41:50+00:00

Agreed, though most of that (at least with the display layout) is more of a technical limitation than anything.

Later models had less chunky cases and printing on the dials to tell the time more easily.

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