Hand-held Calculators

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Compuchron Calculator Watch
Compuchron
Compuchron

Showing the great thickness of the Compuchron (15 mm/0.6").

Compuchron calculator and watch.

Distinctive features: The electronic calculator watch.

Technical details:
Display is 8 digits, red LED. The display is only active for a short period after use.

4-function, %, memory, time & date.

Calculator/watch electronics 2.5v (2x button cells), LED display 2.5v (2x button cells).

Size of calculator/watch case 38 x 47 x 15 mm. (1.5" x 1.85" x 0.6").

1976.

Case made in Japan, electronics module made in Mexico.

Like all LED calculator watches, since the display uses so much power the time is only displayed for a few seconds after pressing the button on the side. The display is also lit during calculations but goes out within a few seconds if no button is touched. Answers can be redisplayed by pressing the "=" button.
Gold & SS Compuchrons
Compuchron in case.

A Compuchron in its case.

A less common gold finish Compuchron alongside the stainless steel version.
Compuchron batteries.

The 4 button cells needed.
The 2 on the right power the watch & calculator electronics, and the 2 on the left power the LED display.
Inside Compuchron

The rear cover removed.
The crystal oscillator is on the right and has a label with the date of manufacture stuck on it. Below it can be seen the screw of the variable capacitor used for altering the oscillator frequency to regulate the time keeping.
Compuchron module

The electronic module completely removed from the case, showing the 7-segment LED arrays along the top.

By 1975 the electronics required for a calculator had shrunk so much that it could be shoe-horned into a watch casing. The first was the Pulsar calculator watch. This was followed over the next couple of years by models from Hewlett Packard (HP-01), Compuchron, and Uranus - all with LED displays. Sinclair produced an LED wrist calculator, but without the time function.
LED calculator watches were marketed for only a few years before being replaced by LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) version, which have much lower power consumption and display the time continuously.
The rate of development was so fast that LED watches and calculator watches were often left unsold, and are now sometimes available to collectors as new old stock (NOS).

For more information on LED watches and calculator watches visit Guy Ball's site at http://www.ledwatches.net.

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Hand-held Calculators
TI Cal-Tech
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Minolta Minolcom
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Novus 650 "Mathbox"
Rockwell 8R
General Instrument EZ3000
Check, billfold, wallet calculators
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Texas Instruments Spirit of '76
Pulsar Calculator Watch
Compuchron Calculator Watch
Adler Lady & Sir
Elektronika B3-18A & C3-15
Speech+
Commodore S61
"Standard Type 1"
Sharp EL-8026
Texas Instruments TI-30
Canon Multi 8
Casio ST1
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Kosmos I & Kosmos Astro
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TI58 Special Function Calculators
Sandvik 842S Coromant
"Standard Type 2"
Panasonic Electronic Ruler
Teal Photon
Casio Mini Card LC-78
Feet & inches calculators
SCAT Specialist Calculators
Sharp EL-826
Sharp EL-825
Sanyo CX-1
Elektronika MK-33 etc
Sharp PC1211/Tandy TRS80 PC1
Curta
Slide Rule
Otis King L

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© Text & photographs copyright Nigel Tout   2000-2012 except where noted otherwise.