Hiya all,

I know it's not a Timex, but I bought this watch out of curiosity & don't have a clue about its origins, Google leads me nowhere.
Please, If anyone can help I would be very grateful.

It is very attractive, the red inner circle has figures which I assume represent, amount of running time left, in the charge.
When the upper crown button is pressed the second hand speeds forward about 15 secs.
(After a good shaking to get the rotor moving first. 100 shakes =15 secs 200 shakes= 30 secs maximum)
It then waits & continues, when the seconds that it sped forward by, have elapsed. Maximum running time seems to be about 11, 1/2 hours on a full charge. I can only guess at how it works, I can't see a battery but haven't fiddled with it. Must have a dynamo/capacitor, or something like that.
1st. Photo face. 2nd. Back.
Regards Richard.


clickable thumbnail.


[IMG][/IMG]

I also bought this one. A very unusual, but very cool digital.
any info about it would also be appreciated.

[IMG][/IMG]

Haven't really a clue, but Tandy is/was the trading name for Radio Shack in most parts of Europe - maybe "Le Tandy" was theirs for Le Market Francaise?

Just a thought, looks very interesting at least - also you could ask Paul Wirdnam of the "Electric Watches" website, (linked on the links page) who is a fount of all knowledge regarding various electrically powered movemnets - he may know of this - or be pleased to know of it.

Regards Richard.

My guess is that it's a kinetic movement most likely made by Seiko. Kinetic watches use the motion of the arm to move a rotor that generates a magnetic charge. It gets stored in what Seiko calls an "Energy Storage Unit" which basically is some solid state circuitry with micro capacitors.
With Seiko, when fully charged and not worn, the watch should go into a sleep mode and hold it's charge for as much as 4 years. It will keep the time while in the sleep mode. Seiko says that with a charge indicator like you have that you push the button when the second hand is at 12 and the second hand will jump and indicate the charge on that scale on the dial.
I have no first hand knowledge of this. This is just from googling kinetic watches.

Bill D

Richard.

I agree with Bill D--Almost certainly a Seiko Kinetic. The idea was no batteries, but the capacitor they used instead often loses capacity, and is much more difficult to replace than a battery.

I believe that they have made changes, and the newer versions are more reliable, but I see the earlier versions quite often with the same limited run time--I've even got a few.

I think I now understand the movement, thanks Bill D, Mel & Sevesteen. for your input.